Nitzotzot Spring 2016

JCDS

S PA R K S F R O M O U R S C H O O L C O M M U N I T Y

V O L . 2 0 , N O. 2 • S P R I N G 2 0 1 6 • ‫אביב תשע”ו‬

BUILDING COMMUNITY by

EMBRACING DIFFERENCE

by Dr. Susie Tanchel, Head of School 2

JCDS

www.jcdsboston.org

A

t JCDS we are deeply committed to academic excellence and at the same time are aware that this alone is not sufficient. One of our central beliefs is derekh eretz kadmah laTorah — ethical living precedes all study. We are a school community that is committed to our children being upstanders. Look around — couldn’t we use more people who stand up for what is right and fight for the common good?

“We are unabashedly raising our children in partnership with their parents

The United States is becoming more and more polarized.

Recently, instead of honoring the dignity of difference, the denigration of difference seems to be on the rise. In contrast stands JCDS’s pluralistic mission. We are committed to explicitly teaching our children how to relate to those who disagree with them with a humble confidence and compassion. Based on our shared Jewish values, we are intentionally training them to engage in a discourse where the dignity of every human being is upheld. Listening to and challenging one another will result in a more just world generally while our students will gain greater clarity about who they are and what they believe.

At JCDS, one of our seven key habits of heart and mind is rigorous appreciation for evidence. For example, fourth

grade students were working in hevruta (pairs) to interpret a text. After a little while, one pair came to their teacher and declared, “We are stuck.” “Why?” asked the teacher. The students explained they had both found evidence to support their own interpretations, and after talking about it, they still disagreed about the meaning of the text. Neither child dismissed or belittled the other — they just didn’t know what to do next. Since harmonious resolution was not the goal, their teacher didn’t instruct them to persuade the other. She knows that as a teacher at JCDS, her role is to give her students opportunities to navigate complexity, manage contradictions, live with ambiguity, and appreciate nuance. She offered them this direction: your job is to find compelling evidence for your friend’s interpretation. This is an incredibly important skill to develop. Not only will it further refine one’s own argument, it also builds empathy and the ability to respect multiple viewpoints, which will serve our children long after they have left our classrooms.

We believe in a pluralism of engagement that builds community through commonalities and also through differences. We believe it is this productive tension and disequilibrium that leads to creativity, to the refinement of ideas, and the generation of new insights. This is our sacred task and never, it seems, has the world needed it more.

to become change agents in our world.”

We are unabashedly raising our children in partnership with their parents to become change agents in our world. As you read through this issue of Nitzotzot, I encourage you to discover some of the incredible things happening at JCDS that prepare our students to be leaders today, as well as in the future.

B’virkat shalom (With a blessing of peace),

Dr. Susie Tanchel, JCDS Head of School

In This Issue: 2

Building Community by

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“Surely God is in this place”

10 Middle School Math Curriculum

Embracing Difference

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From the Development Office

11 OPI: Student Centered Hebrew

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Project-Based Learning

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Sparks: News at JCDS

Program

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Project-Based Learning in the Lower School

Our pedagogical model is designed to encourage students to learn the skills and content necessary to solve problems.

Students engage in project-based learning experiences that allow them to create, synthesize, and apply knowledge and skills to real-world problems. In a project-based learning unit, students are deeply engaged in the curriculum through a meaningful question to explore, an engaging real-world event or problem to solve, or a design challenge.

Package Engineering 1st Grade

Students completed an engineering unit where they were asked to design a container for a plant that met the unique needs of the plant and the consumer. Students used the skills they learned in class to create their containers, allowing them to absorb those skills naturally. Miriam Klausner, Engineering Teacher, observed that students were more engaged in the basic skill acquisition when the unit was project-based since the skills are integral to the completion of the project.

