Demystifying Hebrew Literacy: Part 1

screen-shot-2016-09-21-at-11-22-33-pmTo most American English speakers, languages written in non-Romanized letters seem impossibly difficult.  Their very unfamiliarity is off-putting at the least, and constitutes a deal-breaker for many.  “How can I possibly learn….? (Fill in the blank:  Hebrew, Mandarin, Arabic, Russian, etc.)  The writing is downright indecipherable!”

After 4 sessions (around +-2 hours total) of high-frequency-verb-containing Hebrew Comprehensible (auditory) Input, I decided it was time to shift gears for a moment and have our kids try their hand at Hebrew writing.  I also wanted to dispel any fear of ‘cursive without vowels’ for my students and their parents before it surfaced.  Not that they haven’t written Hebrew before….All but this year’s 3rd graders have explored the Hebrew written word to various degrees.  The younger grades (3rd – 5th) have mostly decoded liturgical Hebrew and have muddled through Modern Hebrew basal readers that slice and dice the language into isolated letters, phonemes and chunks in an effort to lay-in letter-sound correspondence (plus nikkud = vowels).  This laser focus on discreet sounds has been all but abandoned in most Language Arts classrooms, in favor of reading instruction centered on whole words and phrases, the building blocks of meaning.  The 6th graders explored trope last year as they prepared for their Bar and Bat Mitzvah, and have happily retained their solid decoding skills.

Since September 7, my 3rd through 7th graders have seen me establish meaning by writing words on the board in Hebrew, and translating them to English right below, regularly pausing and pointing to reinforce & connect the written word with sound with meaning.  Now it was time to scaffold another language experience where they’d feel successful and encouraged.  It called for a fail-proof process, so I employed my secret ace-in-the hole tool:  The humble and hardworking dry erase lap board.

Any multi-step procedure in the CI classroom is but a (cloaked) opportunity/invitation for careful listening and repetitions, so I turned the distribution and handling of the materials into Total Physical Response (TPR):

(בעברית)

Put your board, pen and eraser under your chair.screen-shot-2016-09-21-at-10-23-57-pmscreen-shot-2016-09-21-at-10-19-52-pm

Pick up your board.

Put your board under the chair.

Pick up the pen.  Open (un-cap) the pen.  Close the pen.

Put the pen under your chair.

Pick up the eraser.   Put the eraser under your chair.

Pick up the board.

I gestured and paused/pointed to all necessary vocabulary written on the big board.  So far so good.

Next I had the kids take off their name tags and place it on their lapboards, on the lined side (the flip side is un-lined).  I asked them to copy their Hebrew names with their pointer finger between the lines on the board.  I referred to this simple print and cursive Alef Bet poster I’d hung on the wall, reminding them that we’d be using cursive exclusively.  Finger spelling IS NOT BABYISH when you’re learning (reviewing?) to form new letters!

I invited my kids to uncap their markers and, with no regard for letter formation, copy their Hebrew names onto their dry-erase lapboards.  Again and again.  I circulated around the room with the other Hebrew teachers, insuring that the sofIT letters were long/tall enough, that the ’ר’ didn׳t look like a ’כ’ and so on.

It never fails.  Students love to skate and glide their markers across the shiny board surface.  And the task is so forgiving.  If you make a ’ד’ that looks like a ’צ’, then simply sweep it away with your eraser and try, try again.  Mistakes are good.  They mean you’re trying.  Confident students were encouraged to write their names without looking at their name tag exemplar.

Soon I was looking at a sea of proud faces and Hebrew-filled lapboards.

Next I modeled these instructions (I used some English here):

Erase your boards.

screen-shot-2016-09-21-at-11-16-11-pmStand up.

Raise one arm.

Close your eyes.

See your Hebrew name in your mind.

Copy your name in the sky.  (That’s right.  3rd through 7th graders skywriting.)

Sit down.

It was nearly time to go.  I asked who wanted to try a bit more writing – this time a complete sentence.  Hands shot up like weeds after a summer storm.

I urged them to write the word, ’אני’ followed by their Hebrew name, as in, ’אני עליזה’.  “I am Alisa.”  A notebook exercise blossomed into a meaningful message before our eyes.

