Kids Reading Tanakh: The Child as Interpreter

Abstract

This essay examines two fourth-grade students’ task-based read-aloud interviews on the biblical text of Numbers 13. Taking up the New London Group’s call for a pedagogy of multiliteracies this article examines how educators and adults might sensitize themselves to the interpretive identities children bring to their reading of biblical texts. This work is intricately tied to child development, as we move religious education from a deficit model and perspective towards the child to a more welcoming asset model and perspective.

Keywords

• Bible
• children
• Jewish education
• sociocultural theory
• multiliteracies
• think aloud interviews