Lesson for Hanuka with Walt Whitman's Poem Miracles by Bonnie

I have been using this poem for a Chanukah lesson for several years and it is always provocative.

• I start with having them brainstorm a list of miracles in pairs.
• We then categorize on the board and add items.
• Next we read the poem and discuss in general.
• They each choose a line that they like best and write a short paragraph saying why or which associations it brings to mind.
• Their final task is to write their own short version using the first two lines + whether and adding their own miracles.

It has never failed to produce some quite amazing work.

Miracles by Walt Whitman (1856)

Why, who makes much of a miracle?
As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with anyone I love,
or sleep in the bed at night with anyone I love,
Or sit at table at dinner with the rest,
Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,
Or watch honey bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon,
Or animals feeding in the fields,
Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet and bright,
Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring;
These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,
The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.
To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,
Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same,
Every foot of the interior swarms with the same.

To me the sea is a continual miracle,
The fishes that swim--the rocks--the motion of the waves--the ships with the men in them,
What stranger miracles are there?

The Maggid of Dubnov's Journey & Our Classrooms by Arieh Sherris

I will be using "The Miracle" in a unit about the important role children can play in our world.

Children often reach the unreachable. Good teachers know this in their bones; Best teachers often reflect about how to bring this dynamic into play in their classrooms and stretch themselves and their students to reach the unreachable, together.

Here is a lovely story which I read in David J. Wolpe's book entitled Teaching Your Children About G-d. Wolpe uses it to illustrate the important role children play in adult spirituality. After struggle and determination throughout life, adults often find that the gates to G-d are closed. Children, however, are often able to climb to places which adults can not reach.

The story can be used as a metaphor for collaboration in our classrooms, too. Each learner is on a journey, just like the father and son in the Maggid of Dubnov's story. Each brings different strengths to the table of learning. Teaching is about learning to share those strengths through the long journey of knowledge and understanding...but to the story...

The Maggid (storyteller) of Dubnov once spoke of a father and son on a long journey. There were many deterrents along the way. While travelling across deserts, there were sandstorms; the child took refuge under the father's large frame and flowing robes to protect his eyes and skin from the stinging pain of blowing sand. While crossing fast flowing rivers, the son climbed onto his father's back. Finally, they arrived at their destination, a walled-city. The gates, however were closed and locked, and the walls were pierced only by high, small windows. The father looked at his son, and after a moment of silence, was about to speak when he was interrupted by the son who said, "Father, until now you have protected me from sandstorms, hunted for my food, and carried me across dangerous waters, it is I who must scale the steep wall, climb through the small window and open the gate."

• Perhaps we could use it for other purposes in our classrooms...perhaps we could leave off the ending and have our students write different endings...or think of different hurdles along the way...
• In elementary school classes, perhaps our students can make a big book full of illustrations of this story...perhaps the continuation could be inside the walled-city of ancient Jerusalem...perhaps each stone in the wall could be a mitzvah of good deeds...the story generates more stories authored by your students that could be taped or written down and shared!
• Junior high and high school students like to be creative, too. Let them spin the story, too. Let them do research too.
  
• Who is the Maggid of Dubnov, anyway? Perhaps students could research this and present some ideas on his life to their class. Bring a few different sources into class and have each group or pair of students find 3 or 4 important facts about the Maggid. Let them present their findings to everyone before the session ends.