ITL: Perek 12: pesukim 10-20

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 pronouns

Nouns

Verbs

Using cantillation (trop) to break up the pesukim and translation

Analyzing the theme of the pesukim

ITL: Perek 12: 6-9

Vocabulary for Learning this Unit

Finding punctuation in Chumash 

Analyzing the theme of the pesukim

Reflections on creating my first blended learning course

Today, I finished my 8th class in Introduction to Independent Torah Learning that was a blended learning course with both a live and online component.  Here are some of my reflections about my first go at this kind of course design.

Background: 


Separating the gap between the Can's and the Cannot's in Torah Learning

I began teaching Chumash in 2001. Every year, there were two kinds of students in a class - those who could translate pesukim independently and those who could not. The more I taught, the more these distinctions became clear. I began to wonder how to give students who could not translate independently the tools so they could do so and match their Judaic achievements to their secular ones.

Bridging the divide in high school - When I moved to Rochester, I began teaching in a high school with only 15 students. My chumash classes became a perfect laboratory for action research. With only 15 students in a class, it is possible to really collaborate with the students. They helped me refine my teaching by giving me a lot of feedback (one assessment tool I used). Through their feedback, and constant data mining, I developed the ITL (independent Torah Learning) system  based on the theory of the Zone of Proximal Development and constructivisim to teach all students how to translate pesukim.

Teaching it right in elementary school - A few years ago, I began to teach third graders. Teaching this age was very instructive for refining my system  because they haven't yet learned how to learn incorrectly. There is nothing to unteach.  Moreover, because third graders are  concrete learners and because I could collaborate with the math and ELA teacher, I was able to create materials for different kinds of learners because I could pinpoint their learning needs.  I further refined my system so the third graders could translate pesukim independently. The ITL system was highly effective.  My son was in my class, so I have also been able to track his progress applying the skills we learned and his recall of vocabulary as he began to learn Mishnah with my husband this summer.

Would it work with adults? - This summer, a baalas teshuva asked me to teach her Chumash. This was the chance I had been waiting for to see if adult learners would be successful learning with this system. I decided to include an online component since much of the work requires drills and practice which is unnecessary to do in a class setting. I had set a goal for myself last summer to learn Moodle so I chose that platform, learned animation techniques in powerpoint,  found a gracious host, some engaging review tools (dahbear, classtools.net) and free screencasting software called ActivePresenter. 

My Audience

My class ended up being 6 adult women who are Orthodox. The majority became religious in their teens or early adult hood, none had a day school education through high school. All were professionals with advanced degrees.

Results 


From the first class, the results were immediate and exciting. We began from the beginning - I taught how to find a perek and pasuk in Chumash and defining the 5 books of Moshe. By the 8th class, the women were  translating the pesukim from the hebrew text with help for only the most obscure conjugations and words (i.e. Pual tense). 

Class structure - The structure of each unit was the same. We began with vocabulary, moved on to grammar rules, translated a group of Pesukim with each woman taking turns to read and translate, and then we analyzed the pesukim, either looking at each word or at the whole unit for themes. For me, the most fun was when we  were analyzing the position of rashi and ramban together rather than lecturing like the "sage on the stage"

Delivery - Using Powerpoint, and its animations were very helpful. I was able to include graphics and color coding that can't be done on a blackboard alone. I had a  computer and projector which was pretty cheap, and it did what I needed it to do. After each new skill taught, we did exercises to apply the skill immediately so there was immediate reinforcement of new concepts.


Online content - After each lesson, I put a screencast up of the lesson.  review games for the vocabulary, and multiple choice quizzes on words in context.  If this had been a college course with accountability, I would have included online research about concepts and people that we couldn't address in class (Lot and his appearance throughout Tanach, the role of Sarah as the wife of Avram)

Time - The one negative was the time it took to prepare the class. Before each unit, I had to prepare extensive handouts on all the vocabulary. The initial powerpoints took a tremendous amount of time to create. Now I am able to cut and paste but that still adds hours to the preparation.

