View “Unmarked: Amplifying Jewish Potential” about Alternative Assessment
IR23 was a positively joyous event held over the span of two days at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. We gathered together the four components of the Jewish day school ecosystem–educators, funders, influencers, and consumers–to exchange ideas about Intrinsic Motivation and Alternative Assessments for day school students, with an eye to removing numeric and alphabetic grades from Judaic Studies.
See: Some highlights from IR23
The goals of the retreat were for participants to network and learn from each other, and to increase collaborative effort; for them to share and exchange useful ideas and innovative methods in Jewish education; for them to grapple with the idea of removing grades from Judaic Studies; and to renew their commitment to always improving Judaic Studies classes.
During this year’s retreat, “AMP it UP: Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose”, attendees heard an overview of and learned about six aspects of Intrinsic Motivation and analyzed unit plans to discern where each aspect might be able to fit into a Judaic Studies curriculum.
Watch: The Five Levels of Pleasure
Read: The Transcript of Mrs. Mayberg’s Remarks
In addition, participants heard from Manette Mayberg about Extrinsic and Intrinsic motivation as they relate to Rabbi Noah Weinberg’s “Five Levels of Pleasure” and paid an autonomous visit to the museum galleries to experience student-centered learning for themselves.
The following morning, everyone watched the premiere of our latest film and, in small groups, considered the four different models of alternative assessment presented in the film.
One participant commented, “I thought this was the best [Innovators Retreat] so far. It addressed a challenge and spent time focusing on realistic, creative, and replicable approaches to addressing the challenge. The presentations/breakouts I went to were fabulous. Presenters were knowledgeable, thoughtful, brutally honest and very practical.”
There was ample time for networking in addition to the deep learning that typified the retreat. What a treat it was to be together with so many visionary Jewish day school partners and feel the energy and passion of the assembled group!
Scroll: Through pictorial highlights of IR23
Watch highlights from IR23