Their faces lit up with success.

“Is Hebrew writing as hard as you thought it would be?”  “Not really.”

Not when you have what you need.  Not when your message is simple and narrow.screen-shot-2016-09-21-at-11-05-14-pm

Before class ended, I assigned the first ‘major’ homework assignment of the year:

To skywrite their Hebrew name as often as possible over the next few days – in the shower, in bed, in the car…. And for extra credit?  To extend to a sentence by putting ‘אני in front of it.   .אני שמחה

 

Personalizing and Customizing the Comprehensible Hebrew Classroom

You may wonder, dear reader, “Where can I get my hands on a curriculum and/or pacing guide for teaching Comprehensible Hebrew?”  The quick answer to your query is unpopular but true.  A Comprehensible Input-based curriculum is a moving target, and a very personal one at that.  Personal to the teacher’s style and imagination, and personalized to meet the developmental, individual, social and cultural needs of her students.  In short a Comprehensible Input-based curriculum is emergent – generated from the interests and ideas of the group/s you’re teaching.  (Though I am noodling the idea of creating a Hebrew supplementary school articulated curriculum….stay tuned!?!)

Take for example the story seeds I was sowing in my 6th-7th grade group on Wednesday night.  I don’t really know these 25 kids yet (it was only our 3rd meeting), so I still rely on name tags to identify them.  I certainly don’t know what their interests and passions are yet, though I’m beginning to explore this in an effort to build relationships and create a positive classroom community.  I knew I wanted to start exposing the group to some of the highest frequency verbs, so I decided to get started with a safe crowd-pleaser topic, food, using the verbs ‘likes/loves’ and ‘(doesn’t) have.’  (i.e., איו, יש, אוהב)  This was the basis for my Wednesday lesson plan.

I pre-selected some Hebrew cognate food props from my vault of amazing plastic facsimiles, then, I printed out some local restaurant logos from Google images, to match the food choices, and made colorful posters of these locales to hang throughout the classroom.  (I heard the kids mention some of the restaurants during our last class together).  A local Italian place, two burger joints (so I could get some compare/contrast language in – more on that another time), and a Middle Eastern spot, all within minutes of the temple.  Class runs from 5:30 – 6:00pm, so I knew that dinner fare would play well.

Already I had several ingredients for a customized experience:  Familiar kid-friendly foods that they were likely to have opinions about, from local places that most kids would know first-hand.  The evening menu then became an exploration of food/restaurant preferences, within a simple and repetitive story framework.

Like all stories, mine had a central problem that emerged when my student, Leah volunteered that she loves felafel.screen-shot-2016-09-17-at-4-51-58-pm  For nearly 25 minutes we spent time in Hebrew trying to track down felafel for our hungry protagonist.  First she went to Maggiano’s, our Italian venue, hungrily seeking felafel.  I accompanied her across the classroom toward the Maggiano’s poster, where a Maggiano’s representative/classmate was waiting, a luscious slice of (plastic) pizza in one fist, a rubbery beige disc of coiled pasta in the other.  I did the talking while my actors silently brought our drama to life.  As dramatic director, I coached Leah to rub her stomach, stating that she loves felafel, while the class confirmed that no, unfortunately Maggiano’s doesn’t have felafel.  It has pizza, and it has spaghetti.

ME:  “Do you like pizza?”

LEAH:  “No.”

“Class, Leah doesn’t like pizza!”screen-shot-2016-09-17-at-4-59-06-pm

“Oh, No!”

Do you like spaghetti?”

No.”

“Class!  Leah doesn’t like spaghetti!”

“Oh, no!”

“Leah, what do you like?”

“Felafel!”

Class, what does she like?”

“Felafel!”

“Does Maggiano’s have felafel?”

“No!”

“Class, Maggiano’s doesn’t have felafel!”

“Oh, no!  Oh, no!”

“Maggiano’s doesn’t have felafel!  Who has felafel?  Does Portillo’s have felafel?”

