What qualities should voters should look for in our leaders? That's the question you can help teens explore through a Jewish lens as the general election fast approaches.
Today's Hot Topics -- designed for middle- and high-school students -- explores 17 current issues and encourages students, teachers, and families to develop their own opinions informed by Jewish values. Using a format of articles, source sheets, and lesson plans, each chapter provides a complete package of resources to help you lead a discussion with your students about that topic.
We are offering a free lesson from the book - Elections: How Should We Choose Our Leaders? It asks students to explore ways in which Jewish values help make good leaders, find examples of how they demonstrate these values in their own lives, and also evaluate presidential candidates based on these values. Included in the package:
* An article that includes stories and anecdotes, and asks students to explore how a voter knows what to look for in a president and what character traits make for an effective American leader
* A source sheet of relevant Jewish texts that speak to values of social responsiblity, peacemaking, truthfulness, and wisdom, among others
* A lesson plan that takes you step-by-step through strategies for presenting the topic to a group of students, including essential questions, objectives, and accompanying Jewish activities across multiple disciplines
Download the free election lesson here.
All the chapters in Today's Hot Topics follow the same format of articles, source sheets, and lesson plans. Other topics are:
*The Digital World - What should I tweet? Can I download music for free?
*Health and Medicine - Should medical marijuana be legal? Should there be a lower minimum drinking age? The vaccine debate.
*Social Issues - Homosexuality and the Jewish community; Body Image: What is real beauty? Racism: police and the community.
*Israel - How and when may I criticize Israel? Whose Kotel is it?
*Politics - What should we do about guns? The Iran deal.
* Sports Ethics - Should football be safer? Is the Final Four fair?
* Food Ethics - What is ethical kashrut? Is it ok to eat meat?
Today's Hot Topics is available for purchase from Behrman House and Amazon.