Online component=NO LIFE The online component  took even more time. a lot, a lot of time. I had to create quizzes in csv format. Nikud (hebrew punctuation)  is not supported in excel.  I made tables in Word, converted them to text, copied it to Notepad and saved it in a UTF-8 file format. Typing the quizzes, uploading them, creating the links all took hours of time for material that takes 5 minutes to use.

Thumbs up for dahbear & classtools! I found dahbear.org, and classtools.net the most promising tools because they create engaging content that the students will use over and over again to review.  dahbear was great but classtools.net has this awesome arcade review game where students can blast vocabulary words with what sounds like cannon fire. The game speeds up so it is more addicting than flaschcards. Dahbear has multiple choice quizzes and the font is readable on all machines. Plus it is compatable with the ipod/ipad.

The moodle multiple choice quizzes were cumbersome to create but are beneficial in that it gives immediate feedback.

Creating screencasts? mixed reviews The same content that was engaging in class and can be lightened up with situational humor becomes more stale online. I wish I had time to watch the best screencasts out there so I can improve my technique. But I have no time because of how intense it is to create the blended learning component. I did improve slightly as I went along and learned to use a highlighted mouse hover.  If you want to give me feedback - I would love to hear some.

Takeaways

1. ITL works! this was perhaps the most exciting result of this class. Adults, children and teens benefit from a structured skill building class based on the principle of Zone of Proximal Development. There is great promise for replicating this system in other classrooms and schools.
2. Adult Learners are diverse - I needed to use my whole teaching arsenal including visual cues, mnemonics and "recognition before recall" to reach each adult learner just like I would have had to do in my classroom. Being aware of learning disabilities and styles is just as important for teaching adults as children.
3. ITL style courses are necessary  There is a real need for classes that teaches Jewish literacy to adult learners. Accomplished professionals with PhDs should be able to learn the basics in a way that is not condescending. Right now there is a lot of inspiration but it doesn't make the learner the center of the learning experience. After listening to most shiurim online, will the learner be able to pick up a Jewish text on his own and learn with greater ease? While Artscroll is a wonderful tool, we need to figure out how to move people past this stage to translating on their own.
4. Online learning for Jewish literacy and skills for adults needs to happen -  Online learning would be a great tool for this population. Adult learners are self-motivated. The skills and content are concrete and can be tested and reviewed online. 
5. Live classes inspire effort and comraderie - Nothing replaces a live debate as two students grapple over a text together. The physical proximity, and the social and  sensory experience is a very motivating component of a classroom. The teacher can modify the class on the fly based on the facial expressions and interest of a particular group.
6. Online classes are time intensive and won't save $ - Online classes shouldn't be created to save money but to serve a need. It takes too much time (right now) to prepare the live class well, and create the online modules. The software needed to do it right also cost $. There are free programs but by using them, you miss out on leveraging the best features of online learning. Online Learning can reach motivated learners who don't have access in their community
7. Content is king- technology is only there to serve a pedagogic purpose. The online learning components should  only be use if a similar exercise would be helpful in a regular classroom. 

It's been a great month.  I'm excited to do this work again


Here are some of the more technical aspects of the Course for those who are interested:


Course Objectives:

• Students will be able to find a perek and pasuk in a chumash
• Students will translate selected nouns and shorashim out of context
• Students will translate noun prefixes and possessive suffixes out of context
• Students will be able to translate nouns with specific prefixes and possessive suffixes
• Students will be able to identify shorashim in a conjugated verb in context in the chumash.
• Students will be able to translated conjugated verbs in the pasuk by breaking apart the word using rules of dikduk
• Students will be able to break pesukim into phrases using taamei hamikra
• Students will identify textual ambiguity, redundancy and improper use of grammar and formulate questions about the text
• Students will recall details from story after reading pesukim independently
• Students will ask philosophic questions based on themes in the pesukim.

Audience

Adult women who did not have a day school education. Many became religious in their teens or early adult hood. All were professionals with advanced degrees.

