My Last Class for the Introduction to Independent Learning. It was an awesome experience. Thank you to all who participated! Reflections on teaching the class Online Resources for the Unit Pronouns Game for reviewing pronounsRead More →
Vocabulary for Learning this Unit Finding punctuation in Chumash Analyzing the theme of the pesukim Read More →
Online Resources for Learning this Unit Some More About Nouns More About Verbs Translating the Pesukim Exploring the Text Part I Exploring the Text Part IIRead More →
Building Blocks Translation the Pesukim Going Deeper Read More →
[purchase_link id=”480″ text=”Add to Cart” style=”button” color=”blue”] Learning to read Rashi script was a highlight for many of my students this year. We took a full body approach to learning the new font. While moving, jumping and acting, my students learned their letters with a lot of joy. Here is the teacher’s workbook. It has some tips about how to make the more confusing letters become very recognizable. The best idea was the rashi letter simon says. Read on to find out more. Rashi Workbook Teacher Edition 2012 Here is the student workbook Rashi Workbook 2012 Happy LearningRead More →
Here is Part 2 of Introduction to Independent Torah Learning. If you would like to view all the resources available with this course – please email me. Part 1: the building blocks of the Chumash text: Nouns! Verbs! – This video will be posted for a limited time. The free version http://youtu.be/B7jifNz15EA will be posted soon instead Practicing it with the text! http://youtu.be/iQzOsbk7czA Analyzing the Pesukim Read More →
Have you wanted to learn how to learn Chumash but never had a chance to learn how. I am offering a course online doing just that. Here are the videos. Email me if you want to be registered for the class with all the resources. Class 1 Part 1: What are the 5 books of the Torah? How do I find my place in the text? What are legitimate ways of interpreting the Chumash? Class 1 Part 2: The First 2000 years: From Adam to AvramRead More →
The students learn a lot of new skills and vocabulary each perek. But what happens at the end of the perek? What do they need to remember and what can they forget? This is a process of learning that students must develop as they mature. New knowledge must be stored in the brain in an easily accessible place. One way to help students understand the process that their brain is doing is to have them replicate this process physically in the classroom. After each perek, we empty the chumash section of the binder. The students discard the worksheets and staple the translation sheets together. TheyRead More →
Many chumash test questions are short answer and fill in the blank. I create grading stations in the back of the room for students to self-check their work. The reason I do this is I have found that the students take greater ownership when they are faced with their own mistakes. Some students are prone to skip questions, when they face the disappointment of grading a skipped question, they are less likely to do so in the future. The grading table is set up with answer keys and pens. Students come to the table with their test paper and that is all. I stand nearRead More →
Inner/outer reviews are a great way to review a perek of learning. The desks in my class are set up as a U. Every other student takes his chair puts it on the inside of the U. He sits with his chumash facing his neighbor facing . I set my stopwatch for 2 minutes. The outer student reads the hebrew, the inner student translates. If either of them don’t know a word, they put a light pencil dot next to the word. After two minutes, the timer beeps (or quacks in my case). I poll the class about what was the average pasuk completed. IRead More →
Today was one of those days that teachers dream about. A chance to see all my efforts over the year come full circle. Here is how it happened. We only had three pesukim left to learn in Parshas Vayeitzei. I had the class read the pasukim aloud without teaching them at all. Of course, as we were reading about Yaakov meeting up with the melachim, the class exploded with questions. Was Yaakov in Eretz Yisrael? How could the melachim of Eretz Yisrael come to greet him as Rashi says? Which malachim did he send to Har Seir? Surely not the melachim of Eretz Yisrael. InRead More →
Today was a great day – Chumash: how far we have come this year. In the beginning of the year, the students needed me to get them to learn new information. Now they are learning study skills. First, I had the students cover the English in their linear for pesukim כה-ל, read it and underline any words they didn’t know. Then we identified the עבר,הווה,עתיד and the שם גוף (pronoun) for all the verbs in pesukim לא-לה. We started to learn the pesukim but quickly got sidetracked by some very interesting discussions of the pesukim and Lavan and whether yaakov and Rochel had spoken lashonRead More →
Here are some of the things we did today: Tefillah: for the new tefillah, one student was the chazzan. He read each phrase, stopping at the comma or the period, then the class repeated it after him. This method really helps with fluency for each new tefilla. Improve fluency, and have students assume responsibility for tefillah Chumash: פרק לא: כה-ל First, the students filled out the Shorashim and Pronoun column for new pesukim in their linear translation. Goal: word attack skills, pre teaching knowledge that will stop comprehension the 1st time. Vayitzei Perek 31b Linear Then we read the pesukim כד & כה whereRead More →
Tefillah – Today, we started saying the first הללוי-ה in Davening. Whenever we learn a new tefilla, we have the same system. For the first few days, I say each phrase in the tefilla, stopping at the commas and periods. Then, the class repeats after me. For the next two weeks after, each student gets to lead by reading the tefilla in phrases with the class repeating after them. This method really helps with fluency and gives them confidence and pride in their reading. During Chumash it was Test day! We had our test, and then set up the classroom for the second half ofRead More →
Baruch Hashem, school started at 10. As it was, the kids all staggered in with their post 3-day Yom Tov hangovers. Some had stayed up all night on Motzei Shabbos, all had stayed up for the meals that began at 10. Having school start a little late meant that everyone showed up to school and functioned better than they otherwise would have. With only one hour of class time, I focused on reviewing half the perek for the test on Wednesday. I gave students a strip of paper and had them cover up the English in their linear. I told them to underline any wordRead More →
Chumash – finished through pasuk 25. At recess, there was some playground politics about including the younger kids. I asked for input from students who have a rule in their house that they must include their younger siblings how they can do so without fighting. Here were their suggestions: After recess, we started learning parsha. Each student got an information sheet about all the shevatim, Shevatim Info and one flag of a shevet to color. Shevatim Flags They also got slips of paper and had to make one stick figure per 5,000 men in their shevet. After we all finished, we went to the backRead More →
