Strengthening educational excellence in our Jewish studies classes means teaching sacred texts in ways that promote high levels of student engagement, critical thinking, and meaning-making. A tool we have found effective for achieving these outcomes is called Total Participation Techniques (TPTs), teaching strategies that “allow for all students to demonstrate, at the same time, active participation and cognitive engagement in the topic being studied.”
Classroom teachers consider two intersecting axes: student participation (low to high) and critical thinking (low to high). By using specific prompts and broad questions, and by using techniques that engage all students at once, one notes that the learning moves to “Quadrant 4": high participation/high level thinking.
TPTs are easy for teachers to learn and implement and often involve only small shifts in teaching practices; they require few (or no) special materials. High participation is easily achieved by using “the ripple,” in which students respond to questions or prompts individually at first, then in pairs or small groups, and finally with the entire class.
With a bit of practice, students appreciate how these techniques aid in their learning. By allowing students a moment of think-time, followed by a low-risk sharing of ideas, the playing field in the room is leveled. Small “hold-up” cards—True; Not True; True with Modifications; Unable to Determine Yet—allow students to collect their own thoughts to a teacher’s question before pairing up to discuss their answers. The teacher might ask everyone to write a one-word summary following a class discussion, or to translate their thinking about a prompt into a drawing. Young learners might be asked to “point to it” before answering orally. Each of these techniques solicits full class participation and aims for students to think critically as they strive to create personal meaning from our sacred texts.