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

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

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

Chumash tip: Portfolios

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. They put their saved work in their Judaic Studies portfolio (Moving from short term knowledge to long term storage). It is important that the students understand that they must put the new packet into the portfolio in the proper order. Otherwise, they will not be able to find it quickly and easily when they need it. At the end of the year, all the students  have resources to review what they learned during the year. They  can reflect on how much they have learned and use the sheets to review their material over the summer.

Chumash tip: Create Grading Sheets for after the test

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 near the table to monitor their grading. It gives them immediate feedback which helps them learn and makes sure they get their tests back right away

Chumash tip: Inner Outer Reviews

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. I reset my timer and we start from that pasuk with the inner student reading and the outer student translating. After two minutes the inner student gets up and moves to the left. They now have a new partner with whom to read,

If the class has an odd partner, I am the partner. This gives me a chance to test a number of students on both reading and translating

June 8, 2011 recap

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. In the beginning of Vayeitzei, he saw the melachim in a dream. Was this in a dream?  The class started flipping forward to Vayishlach to discover more information about the melachim and their journey. 

Finally, we finished the parsha with fifteen minutes to spare before recess. I was in a quandary. The day before, I had quizzed the class on the 30 shorashim in the perek, and they had done review work. I figured we could squeeze in the exciting parsha of behaalosecha in the extra time. Unfortunately, my parsha worksheets were in the office. 

When I told the class my plan they asked if they could learn the next parsha while I was out of the room. I agreed if they kept the noise to a dull roar. I left and got sidetracked at the copier for a few minutes.  When I returned, the students were sitting at the table and at their desks with chavrusas. They excitedly shouted "We finished to Pasuk יא - the eleventh verse!" I asked what that meant. They informed me that they had read and translated seven pasukim and were now asking questions about those pasukim. 

Their eyes shone. They love to learn and know how to learn.

What nachas! 

One of my theories of education is that students need to do the real thing. They don't have Chumash class. They learn Chumash - just like their fathers and mothers do.  As a teacher, my job is to provide them with supports so they can act like the adults. 

A perfect model for this method of education is training wheels on a bicycle. With training wheels, a child learns to ride his bike and the feel of bike riding. Then the training wheels come off, and the parent holds on to the back, providing less support, but still helping the child learn how to ride. Finally, the parent lets go. The child begins to peddle on his own. He may fall a few times, he may wobble at first, but very quickly he rides off on his own. His legs are strong enough, and his sense of balance has been developed so he no longer needs his parents to help him at all. And then a wonderful thing happens, the child begins to bike ride with the parents and they explore new paths together. 

The same thing happens in school. My students know what it means to learn Torah. They see their  parents do it, they see older students do it and they want to do it too. Nebach, they don't have the vocabulary or the maturity  to learn as their parents do. So like the training wheels, they learn with a little help keeping them upright and moving forward.  At first, they got a lot of help with vocabulary and reading. Later, in the year, once they had mastered the basic vocabulary, they only need help with the hard words. Then, the training wheels can come off so they can learn on their own. The final stage is when parent and child, teacher and student begin to learn together as partners in discovering the Torah. The progression must be gradual and deliberate to ensure that the child will get stronger and stronger until they are ready to be independent. 

Today, I saw my theory vindicated. These kids are learning like real masmidim acting like they are sitting in a beis Medrash. They approach learning Torah with a sense of ownership and pride. 

Teaching like this requires a change of mindset.  A teacher can view himself like he is pulling a horse to water, as if he is doing all the hard work in the relationship. But with this attitude, when he is not around, his students won't want to learn. He can view himself like the driver of a car, who determines the roads yet to be travelled. But again, no student wants to go down a path that is determined by others. 

Or, a teacher can view himself like he is that parent, holding on to the back of a bicycle without training wheels. His most fervent hope is that the child will pedal off, leaving the parent waving as he watches his child disappear around the corner with new-found independence. When a teacher teaches with this mindset, the child senses that he is the master of his learning. The child will take ownership for his learning as he is able to set his own course in life and blaze new trails. 

June 1 recap

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 lashon hara. Every student participated and were responding to each other about the topic. I can't wait to see this group when they can learn on their own. There will be no holding
them back.
Improve study skills, word attack skills, listening and responding to peers

For parsha, we did the rabbi balsam sheets for naso .

Word Find: http://www.scribd.com/doc/95720126/Naso-Word-Find
Rabbi Balsam for Parshas Naso: http://www.scribd.com/doc/95720128/Naso-Sheets#page=1

We then filled out the chart of which korbanos each nasi brought. I have learned that karbonos are interesting for little kids if you make it concrete. Plus, after yaakov and his sheep, my class knew what עתודים ואילים are. Here is the board example of our chart.
Goal: make a very abstract part of Torah clear, motivation, graphic organizer

And the chart before it was filled in

Chart Korbanos Nesiim 

I then showed the class my parsha cakes from a few years ago. One student went home and made some with his family.

Thursday, May 31 recap

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 where ה' told לבן not to speak.
reviewing important information from last time, and creating anticipation for new material.

As we learned the new pesukim, the kids were literally laughing out loud because of how לבן ignored ה' and cared more about his idols than kids. I read the pesukim dramatically but didn't add any additional commentary. The pasukim speak for themselves. We concluded with each student filling out their linear translation sheets. Independent Practice.

ivrit: We are working on אותי vs אתי. I tried to have the kids write sentences with these words but they are still unclear about the object pronouns. Guided Practice. We sang a song אותי is me, אותך is you etc. different modality learning. Helps memorization and recall. Using the different objects in hebrew sentences depending on the preposition is a hard concept for the kids. They can translate לי in the chumash but  will write אל אני in their own sentences.

Chayeinu: Yamim Tovim Independent learning, self paced. 

