For the 2009-2010 school year, East End Temple will be implementing a new Hebrew program. Our goal is to provide students with the skills to read and comprehend prayer based Hebrew and to introduce key conversational Hebrew words and phrases. The most significant change this year is that Hebrew learning is being reincorporated into the Upper School classes on Tuesdays. In addition, all grades will be working with different curriculum, textbooks and resources.
Herew Outside the Classroom
“HEET: Hebrew at East End Temple” Every Wednesday and Thursday afternoon from 4:00-6:00 PM, there will be Hebrew Specialists (religious school teachers) leading Hebrew study. This will be a time for students to receive individualized Hebrew instruction to supplement class time. Over the course of the year, each student in grades 4-6 will be expected to complete at least 10 hours of Hebrew study during the hours HEET is open. (For example, a student can attend from 4:30-5:30 on ten Wednesday afternoons scattered throughout the year.) Of course, students are invited and encouraged to attend more frequently if desired. Students do not need to commit to any specific day or time; they may simply attend when convenient.
In addition, students will be assigned homework and reading practice to reinforce the materials covered in class. Homework will take no longer than thirty minutes per week.
Hebrew Inside the Classroom
Lower School (PreK-3rd Grade)
Students in the Lower School will begin to study Hebrew through the use of the “Sarah and David Interactive” program. Gan and Gan Gadol (pre-k and kindergarten) students will be using “The Aleph Bet Story” and “The Aleph Bet Story Activity Book.” These books provide a whimsical approach to consonants and vowels that is conducive to faster, more lasting learning and makes Hebrew letters accessible to all. This activity book is a coloring book that has fun activities for each letter.
Children in Kitah Aleph (first grade) will use the “The Aleph Bet Story Workbook.” The workbook provides exercises to directly reinforce the key learning. Bubble Letters, arrows and targets, dotted letters, freehand writing, picture words are all exercises to engage the mind and imagination of the student.
In Kitah Bet (second grade) students will transition to the “Sarah, David and YOU Read Hebrew” series. In this five workbook system, students learn to read and write Hebrew using new and challenging exercises for practice and reinforcement.
Kitah Gimmel (third grade) classes will study from “The Read Hebrew Primer.” This new Hebrew primer features the same look and layout of the five-book curriculum and includes all of the hands-on Hebrew reading skills. This primer however focuses on Hebrew reading only. It follows the same letter order and builds quickly towards real words.
(More information on the Sarah & David program can be found at: http://www.sarahdavid.com/.)
Upper School (Grades 4-7)
After demonstrating master of the aleph-bet (names and sounds of letters and vowels; ability to put letters together to form words) students in the Upper School will begin working on the Self-Paced Prayer Program. The program will work as follows:
- Each student will receive a binder with cover sheet that will list all of the prayers they will be expected to learn.
- Students will start with only one prayer in their binders. Once they have demonstrated reading mastery of the prayer (to the Director of Congregational Learning) students will receive the next prayer on the list. They will progress through the prayers at their own pace, with suggested benchmarks for each grade.
- The prayer pages will contain the prayer in large, clear, Hebrew letters; nothing else will be on the page. Students will be able to write English words, draw pictures, and make markings to help with reading. They may not write transliteration.
- There will be specific prayers assigned to each grade. Students may master the Hebrew earlier or later, but the meaning, structure, usage, etc. of that prayer will be taught in the grade indicated. Teachers will develop lessons based on a variety of resources, including textbooks, siddurim, online activities, recordings, and more.
