Tu B’Shvat 5769

We are delighted to be sending you the first ever NETA newsletter! And what day could be more appropriate to launch the newsletter than Tu B’Shvat, the day on which we celebrate the New Year of the trees? In February 2001, exactly eight years ago, 22 educators from around North America gathered to hear about a new project called NETA. Since then, that sapling (neta) has grown into a deeply rooted tree.

We are grateful to have you all as our partners in this endeavor – and look forward to many more years of working together to nurture our students and their Hebrew knowledge.

NETA, My MP3, and Me

We all want our students to be able to speak Hebrew – and the average classroom is not the most conducive place to develop this skill. Here is where technology can help out.

Which of our students doesn’t have access to a computer, an iPod, or a digital recorder?

Teachers are capitalizing on students’ technological know-how to assign Hebrew speaking homework. A typical assignment is to speak about a topic that was first discussed in class, based on the model they heard in class. Students speak right into their recorder or computer and e-mail the assignment to their teacher.

What better way to practice speaking Hebrew and get prompt and individual feedback? We encourage all Hebrew teachers to incorporate voice recordings into their routine. Mid-unit and end-of-unit speaking tests will soon be added to assess student progress in speaking Hebrew.

Parents study NETA, too!

At the Maimonides School in Boston, a group of parents gather every Sunday afternoon to learn Hebrew via NETA. Here is what a few of the participants had to say:

Q: Why did you choose to take this Hebrew course?

-I want to make Aliya!

-I’d wanted to do this for a long time, and it seemed like a good opportunity to start now.

-I want to improve my Hebrew. I tried different courses, but none worked for me.

Q: What does it mean to you to study the same materials and in the same as way your children?

-The materials are sophisticated and varied. These are real poems – adult materials – and get us ready for the  real Israel. Also, it lets us know what the kids are really learning.

-My child is in kindergarten, but I feel it’s good to get a sense of what he’ll learn in the future. My wife and I are Israeli citizens and this connects us more to Israel. The teacher brings the curriculum to life. The material is multi-media: we hear the texts…it’s auditory, reading and speaking. I feel challenged in a good way.

-I now know how good the material is. The program is excellent, challenging to get into and understand. We learn songs by Arik Einstein, so there’s a context for learning the new words. I am impressed!

NETA Graduates Speak

Adina Polen, our correspondent in Israel, interviewed some Chicagoland Jewish High School graduates spending their post-high school year in the Nativ program in Jerusalem.

A few highlights from their talk:

Adina: What was your experience learning Hebrew via NETA?

Josh: First of all, our teacher, Giveret M., was really great. She had a big influence in bringing NETA to our school. We learned through many different mediums – There were movies that went along with the books, then we would read a book that went along with the same kind of topics, we listened to music… we had conversations that were from out of the book…It was just a lot of different ways to learn that fit all of our needs at different points in time in the class. I think it was a really good way to learn Hebrew.

Jacob: I liked that the books are themed. With the Neta book, I knew that I was going to be spending a month or two or however long focusing on “water” or focusing on nature or focusing on sports. …it teaches you a lot of things for conversational Hebrew that you would learn just existing, living in Israel.

Adina: So have you found that the Hebrew you learned in high school is making a difference in your year here?

Jacob: Well, we both [Josh and Jacob] interviewed to volunteer with Magen David Adom (Israeli Red Cross), and there were about fifty people from Nativ who interviewed. From our group, in total, about fifteen or so people got it. The interviewer was talking to me and she said, “Oh, are your parents Israeli? Where did you learn Hebrew?” And I said, I went to Jewish day school and then I went to Jewish high school for two years. And she said, “That’s the only place you learned Hebrew? How is your Hebrew so good?”

Then, getting home, I was talking to some guy on the bus, and he asked me where I was from, and I said Chicago, and he said, “No you’re not! You’re Israeli!” And I said, I promise you, I’m not Israeli, I’m from Chicago!

No but Seriously, What’s the Deal with a Book About … Furniture?

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking Book 17 is “about furniture”. Its title is מיטה ושולחן וכיסא ומנורה ( literally, “A bed and a table and a chair and a lamp”) . But by the second page, with its high quality reproduction of La chambre de Van Gogh à Arles (Van Gogh’s Room at Arles) one begins to realize the book is about much more than furniture.

Book 17 explores the idea of home in a far-reaching way. Via midrashim and poetry, songs and stories, art and theater, students think about what “home” means and how homes have changed through history, debate the right of the individual vs. family obligations in the home, and are challenged to articulate what possessions can tell you about a home’s inhabitants. They learn about animals’ homes in the natural world, read descriptions of Israeli stage sets and plan a set of their own, and learn about the symbolism of the chair as understood via the Bible, midrashim, and customs such as “Elijah’s chair”, used at brit (circumcision) ceremonies throughout Jewish history.