 Biography of Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky we are learning about how honest יעקב was so I thought it would be nice to learn about the Gadol who best exemplified this midda - Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky. This was also an opportunity to introduce Rav Shmuel Kaminetzky to the class.  After reading the biography we watch some videos.
rav yaakov


Rav Yaakov zt"l with Rav Moshe zt"l



Rav Shmuel telling a story  about Rav Hyman (go to 4:20 story is 2 minutes)



Rav Shmuel starting off a class (I just showed the first minute to show what it means to be gracious)

Wednesday, May 30

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 of Perek לא. We did our last PPP - Vayitzei Perek 31b PPP

and set up the felt flash cards on the side of the room.

We then read a story in Migdalor which focused on the difference between אתי  and אותי. The students read the story quietly and then we discussed it. Then the class wrote sentences and also spoke using these words.

Chayeinu - For the next two weeks, we will be reviewing some key sections - we started with Chagim and will move on to Tanach.

Tuesday, May 29

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 word they didn't know in the hebrew. If they didn't know a word, they should look it up in the English.

After that, they did some independent review work focusing on על מי נאמר, איך כתוב בפסוק, & מי אמר למי

Thursday May 24 - pre Shavuos

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 back of the room and set up the three machanos.

Because it was the day before Shavuos, I asked the students if they wanted to bring home their portfolios so they could review the chumash they learned this year. (After Shavuos, I  found out that one student sat next to his father and  reviewed his chumash on Shavuos night!)

Wednesday, May 23 recap

Tefilla - רצון יראיו יעשה - I asked if they would rather be the pawn or the king on the chess board - we have a choice which we will be based on how much we do of Hashem's will, The more we listen to Hashem's will, the more important we are in Hashem's plan. Also check out Rav Hirschs explanation of http://www.dailyhalacha.com/m/parasha.aspx?id=98 the two goats on yom kippur

Clean up time - guests were coming and so the kids straightened up a bit.

Chumash / just the highlights - יח-כא I drew shorashim as pictures ג זז= two letters crossed to make a air of scissors, נהג- The נ lead the other letters . Kids looked for hard words first. https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/chumash/vayeitzei/vayitzei%20perek%2031a%20linear.pdf?w=d2da30ea

Ivrit - read story and asked comprehension questions after each line without translating . Most kids got the gist of the story and could answer the questions easily.

I had to leave for the last 45 minutes of class. I wrote a list of assignments for the class to do either as a group or as individuals. When I came back the next day, the class was very excited about their independent learning. The key with this work is that it is not busy work. They do the best they can, they have to think while doing it, and it builds on knowledge they have or have access to.

1.  I had the students fill in http://chinuch.org/item_details.php?mid=9200&s=1&ft=243? - A workbook on Shavuos by Rivkah Kessler found on chinuch.org.  We had reviewed most of the information as a class so this was a chance to review what we had discussed orally. I chose not to fill in the worksheets as a class because I found that gets boring quickly. The students learned what information they had learned, and what they stll needed to learn.  The more advanced students filled in the hebrew section, the other students filled in the English section.
2. Chayeinu - Pages regarding the Aseres Hadibros and the shalosh regalim.
3. Chumash homework.

Tuesday May 22

Almost done with Ashrei, we have started to say  it before עלינו. כל האומר תהילה לדוד ג פעמים ביום . . .

Chumash https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/chumash/vayeitzei/vayitzei%20perek%2031a%20linear.pdf?w=d2da30ea  יב-יז

Chayeinu. - I asked the students to work on the pages having to do with the megillos and the Aseres Hadibros. After they completed these pages, I did a quick oral quiz to check for learning.

May 21 recap

Tefillah: קרוב ה' - focus on kavanah, and crying in truth.  
Chumash: ח-יא https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/chumash/vayeitzei/vayitzei%20perek%2031a%20linear.pdf?w=d2da30ea
Limudei Kodesh: We have learned all about story of Rus - During Chumash, I realized the students didn't know who Boaz was. We did a few activities to make the story memorable.
1. Powerpoint from chinuch.org
2. Rus Rebus
3. Story of Rus in hebrew

We did one perek at a time. So the students knew the story line and the people in the megillah.

Ivrit:  Next story in Migdalor

Friday May 18 recap

Tefillah:
The 4/5 grade boys joined us for davening since their teacher was out of town. Using a quick Q/A with one word answers, we reviewed the concepts that we had learned so far about Ashrei. The 3rd graders were very proud that they knew the answers quickly to questions the older kids couldn't answer.

Chumash: We learned ה וז. The students first looked at the pasukim for hard words. The hard words got written on the board. Using the words on the board, one student tried to read each pasuk. Then I  read the pasuk. The students got to ask questions. To ask an analysis question, 1 student had to first read and translate the pasuk accurately.  Then class read the pasuk.  Closure: Students independently filled in their linear translation sheets.

Parsha: I quickly reviewed the laws from behar/bechukosai. I then took the opportunity to talk about Shemitta . Chinuch.org has all the back issues of Olemeinu online.  http://chinuch.org/olomeinu_admin_topics.php?id=229   They are filled with facts, games and stories about shemitta. One of the articles explained that there are some Jews that keep heter mechira, and some Jews who do not. I mentioned to my students, one of whom  has a brother named after Rav Kook, that Rav Kook had implemented the halachic idea of heter mechira. I then mentioned that the Chazon Ish, for whom another student is named, said that shemitta must be observed with no exceptions. The Rav Kook representative looked at me and said "But I know that the Chazon Ish and Rav Kook treated each other nicely!" The Chazon Ish stand-in turned to his neighbor and replied - "You know, it's like Hillel and Shammai." His friend nodded and smiled, understanding completely the idea of a machlokes l'shem shamayim