Integrated Whaling Unit 2nd Grade

In an integrated unit on the whaling industry in New England, students used their math problem-solving skills to understand relative size and measurement, while using their reading comprehension skills to write their own informational “All About” books, demonstrating what they learned about whaling. Chavah Goldman, second grade teacher remarked, “Students are more excited when they get to choose which aspects of whaling they want to write about. This pushes them to be further invested by giving a greater feeling of ownership.”

Architecture in Hebrew 3rd Grade

During an integrated geometry unit, students used their math and Hebrew skills to design and create a blueprint for a house. The project came alive as students incorporated their favorite features in the homes.

Students took great pride in personalizing their designs and creating their “dream home” description entirely in Hebrew. They incorporated their knowledge of shapes, perimeter and area in order to decipher the total measurements of their homes and used their knowledge of Hebrew to express their love of their house and answer questions about their design.

Downtown Boston Tours 4th Grade

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Students became “Boston tour guides” for Israeli tourists. Each group researched a place of interest (e.g., museum, sport stadium) and then served as a tour guide for a group of classmates and parents through their locations entirely in Hebrew. The goal was for students to use their Hebrew in a real-life setting. In preparation for the trip, students studied relevant vocabulary and practiced in semi-real life situations. Many parents commented that students had the tools to navigate Israel because of the Hebrew language skills they acquired during this course of study.

"And he (Jacob) said, 'Surely, God is in this place and I did not know.' And he was awed, and he said, 'How awesome is this place.'"

-Genesis 28:16-17

‫"ויאמר אכן יש ה' במקום הזה‬ ‫ ויירא ויאמר‬.‫ואנכי לא ידעתי‬ ".‫מה נורא המקום הזה‬ ‫י"ז‬-‫ט"ז‬:‫בראשית כ"ח‬-

“Surely God is in this Place” When Meg (Miriam) Lederman, third grade Humash teacher, originally taught the above passage about Jacob’s dream, she asked students to consider a time they felt God’s presence. Then she realized that this question presupposes that every child has felt God’s presence. When she thought about how to pose this question from the more pluralistic perspective, which is so central to the JCDS mission, Miriam changed the question to be more all-encompassing. She encouraged Erez students to consider a time when they felt like Jacob — either realizing God’s presence, or experiencing a time that was truly awesome. She encouraged students to brainstorm ideas with their families and empowered them to explore their vision in an open-ended way. When students are empowered to direct their learning, they become more engaged and proactive learners.

One student, Matan, explained how he liked that he could express his awe through his sister’s experience. “My sister shared her perspective of what it was to look down from a 12,000 foot mountain, and I could just imagine myself being in her shoes and being in awe.” In addition to creating and displaying their work, Erez students presented their projects to each other. As is so often the case with JCDS students, they carried out this assignment in ways that exceeded Miriam’s expectations.

They created projects ranging from detailed dioramas filled with colorful clay sculptures of awe-inspiring moments in nature to photo albums brimming with photos of family with captions describing awesome moments they’ve shared.

At first glance, some projects seem more simple than others, but are equally as complex, creative and thoughtful. For example, one student, Layla, painted an abstract picture with delicate watercolors and then described the awe she

experienced in witnessing a beautiful sunset and capturing that magical moment with paints. Another student, Revaya, described how she chose to represent walking through the waterfalls near her Savta’s house in Woodstock, “When I see the water gushing, my imagination starts to flow. It’s a special moment, and this is when I feel God.”

“[Miriam] empowered them to explore their vision in an open-ended way.”

Allison Cook, JCDS parent and Senior Educator on the JCDS Engaging Pluralism Project, explains how projects such as this one tap into the child’s spirituality but do not limit students and their families to expressing their Judaism in only one way. She explains, “Miriam’s framing of one of the key pluralism commonplaces (content areas to be explored within a pluralistic framework, for example, God, Torah, Israel) we’ve identified at JCDS honored the plurality and diversity of ways students and families could understand and express their own unique experience.” Allison appreciates how Miriam, and the other Judaic studies teachers at JCDS, encourage students (and families) to find and explore their own connections to Torah with the hope of making Torah meaningful for everyone. These opportunities serve not only to weave together a child’s family life and school learning, but also to enrich the learning of others as students gain a substantive appreciation for the plurality of Jewish expression.