Live class materials

Reference materials (given in sheet protectors)

• index of all shorashim in Lech Lecha with translations
• Graphic organizer of Conjugated verb forms 
• alphabetized prefix/suffix chart

Before each unit

• List of shorashim  with blanks to fill in translations , common shorashim bolded,  *'s next to already learned shorashim, 
• List of nouns, blanks next to nouns already learned, rest translated
• List of prefixs, blanks next to prefixes already learned, rest translated  
• List of suffixes, blanks next to suffixes already learned, rest translated  
• List of grammar rules with examples
• linear translation sheets with blanks for any concepts that had been taught

Online Course setup

• All the handouts for each class
• Screencasts for each part of the class
1. Vocabulary - nouns, verbs, prefixes, suffixes. I included visuals for each noun and verb. ( I had created many visuals this past year for a student who was a very visual learner)
2. Grammar Rules - animated powerpoint that conjugated verbs using color coding so that even students with a non-verbal learning disability could pick out the difference in the conjugation.
3. Analysis - step by step analysis of both the words and themes as well as analysis of the commentaries
• Review games for nouns/verbs/prefixes & suffixes
• dah bear
• classtools.net
• Quizzes
• multiple choice and matching quizzes on nouns and verbs as they appear in the context of the pesukim through moodle

ITL: Lech Lecha Perek 12: Pesukim 1-5

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 II

A Biography of Rav Elyashiv, zt"l

6 months ago, Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, zt"l became critically ill. I wanted my class to understand for whom they were davening.  


I also wanted to understand for whom I was davening. What I knew of Rav Elyashiv from news reports was sometimes bizarre. His name was quoted frequently, but often incorrectly. I knew there must be a reason that when someone mentioned the name Rav Elyashiv, the Torah world paid attention. Who was Rav Elyashiv?


Here is the biography I wrote six months ago. It was written for third graders so it as rather simple vocabulary. I have updated it to make it timely.

Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv (1910 - 2012)

Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv was born in Lithuania. He was the only child of Rav Avrohom and Chaya Erener. His mother’s father was Rav Shlomo Elyashiv, a great Talmid Chacham who wrote a famous sefer on Kabbalah called the Leshem.

Rav Elyashiv moved to Eretz Yisrael with his family when he was twelve. Rav Kook had suggested that the Erener family change their last name to Elyashiv so they could get a visa to immigrate. Seven years later, Rav Elyashiv Rav Kook, made a shidduch between 19 year old Yosef Shalom Elyashiv and Sheina Chaya, daughter of Rav Aryeh Levin zt"l. They had five sons and seven daughters.

In the 1950s, Rav Elyashiv became a Dayan in the Rabbanut Beis Din in Israel. He resigned in 1972. In 1989, Rabbi Elazar Menachem Mann Shach, the Rosh Yeshiva of Ponevezh was the leader of the Chareidi community in Israel. He asked Rav Elyashiv to become involved in leading the Jews of Eretz Yisrael. After Rav Shach died, all major questions of importance to Klal Yisrael were addressed to Rav Elyashiv.

Rav Elyashiv lived in a small apartment in Meah She’arim in Yerushalayim. He spent most of his days learning Torah and teaching in a small shul in Meah Shearim. He was considered the posek HaDor and Ashkenazi Jews followed  his psak.

Hasmada

The day after his wedding, Rav Elyashiv asked his wife if he could learn Torah undisturbed rather doing some errands right away. His wife, the daughter of Rav Aryeh Levin, was very happy with this request.

She asked him "For how long?" He answered "One thousand days,"

Since then, every day for the last eighty years, Rav Elyashiv learned for 16-20 hours a day.

Rav Elyashiv’s wife was his partner in his becoming a gadol. One day, her father Rav Aryeh Levin zt”l came by. Rebbetzin Elyashiv served dinner to her husband and father in the kitchen. Her father rebuked her for not treating her husband with honor due a Talmid Chochom. Why didn’t she serve dinner in the dining room? Later she explained that one of her children was sick and lying down in the living room. She didn’t want her husband to disturb his learning. She took care of the situation herself.