Our conversation continued in this way, punctuated by student rejoinders – (אוי ואבוי = Oh, no!) –  as Leah sought hunger relief at Portillo’s and Poochie’s.  By the end of class she had trekked around the room from eatery to eatery, rejecting (plastic) pizza, spaghetti, burgers and fries (with ketchup – also a cognate!)  Finally, she stood face to face with a classmate/employee at Pita Inn.  “Does Pita Inn have felafel?”  Everyone was ready to escape this onerous predicament.  “Yes!” they all chimed in.  “Pita Inn HAS felafel!”

At the end of class Leah received a plastic pita bread (aka felafel sandwich) and pretended to hungrily dig in.  We applauded her perseverance and drama skills, and we all went home to dinner.

Day 3 for this group (+-90 cumulative minutes of instruction) – and they just co-spun their first Hebrew story.

Comprehensible Hebrew on Opening Day!

Chicagoland is sweltering under a September heat wave this week.  It was nearly 90 degrees in my (day job) classroom with similar humidity (no A/C).  I taught in that before coming to teach my first ever (air conditioned!) class at TBI.  The afternoon’s festivities kept me jittery, and amid the sweaty freak-out lead-up, I realized that 30 minutes for absolute newbies would go by in a flash.  I had waaaaay over lesson-planned, so I chose to prune & snip, thereby shedding some anxiety.

screen-shot-2016-09-13-at-10-58-46-pmI wanted our kids to walk away feeling encouraged.  And successful.  And smiling.   Those were my ‘curricular goals’ from which I decided to backwards-plan.  No worries about hi-frequency structures, circling, repetitions, or the like… yet.  Just a fun, informal meeting & intro with some back-and-forth Hebrew communication.

The first group of 20+ 3rd & 4th graders included my own daughter (and #1 Hebrew cheerleader!)  I started by introducing myself to the group in Hebrew:  .אני עליזה.  אני מורה לעברית.  I wrote nearly everything I said, as it came up.  On the dry erase board in cursive/no vowels, in black, and with the English translation in red below it.  I went back to slowly pause ‘n point at it frequently.  I will be experimenting with Cold Character Reading (CCR), but these kids have also had exposure to the Alef Bet starting in 2nd grade.  So I was getting a baseline on their decoding skills.  Some were stronger than others, but it looked as though many could read the short Hebrew words and phrases on the board, when repeated, prompted and in context.  

Next, I distributed their lanyard name tags.  Most kids recognized their Hebrew names orally, but their English first & last names were pencilled on the back, just in case.  I jotted, ‘אני פה’ [‘I’m here’] on the board, and after a few repetitions, they got the hang of responding, ‘אני פה’  when they heard their name.  I modeled courtesy with ‘תודה’ [‘Thank you’], and I could feel the excitement rise as the kids could readily produce these short and appropriate utterances upon hearing their name and taking their tag!  They were proud to share what they knew.  By the time all the tags were distributed, we were nearly halfway through class!  The remainder was spent doing Total Physical Response (TPR) – the kids responded to my commands, demonstrating comprehension (or not) by doing as I requested:

Stand up/sit down.  Boys stand up.  Girls sit down.  Boys sit down, girls stand up.

Next I folded in ‘slowly’ and ‘quickly.’  Boys stand up quickly;  Girls sit down slowly…  This side [of the room] stands up; the other [side] sits down….  Just as the kids were about to ease back slowly into their chairs, I commanded them to quickly stand up!  We played unpredictably like this for a few short minutes…and they LOVED it!

When time was almost up, I asked them to reflect in English about how it felt to hear Hebrew this way.  The kids pointed out that the gestures and acting supported their understanding, that they relied on the gestures.  This was a great place to teach them the ‘stop signal’ – one fist pounding the opposite palm noise that tells me, “the meaning is not clear.”

The 5th-6th-7th grade class (50+ kids) was WAY TOO BIG.  I had a challenging ‘lift-off’ due to the sheer numbers.  Passing out  nametags and meeting the students felt long and boring, and allowed English chit-chat to erupt.  Once the Comprehensible Input got going though, we steadily got our craft aloft.  During the last several minutes of this class (from +- 5:30-6:00pm), I acknowledged how hungry we all were (patting my belly and gesturing eating).  We launched into a mini-scene with one boy walking (running?) quickly to Poochie’s (local burger joint) – I’d posted a mini poster with the restaurant’s logo on one wall – while a girl walked slowly to Portillo’s (a competing local burger joint).  I asked those who liked Poochie’s to run to that classroom location s-l-o-w-l-y; and the Portillo’s-lovers to walk to theirs quickly.  Much narrated walking and running between restaurants ensued.  By the end of class, the kids were standing in their respective restaurant zones, stimulated, energized and, well, HUNGRY!