DISCOVER MORE ABOUT THESE PROJECTS AND OUR EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM ON OUR NEW WEBSITE!

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You can see more pictures from this sparkling evening at jcds.smugmug.com/2015-2016/Matters-of-Taste-2016/ (password: tmunot)

We had a delightful time at Matters of Taste, JCDS’s annual gala on March 20th! It was wonderful to see everyone at the reception. Special guests, hosts and attendees all mingled and noshed, enjoying the beautiful gallery of student work before attending their dinners at 17 different homes in the Boston area, each of which featured a guest speaker.

Michelle and Kevin Steinberg, Co-Chairs, Matters of Taste 2016 and Parents & Dr. Susie Tanchel, Head of School and Parent

Betsy Hecker, Former Board Member, Winnie Sandler Grinspoon, Special Guest and Alumni Parent & Arnee R. Winshall, Founding Chair and Alumni Parent

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Dorit Zmiri, Director of Middle School & Sharona Givol, Director of Hebrew

Sari Korman, President, Board of Trustees and Parent

Jon Pollack & Fiona Epstein, Trustee

Joanne Baker, Middle School Humanities Teacher & Aviva Rosenberg, JCDS 2013

Niki Lamberg, Board Member and Parent & Paula Sinclair, Alumni Parent

Jon and Andrea Kamens, Parents & Joelle Hochman, Parent

FROM THE DEVELOPMENT OFFICE Contact us at development@jcdsboston.org or 617-972-1733

SUPPORT

Alumni News

Emma Gildesgame (‘02) is an Interpretive Specialist at the Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco.

Sarah Smith (‘04) just defended her thesis proposal as a graduate student in geology at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She also continues to hone her unicycling skills and will compete at the international unicycle competition in Spain this summer.

Jesse Gildesgame (‘05) has been working in start-ups since he graduated from college, first at Language International and now at BooksTime.

Jesse Garlick (‘06) performed in the 5th annual Jewish Playwriting Contest as one of the finalist actors.

Sophie Gildesgame (‘06) is a Development Associate at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Mira Smith (‘06) is spending this year as part of Avodah, the Jewish Service Corps, a national organization that aims to build leaders in the Jewish community who are committed to social justice and anti-poverty issues. She is the Writing Coordinator for D.C. Scores, the largest after school program in D.C. elementary schools. She also plays on an Ultimate Frisbee team in the city.

Miriam Kamens (‘12) has been admitted early decision to Boston University and was awarded the Thomas M. Menino scholarship.

Sivahn Saperstein (‘13) If you have news about JCDS alumni, was accepted into the please let us know at news@jcdsboston.org.

30th cohort of The BronCheck Out Our Alumni Page: fman Youth Fellowship in www.jcdsboston.org/alumni Israel.

Jen Kaplan and Dr. Susie Tanchel, Parents

Dear Friends, I’m so pleased to have the opportunity to introduce myself to you as the new Director of Development and Communications at JCDS. In this column, I look forward to sharing with you the many ways our community comes together to support the school.

Since my arrival in mid-January, I have enjoyed meeting JCDS faculty, staff, parents, alumni parents, donors, community members and of course the brighteyed children who are the light and life of the school.

As I came on board, the development and communications team was immersed in producing Matters of Taste 2016. We are grateful for the support of many talented volunteers and lay leaders who went above and beyond to make the March 20th event a success.

It’s wonderful to see the community come together in this celebration of lifelong learning. Check out the photos in this spread and more online at jcds.smugmug.com/2015-2016/Matters-of-Taste-2016/.

I see many strengths and opportunities at JCDS and look forward to partnering with each and every one of you to advance our mission.

