TEACHING CHUMASH
12th Grade Chumash Unit
In this artifact, I've included a 12th Grade Chumash unit on Parshat Vayeshev. This unit includes:
Overall course goals.
3 Unique Lessons with goals and assessments.
A reflection on my experiences designing this unit.
Reflection and Response:
As with any other class, clarifying my goals was just about the most important thing I did when preparing my Chumash course as a whole, and when preparing individual lessons. I was able to break down my course goals into:
(1) Peshat (understanding of storyline, textual skills in reading and translating pesukim, understanding context of pesukim)
(2) Mefarshim (reading, translating, comparing/contrasting, identifying questions, understanding each one’s mission)
(3) Connection (considering personal response and connection to topics).
I felt, especially through the units on teaching mefarshim and teaching skills, that I was able to grasp what good goals and lessons look like for the first two course aims. Based on the unit I learned in my Teaching Chumash course at Azrieli on Connection, I used that as one of my goals. I was sold on the importance of students connecting to the material and personally engaging with it. However, it is one that I struggle with the most. I feel confident including connection questions and discussions, but I find it a difficult goal to actually measure achievement. I still kept it as a goal and incorporated it into my lessons because I feel that it’s important, I’m just not sure how to measure it in a way that is true.
In order to be most productive, a Chumash class has to first have goals, for the teacher so she knows where she wants to go, and for the students to have a sense of purpose and achievement.
Second, the class needs to be welcoming to all learners. In that regard, I tried to balance work on skills and textual analysis with discussions and connection ideas. I also tried to (at least mentally) place an emphasis on a safe classroom environment where students feel comfortable sharing their ideas and trying out new skills.
Third, the class needs to be an active center of learning. I appreciated the principles of Chavruta learning and the different active learning strategies that were modeled in the Teaching Chumash class at Azrieli. I found this natural to incorporate in a chumash class since the traditional method of learning is an active one, full of question and answer, chavruta work, and analysis.
Fourth, the class needs a rhythm to help the students know what to expect and to help the class run smoothly. To that extent, writing pesukim on the board (so the students know where to turn), preparing the students at the end of class for the following class, having a methodology for learning Rashi and Ramban, references to take the girls through the year (most common verbs list, for example), and a set (or rotating) chavruta to work with can help the students learn and know what they will be learning.