Teaching Hebrew with Velcro
When I started teaching Cheder last term, I jumped into the deep end and suddenly realised I had absolutely no idea how to go about teaching the kids to read Hebrew. A term later and after trying several different methods, we finally seem to have found a combination that works for these kids.
When I was 3 or 4 years old and learning to read, one of the techniques my mum used was to make a simple word from alphabet fridge magnets, and then get me to change it into another word (cat into bat into bag, for instance). This was a great way to keep me occupied in the kitchen while she did washing up or cooking, and it made me more aware of the sounds of words and letters. In Cheder, I have a board covered with felt and cut-out Hebrew letters with velcro stickers on the back (took me an afternoon to make). We start with some group practice in sounding out words, to remind them of what we’ve done before, and to keep reinforcing the skills so they’ll learn to work out for themselves how to pronounce unfamiliar words.
While we were doing group work with the felt board for the first time, the youngest child (aged 4) started doing the actions she had learned from the Jolly Phonics system. With help from her and her parents, we’ve adopted this, and found that it adapts particularly well to Hebrew, which is a phonetic language anyway (unlike English, of course, which seems to be one of the objections sometimes raised to using the JP method here). The movements add a kinesthetic dimension to the children’s learning, act as a general learning aid, and always make them laugh! We’ve adapted a few of the signs (e.g. hands over ears for the silent letter aleph), but generally it’s fine as it is.
When we’ve done some group work and introduced the new letters and/or vowels for the week (how many depends on how well I feel they’ve absorbed what we’ve done so far), each child gets a turn at the board, changing one or two things in the existing word to make the one I ask for. Even the very shyest seem to enjoy this, which surprised me. As the group is so small, they can chat amongst themselves while this is happening without being too distracting, so the child at the board isn’t the focus of undivided attention and pressure. They can have as much time as they need, and if necessary I help them to reason out what they need to do. We seem to have managed to create an atmosphere where they’re comfortable about taking their time, thinking things through, and then having a go; I’m not sure how this has happened, but I’m very pleased that it has.
All of this takes about 15 minutes per week; long enough to make an impact, but (so far) not so long that it becomes boring. To reinforce things during the week, the younger ones get colouring-in sheets for the letters we’ve learned, and the older ones get a few pages of worksheets from a Hebrew reading course I’m writing for them. I ask them to do 10 or 15 minutes a few times a week, and to do just as much as they can; if they have a bad week, I don’t make a big fuss about it. They work through them at their own pace and bring them back very proudly the following week for me to look through what they’ve done. We usually do this during the socialising bit at the beginning of the session, so each of them gets some one-to-one time with me and a chance to go over anything they’re stuck on.
The older kids’ homework sheets teach them to write block Hebrew (as opposed to the cursive form of modern Israeli Hebrew, which looks very different). The younger ones’ colouring-in sheets have the different ways each letter can be written, and I’m encouraging them to try drawing pictures incorporating some of the shapes, with some beautiful (if occasionally illegible!) results.
We’ve done Hebrew reading three weeks out of four this term (last week was an exception – more on that later), and so far they’ve nailed aleph, bet, vet, gimel, dalet, heh, vav and zayin, and the vowels kamats, patakh and khiriq. Next week we’ll definitely do khet, which they’ll enjoy – they love doing the ‘kh’ sound! – and tet, and possibly introduce a new vowel, tseire, which we’ll practice for a week or two before adding another.
As far as speaking Hebrew goes, I think it's important to give the kids a sense that it's a living language, so I'm slowly teaching them some basic phrases. We start and end every session with the song Shalom Chaverim (Shalom my Friend), which settles them and gives them a framework - the few times I've missed it out, the change in behaviour and focus has been noticeable.
I adapted the song slightly for the beginning, changing "l'hitrayot" (until we meet again / see you soon) into "na'im m'od" (nice to meet/see you), and we use the original for the end. They can all sing it fluently now, and it's taught them the Hebrew for "hello/goodbye" (both "shalom"), "nice to meet/see you" and "see you soon". Immediately after we've finished singing it, I greet each of the children individually in Hebrew, asking how they are, and they're all reasonably comfortable now with the reply "tov, todah" (fine, thank you). Next week we'll add another phrase, possibly "what's your name?", which will tie in well with the topic for the week.