Enjoy this issue of Nitzotzot.

I hope it “sparks” joy!

Jennifer London Director of Development and Communications

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Ilana Beloborodov (‘16) playing on the playground in 2nd Grade and 8th Grade

2009

2008

2016

Noah Lion (‘16) in the Beit Midrash in Gan Nitzan and 8th Grade

2016

A-HA Moment!

“During our initial tour of the school, we learned about the Kindergarten role of Class Comforter. The children would take turns assisting their friends who weren’t feeling well or needed to go to the nurse’s office. Whenever a child was out sick, he or she would get a call at home from the Class Comforter.

It was such a simple idea, but a powerful way to model one of the highest mitzvot — bikur cholim.

Two years later, our daughters are still deeply touched by help they get from their friends, and by the phone calls they receive each time they are home sick. They feel connected and cared for, and they are learning, in the most personal and powerful way possible, what it means to be a member of a Jewish community.”

Carla Naumburg and Josh Herzig-Marx, Parents of Gan Nitzan and First Grade students

FIND US ONLINE! 8

JCDS

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‫עולם טוב יותר‬

PLAYER PROFILES ILANA TALAMO

boys basketball captains

SPORT: Basketball GRADE: 7th Grade NUMBER: 13

Miles munkacy GRADE: 8th Grade NUMBER: 31

SEASON HIGHLIGHT: “When we beat Rashi — we worked together as a team and it really paid off!”

Jesse Sivan GRADE: 8th Grade NUMBER: 13

Jesse LEvisohn GRADE: 8th Grade NUMBER: 12

GROWTH MINDSET EXAMPLE: “We lost a bunch of games this season, but instead of giving up, we just worked harder. Practicing was the only way we were going to improve. Finally, we persevered and beat our rivals. It was all worth it.”

SEASON HIGHLIGHT: “It’s a tie between when we won the championship and when we beat Maimonides for the first time ever. Our chemistry this season was amazing and many of us had greatly improved over the last few years.”

GROWTH MINDSET EXAMPLE: “After we lost a big game we were very upset, but instead of sulking, we decided to learn from those mistakes to improve.

Our advice is that no matter what, keep honing your skills.

When we were on the team in sixth grade, we lost many games, but we kept practicing and training. We improved over time as individuals and as a team, which allowed us to win the championship.”

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Middle School Math Curriculum T

he JCDS Middle School math curriculum is oriented toward exploration, content mastery, and is designed to spark curiosity. In order to meet students’ needs at all levels and differentiate the curriculum accordingly, math teachers have been conducting their own action research, discussing results, and developing strategies to support individual students.

For example, teachers have been working with students who experience anxiety around math to develop a “growth mindset” (a term coined by social psychologist Carol Dweck) — a way of thinking that emphasizes growth, effort, and progress. Research shows that constructive self-talk can have a positive impact on student outcomes. Math teachers have been reminding the students to reframe their thinking; instead of saying, “I don’t get it, or I can’t do it” teachers ask students to employ positive self-talk and change that phrase to “I don’t get it, yet” or “I can’t do it, yet.” Then they remind students what strategies they’ve used in the past to help them solve a problem, such as drawing a diagram, experimenting with a pattern, or using simpler numbers. In addition to helping students internalize a growth mindset, we teach them to learn from their mistakes.

Students learn to conduct error analysis of their work. Initially, teachers give tests back with no grade so that the focus is on learning from the mistakes, earning credit for identifying and fixing them, and not on the eventual grade. Once this process is complete, students then receive a grade.

There are many students at JCDS who embrace math challenges and face them head-on without trepidation. For these students, while continuing to emphasize growth

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Math Kangaroo participants mindset, we offer them more challenging problems — not more work but different work. They may be asked to work on enrichment questions so they have the opportunity to explore mathematical content in more depth. They can also join our math team, which involves practicing with the team during the week and competing with teams from other schools throughout the year. Most JCDS students participate in the Math Olympiad for Elementary and Middle Schools (MOEMS), and this offers exposure to math contest problems for all Middle Schoolers five times per year. Lastly, JCDS is one of the centers hosting the national Math Kangaroo USA once a year in first through eighth grades.

