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News Release: Olney Friends School Teacher Presents at OAIS Conference
Jeff Basler, eleventh grade humanities teacher at Olney Friends School, Barnesville, OH, recently gave a presentation entitled "A Midrashic Approach to Facilitating Close Reading of Literary Texts" at the annual Ohio Association of Independent Schools (OAIS) conference. The conference, entitled "Independent Schools: Education with a Difference," was held October 22 in Columbus, Ohio. The Ohio Association of Independent schools serves to support and advance independent education in Ohio.
In his presentation Basler, who also teaches Introduction to Old Testament and The Hebrew Bible at Olney Friends School, examined ways in which midrash can help high school students seek out meaning in difficult texts. Midrash is a Hebrew word whose root means to seek, and the term refers to both a technique and a body of rabbinical literature. By applying midrashic interpretive principles to various literary genres, the presentation provided teachers with new ideas for engaging students in high energy reading and interpretation of texts.
Basler also uses midrash when students study Gilgamesh and I and II Samuel in his junior humanities class, a year-long course entitled Ancient Peoples and Places. He feels that this approach provides a deeper understanding of historical literary texts, a key element of humanities courses and other classes at Olney Friends School. Humanities courses integrate literature with history and are focused on a central theme; in Basler’s course the theme is the ancient Mediterranean world. Humanities classes are core elements in the college preparatory curriculum at Olney Friends School.
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