Living with Less

Rav Asher Balanson, a rav from Tel Stone, went to ask Rav Elyashiv a shaila in his tiny apartment. While there, Rav Elyashiv’s refrigerator broke. Someone joked that the refrigerator was so old that it could be donated to a museum. Rav Elyashiv earned a salary for his work as a dayan on Bais Din so he could have bought a new refrigerator a long time ago if he had wanted. Things were not as important as giving tzedakah and learning Torah.

Rav Balanson told another story about another time he was in the home of Rav Elyashiv. Rav Elyashiv was learning the Yad Moshe, the index of the Igros Moshe. He was reviewing every teshuva of Reb Moshe by looking at a list of titles and page numbers. .

Seeking Truth

Rav Elyashiv had a very good job as a Dayan for the Rabbanut Beis Din. He retired rather than compromising on something he felt was right.

Honesty

A few years ago, Rav Elyashiv needed some electrical repairs done in his apartment. While the electrician was working, he learned that his daughter, Rebetzin Shoshana Zilberstein, had passed away. As he was preparing to go to the funeral, he asked his grandson to find out how much he owed the electrician. Only after he wrote a check to the worker, did he go to the funeral of his daughter.

 A Miraculous Life

Rav Elyashiv’s parents were childless for seventeen years before he was born. Rav Elyashiv’s daughter, Reb. Sarah Yisroelson, said that her father was very ill when he was a child and as an adult. They thought he wouldn’t survive but Klal Yisrael needed him. 

Importance to Klal Yisrael

When Rav Elyashiv was 94, he needed heart surgery. Many surgeons refused to do the operation, but one doctor, Dr. Daniel Clair agreed. Dr. Clair flew from the United States. to Israel to do the surgery. 7 years later, when Rav Elyashiv was 101, the doctor came back to do another surgery. Thousands of Jews davened at the kotel. Shimon Peres, a secular man who is the President of the State of Israel, came to thank the doctor. Mr. Peres told the doctor that this surgery was important to the safety of Klal Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael.

This is what the doctor, Dr. Daniel Clair, his non-Jew doctor said: 

“Taking into account that he is 101, when I initially walked into his hospital room, he was sitting at a desk studying. I began talking to him about the surgery and he asked the most insightful questions. . . . This was very impressive for someone at that age - he was so “with it” and involved in the decision-making.

In addition, I don’t know how to explain it, but he is obviously a very special person. I could identify that immediately when I first met him. His presence generates a feeling of reverence. When I returned home with him after the procedure, I got a better sense of how great he is, as there were fifty to one hundred people at his home, waiting to see him. I can’t imagine his importance to the community."

 The Address for all matters of Torah.

Rabbi Orlofsky once went with his mashgiach for advice about a complicated question. He went to one gadol, and it took a long time to get an answer. His mashgiach then brought him to Rav Elyashiv. In the small apartment was a Rosh Yeshiva, avreichim, businessmen and a woman with a chicken all there to ask questions. When it was Rabbi Orlofsky’s turn, Rav Elyashiv immediately answered him in one sentence that put the question to rest.

Answering Klal Yisrael

In 2004, Rav Dunner went to India and found out that many sheitels were made with hair that had been used to worship Avodah Zara. The Halacha is that one may not even get pleasure from something used for Avodah Zara. Rav Elyashiv paskened that women in Eretz Yisrael could not wear sheitels until they found out whether the sheitels came from India or not. Overnight, women stopped wearing these sheitels because Rav Elyashiv had paskened they were forbidden to wear. All over the world, women gave up expensive sheitels because of the psak of the Gadol HaDor.

Last Months

Rav Elyashiv became very ill six months before his death. Klal Yisrael began davening for his recovery. During the 3 weeks, Rav Elyashiv was niftar. Klal Yisrael lost a leader who knew Kol HaTorah Kula and lived by its every word.

ITL: Perek 11: Pesukim 29-32

Building Blocks

Translation the Pesukim

Going Deeper

Teaching Rashi the fun way

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 Learning

ITL: Perek 11: Pesukim 24-28 - Building Blocks of Chumash & Avram's early life

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

Introduction to Independent Torah Learning: Class 1

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 Avram