“Math at JCDS taught me the significance of understanding how to find the answer to a problem and not just getting the correct answer.”

Regardless of the students’ proclivity for math, when our students graduate, they report much success in high school math. JCDS graduate Maya Beck Levisohn (‘14) explains, “Math at JCDS taught me the significance of understanding how to find the answer to a problem and not just getting the correct answer. Because high school math is very independent, understanding the importance of the process has helped me know when I am confident with my answers and when I need help.” A more recent graduate echoes this sentiment. Maya Shyevitch (‘15) comments, “JCDS math prepared me for a challenging honors course in high school. It instilled in me the tools to solve complex problems and the confidence to ask questions.”

OPI

JCDS-‫תוכנית העברית ב‬

Hebrew Language Oral Proficiency Interview

riculum that builds on what was mastered in the previous years. The OPI is also an assessment for the teachers to know what the students have learned and internalized.

We design our own curriculum and choose our own topics because the students, not a textbook, should be our guide for teaching.

Hebrew is more than a language at JCDS. The continual use of Hebrew immerses our students in a diverse world of possibilities, while deepening their sense of shared Jewish purpose and heritage.

Our Proficiency Approach to Hebrew Language Acquisition is based on each individual student’s ability to function in Hebrew as compared to a native Israeli speaker. To assess students, we employ the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages’ Oral Proficiency Interview, or the ACTFL OPI, which is a conversation between student and tester, who uses a checklist to see how the student fares in a conversation, gradually increasing the difficulty of questions to measure his or her level of fluency. In order to determine what students are able to do with Hebrew outside of the classroom, our oral interview creates a simulation of real-life Hebrew speaking, allowing a more accurate measure of our students’ progress as compared to that of a native speaker.

We are able to compare an individual class to itself and see how much it grew in any given year in comparison to previous years.

By 8th grade, an average of 85% of students achieve Hebrew proficiency. Proficiency means a child can comfortably function in real-life situations outside of the classroom.

From second to eighth grade, each student is assessed annually in the areas of language: reading, writing, speaking and listening. Based on this performance data, teachers design age-appropriate, authentic materials that prepare students to comfortably function in real-life situations outside of the classroom.

This profile is used to measure how our graduates progress throughout the years and if we are reaching our goals when students graduate.

We can compare each grade individually to see if they, as a group, reached their grade-specific milestones.

We use this data for a myriad of purposes, including dividing students into Hebrew classes, which allows them to learn at the most appropriate level. Each grade may have a different curriculum and we are able to build individualized learning programs based on the OPI results. We develop a spiral cur-

The Hebrew program at JCDS provides students with a unique opportunity to grasp the Hebrew language. Sharona Givol, Director of Hebrew Program commented, “Students need opportunities to use Hebrew in small, everyday life moments in order to grasp the language. It’s not how many words you know or how you structure a sentence, it’s what you can do with the language organically in everyday circumstances.”

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PERMIT NO 55058 SPARKS FROM OUR SCHOOL COMMUNITY

57 Stanley Avenue, Watertown, MA 02472 617-972-1733 • www.jcdsboston.org Dr. Susie Tanchel, Head of School Sari Korman, President Arnee Winshall, Founding Chair Miriam Seidman Communications Manager miriams@jcdsboston.org 617-972-1733 Jennifer London Director of Development and Communications jenniferl@jcdsboston.org 617-972-1733

www.jcdsboston.org

VISIT US

CONTACT US

MAKE A GIFT

Schedule a Tour at www.jcdsboston.org

Contact us at www.jcdsboston.org or 617-972-1733

Contact us at www.jcdsboston.org or 617-972-1733