So why the title? These four things – מיטה ושולחן וכיסא ומנורה – conjure a cozy, welcoming room – exactly what the famous Shunamite woman prepared for the prophet Elisha so that he would have a home away from home whenever he passed through the neighborhood.

The verses in Melachim Bet (2 Kings, Ch 4, verses 8-10, trans. http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09b04.htm ) paint a beguiling picture of hospitality-

ח וַיְהִי הַיּוֹם וַיַּעֲבֹר אֱלִישָׁע אֶל-שׁוּנֵם, וְשָׁם אִשָּׁה גְדוֹלָה, וַתַּחֲזֶק-בּוֹ, לֶאֱכָל-לָחֶם; וַיְהִי מִדֵּי עָבְרוֹ, יָסֻר שָׁמָּה לֶאֱכָל-לָחֶם.	8 And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread.
ט וַתֹּאמֶר, אֶל-אִישָׁהּ, הִנֵּה-נָא יָדַעְתִּי, כִּי אִישׁ אֱלֹהִים קָדוֹשׁ הוּא–עֹבֵר עָלֵינוּ, תָּמִיד.	9 And she said unto her husband: ‘Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God, that passeth by us continually.
י נַעֲשֶׂה-נָּא עֲלִיַּת-קִיר קְטַנָּה, וְנָשִׂים לוֹ שָׁם מִטָּה וְשֻׁלְחָן וְכִסֵּא וּמְנוֹרָה; וְהָיָה בְּבֹאוֹ אֵלֵינוּ, יָסוּר שָׁמָּה.	10 Let us make, I pray thee, a little chamber on the roof; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick; and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither.’

What could be more basic than home – and yet it affords the opportunity to debate fundamental dilemmas, examine preconceptions, learn about others, and come to know more about our own culture and history.

Timely Topics

We have recently completed a document entitled “Students with Different Learning Styles: Recommendations for Hebrew Language Teaching Using the NETA program.”

Here are a few excerpts from the full text:

1. Chunking or Gradual Instruction Chunking means dividing material into appropriately sized “chunks” or “steps”. The size of the step or “chunk” is all-important. If the chunk is too small, the student will be bored. If it is too large, the student will be overwhelmed. Meticulously gradual instruction that meets the needs of a particular class or student is the keystone to successfully teach students with different learning styles.

2. Keeping Students Active A language is a dynamic, communicative body of knowledge. Students must use the language to learn it – they should be speaking, writing, reading, and listening actively during class. It is especially important to keep students with attentional issues actively engaged.

3. Authentic Language Tasks Tasks must be authentic and relevant to promote real learning. This means engaging students in situations that closely resemble “real life” and are directly connected to what they have learned before. Meaningful tasks motivate learners- rote tasks do not. For this reason, NETA materials are replete with opportunities for historical or literary analysis, moral dilemmas to discuss, math concepts, scientific ideas, and more.

Quoth the Second Language Educator

… the exchange of real information among participants is at the core of learning. … there ought to be no focus on grammar or other formal properties of language unless meaning is simultaneously in focus.”

- Bill van Patten, professor of applied linguistics and second language studies at Texas Tech University and winner of the 2007 ACTFL-NYSAFLT Anthony Paplia Award for Excellence in Teacher Education.

Quoted in The Language Educator, January 2009, p. 5.

Annual Regional Seminars

NETA’s mid-year seminars have become an institution, and more than 250 Hebrew teachers attend annually. For the fourth year, teachers from around the country gathered to meet colleagues, share ideas, sharpen their pedagogic thinking and learn new teaching methods. This year topics included cultivating speaking skills, teaching long stories, and activating vocabulary, taught through a close examination of student tests, with an eye to using test results to inform and improve teaching.

Six of seven planned seminars have been presented, and a final seminar is planned for February 15-16, in Chicago. After the seminars, teachers work with their NETA School Consultants (NSCs) on applying their new knowledge in their classes.

Development Seminar for NETA Mentors

Thirteen NETA mentors from as far away as Los Angeles and Winnipeg gathered in Boston on December 28-29 for an intensive two-day staff development seminar. Getting right down to work, they addressed issues encountered daily such as various ways to prepare lessons, giving effective feedback in person and in writing, teaching accelerated classes and more. Everyone wanted more – but all had to get back to work putting what they had learned into action!

Dates to Remember: NETA Summer Sessions 2009

Introductory Seminar for Teachers New to NETA

Intro I – June 21 – July 2

Intro II – August 3 – 13

Certificate Courses for Master Teachers and Coordinators

Part 1: July 5 – 16

Part 2: July 13 – 23

Part 3: June 21 – July 2