When I was 3 or 4 years old and learning to read, one of the techniques my mum used was to make a simple word from alphabet fridge magnets, and then get me to change it into another word (cat into bat into bag, for instance). This was a great way to keep me occupied in the kitchen while she did washing up or cooking, and it made me more aware of the sounds of words and letters. In Cheder, I have a board covered with felt and cut-out Hebrew letters with velcro stickers on the back (took me an afternoon to make). We start with some group practice in sounding out words, to remind them of what we’ve done before, and to keep reinforcing the skills so they’ll learn to work out for themselves how to pronounce unfamiliar words.
While we were doing group work with the felt board for the first time, the youngest child (aged 4) started doing the actions she had learned from the Jolly Phonics system. With help from her and her parents, we’ve adopted this, and found that it adapts particularly well to Hebrew, which is a phonetic language anyway (unlike English, of course, which seems to be one of the objections sometimes raised to using the JP method here). The movements add a kinesthetic dimension to the children’s learning, act as a general learning aid, and always make them laugh! We’ve adapted a few of the signs (e.g. hands over ears for the silent letter aleph), but generally it’s fine as it is.
When we’ve done some group work and introduced the new letters and/or vowels for the week (how many depends on how well I feel they’ve absorbed what we’ve done so far), each child gets a turn at the board, changing one or two things in the existing word to make the one I ask for. Even the very shyest seem to enjoy this, which surprised me. As the group is so small, they can chat amongst themselves while this is happening without being too distracting, so the child at the board isn’t the focus of undivided attention and pressure. They can have as much time as they need, and if necessary I help them to reason out what they need to do. We seem to have managed to create an atmosphere where they’re comfortable about taking their time, thinking things through, and then having a go; I’m not sure how this has happened, but I’m very pleased that it has.
All of this takes about 15 minutes per week; long enough to make an impact, but (so far) not so long that it becomes boring. To reinforce things during the week, the younger ones get colouring-in sheets for the letters we’ve learned, and the older ones get a few pages of worksheets from a Hebrew reading course I’m writing for them. I ask them to do 10 or 15 minutes a few times a week, and to do just as much as they can; if they have a bad week, I don’t make a big fuss about it. They work through them at their own pace and bring them back very proudly the following week for me to look through what they’ve done. We usually do this during the socialising bit at the beginning of the session, so each of them gets some one-to-one time with me and a chance to go over anything they’re stuck on.
The older kids’ homework sheets teach them to write block Hebrew (as opposed to the cursive form of modern Israeli Hebrew, which looks very different). The younger ones’ colouring-in sheets have the different ways each letter can be written, and I’m encouraging them to try drawing pictures incorporating some of the shapes, with some beautiful (if occasionally illegible!) results.
We’ve done Hebrew reading three weeks out of four this term (last week was an exception – more on that later), and so far they’ve nailed aleph, bet, vet, gimel, dalet, heh, vav and zayin, and the vowels kamats, patakh and khiriq. Next week we’ll definitely do khet, which they’ll enjoy – they love doing the ‘kh’ sound! – and tet, and possibly introduce a new vowel, tseire, which we’ll practice for a week or two before adding another.
As far as speaking Hebrew goes, I think it's important to give the kids a sense that it's a living language, so I'm slowly teaching them some basic phrases. We start and end every session with the song Shalom Chaverim (Shalom my Friend), which settles them and gives them a framework - the few times I've missed it out, the change in behaviour and focus has been noticeable.
I adapted the song slightly for the beginning, changing "l'hitrayot" (until we meet again / see you soon) into "na'im m'od" (nice to meet/see you), and we use the original for the end. They can all sing it fluently now, and it's taught them the Hebrew for "hello/goodbye" (both "shalom"), "nice to meet/see you" and "see you soon". Immediately after we've finished singing it, I greet each of the children individually in Hebrew, asking how they are, and they're all reasonably comfortable now with the reply "tov, todah" (fine, thank you). Next week we'll add another phrase, possibly "what's your name?", which will tie in well with the topic for the week.
posted by Gonetomars at 12:12 pm
1 Comments:
Thanks! I'm going to try both the velcro board and the opening song with my 4th grade Hebrew students.
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