Just before the bigger kids left, I asked them to reflect on today’s Hebrew class:

“All the gestures and acting helped me understand what you were saying.”

“I understood all your Hebrew words!”screen-shot-2016-10-11-at-11-33-25-am

“I could read the words on the board.”

“That was really fun!”

Encouraged, successful and smiling.  Not a bad way to end the workday.

PS:  I will try to edit and post parts of the videos of these classes soon.

PSS:  Here’s the link to the video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn7rsc7xDNA

Back-To-Public-School

Since I’ll be teaching Hebrew supplementary school starting on Wednesday (Oy!!  That’s in 4 days!!), I’ll refer to my Spanish teacher day job as Public School from now on.

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere on the blog, during the day I teach Spanish as a ‘special’ class to 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders in suburban Chicagoland.  I see each group 3 times/week, for 30 minutes per class.   We just closed out our first week back at school.

I was delighted to see how much Spanish my 3rd and 4th graders have retained even after the 2-month break!  We eased into Personalized Questions and Answers (PQA) around the topic of summer vacation.  My students are fortunate enough to have some pretty spectacular experiences, including European jaunts, hiking the national parks, and accompanying their parents on trips to Asia, Australia and beyond.  To extend our Spanish discussion and incorporate literacy, I typed their fabulous summer destinations into a simple table.  Next to the student (Spanish) name column sits the “I went to….” column.  After hearing the info orally for portions of our first two classes, the class helped me fill-in the table in real time.  I asked; they answered, I typed it into the table which was projected onscreen.  Once complete, I asked questions about who went where, I compared students’ trips, and even allowed a tiny bit of English to creep in if the student simply HAD TO share something special.  “I saw Old Faithful!”  “I went to Hamilton on Broadway!”    “I saw the changing of the guard!!”   I hope to use these fabulous tidbits and locations in our story-spinning this year, as they are important and compelling personal details and help each child feel known and honored.

My second graders were the most challenging.  Classes are larger, and the kids are exhausted by the end of the day.  We (adults) often underestimate the effect of the transition back to a full day of school for young children.  I was sure to revive fascreen-shot-2016-09-13-at-11-03-09-pmmiliar routines (i.e., greeting/goodbye song) which provide much needed structure for the wee ones.  But alas, my classroom is sweaty (no air conditioning); the chairs are hard (transitioning from the rug and  plenty of stretching and movement can only help so much!) and the kids are tired, hungry, need a Band-Aid, want a drink, have a tummy ache, just lost a tooth…in short, they find it hard to stay focused.  This will change as they grow accustomed to the new school year and schedule, but it means that I can’t expect or push too much…yet.  Limited language input, no full-on circling, lots of movement (we did some modified yoga poses) and plenty of props.  We picked our favorite (plastic) snacks and using “want” and “looks for,” we pretended to eat them.

First graders were mesmerized by their first week of Spanish.  The groups are tiny, and I’m visiting them at the rug in their own classroom, at least until the groups ‘gel’ and they’re ready to transition to my Spanish classroom.  THIS MAKES A HUGE & POSITIVE DIFFERENCE!  They’re beyond excited about their new Spanish names.  It’s like they’re in a trance when they hear me speak – you can hear a pin drop!

Takeaways for my upcoming Hebrew lessons:

•Start slowly and don’t push too hard.  Don’t expect (hardly any) output.

•Limit the input.  Short, in-bounds sentences and questions.

•Predictability and structure, especially important for younger groups.

•Inject humor with props, funny images, costume elements, etc.  This lowers anxiety (i.e., The Affective Filter).

•Observe closely:  Change it up when attention flags.  Outta the chairs and Move, Move, Move!