shniyim ushlishim taaseha, and ask the child, "How many different commandments was Noach given in this pasuk?"
To teach the child to pick up on seemingly superfluous words in p'sukim, I might present him with the following pasuk: Vayoled Noach shlosha bonim es Shem es Chom v'es Yofes, and ask: "Which two words in this pasuk could the Torah have left out without our losing information? (Not the "es"s.)" If the child has difficulty answering, I might restructure the way I present the pasuk to him, thus I might write Vayoled Noach — Shlosha bonim — es Shem — es Chom — v'es yefes— in the hope that this will make it easier for him to find the answer. I might also lead him through a trial and error search for the answer whereby he would choose an answer and then check back to see whether he has indeed not lost any information. I might construct an exercises (using other p'sukim, but perhaps with sentences in his native language first) which will give him an opportunity to learn the special skill required by a particular question (e.g. how to spot the quote in the pasuk). I might do any or all of these things, but the one thing I would not do is to give him the answer. That would be robbing him of opportunity to think.
The exercises I have presented are very basic and simple ones. Theycan gradually be made much more complex. Thus students may be asked to find the "main idea" in a group of p'sukim, or to break up and organize an entire Parsha into a number of topics. Similarly for Gemorah questions can be asked along the lines of: "Which words in the Gemorah make the proof to the question, and which make up the answer?" This too can gradually be made more complex. Thus the student might be given an out-of-sequence list of discreet logical statements which cover all of the "shakla v'taryeh" of a section of Gemorah and be asked to
(a) rearrange the statements to correspond to the sequence of the Gemorah
(b) identify the Gemara text which corresponds to each statement,
(c) answer some very precise and well-thought-out questions which prove the student's understanding of the relevance and importance of step in the Gemorah's argument. Space does not allow for more examples in this article. I will have to leave further examples to the imagination and creativity of the reader. Suffice it to say that children need and can be taught to think. It is parents and teachers, however, who need to change our thinking first.
To teach the child to pick up on seemingly superfluous words in p'sukim, I might present him with the following pasuk: Vayoled Noach shlosha bonim es Shem es Chom v'es Yofes, and ask: "Which two words in this pasuk could the Torah have left out without our losing information? (Not the "es"s.)" If the child has difficulty answering, I might restructure the way I present the pasuk to him, thus I might write Vayoled Noach — Shlosha bonim — es Shem — es Chom — v'es yefes— in the hope that this will make it easier for him to find the answer. I might also lead him through a trial and error search for the answer whereby he would choose an answer and then check back to see whether he has indeed not lost any information. I might construct an exercises (using other p'sukim, but perhaps with sentences in his native language first) which will give him an opportunity to learn the special skill required by a particular question (e.g. how to spot the quote in the pasuk). I might do any or all of these things, but the one thing I would not do is to give him the answer. That would be robbing him of opportunity to think.
The exercises I have presented are very basic and simple ones. Theycan gradually be made much more complex. Thus students may be asked to find the "main idea" in a group of p'sukim, or to break up and organize an entire Parsha into a number of topics. Similarly for Gemorah questions can be asked along the lines of: "Which words in the Gemorah make the proof to the question, and which make up the answer?" This too can gradually be made more complex. Thus the student might be given an out-of-sequence list of discreet logical statements which cover all of the "shakla v'taryeh" of a section of Gemorah and be asked to
(a) rearrange the statements to correspond to the sequence of the Gemorah
(b) identify the Gemara text which corresponds to each statement,
(c) answer some very precise and well-thought-out questions which prove the student's understanding of the relevance and importance of step in the Gemorah's argument. Space does not allow for more examples in this article. I will have to leave further examples to the imagination and creativity of the reader. Suffice it to say that children need and can be taught to think. It is parents and teachers, however, who need to change our thinking first.
Teaching Thinking Skills in the Judaic Studies Curriculum / 110
