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We are excited to be partnering with the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL), by implementing their education program starting with the 2009 – 2010 school year. We will be joining a thirteen state regional network of other southern Jewish congregations that are using this three part program which provides a curriculum, a conference, and an education fellow to enhance and support southern religious schools.
This curriculum begins with Early Childhood and goes through to the 10th grade is spiraled, meaning that different Jewish content areas are covered in different years and are repeated at increasing levels of sophistication. The lessons include activities adapted to different learning styles to meet the needs of each student, ensuring that all students have a positive educational experience. The curriculum includes a common body of Jewish knowledge that is presented by a very innovative delivery system.
During the school year, each community is visited several times by ISJL Educators and Education Fellows. The Education Fellow will not only help to implement the curriculum through the year but will plan two programmatic weekend visits to provide a variety of services, including teacher enrichment programming, classroom activities, holiday celebrations, text study sessions, and adult education programs.
The ISJL Jewish Studies curriculum is a spiraled curriculum in which students revisit key content areas with increasing sophistication as they progress through the curriculum. The curriculum is developmentally appropriate.
The Curriculum Content Areas are as follows: (some variation by grade)
- Community
- Culture & Symbols
- God
- Hebrew & Prayer
- Israel
- Jewish History
- Jewish Holidays
- Jewish Lifecycle Events
- Mitzvot & Jewish Values
- Tanach (Torah, Prophets, and Writings)
Hebrew Studies:
Our Hebrew program begins at Kindergarten and continues through bar / bat mitzvah age. In the early grades (Kinder – 3rd grade), the emphasis will be on learning Hebrew letters and becoming familiar and comfortable with the Alef-Bet. Later in 3rd grade, students will begin to decode short sequences of letters that form words or sounds.
Beginning in the fourth grade, there is a transition from learning the foundations of Hebrew to concentrating on tefillah (prayer) which is the most practical use of Hebrew for our students. In addition to being able to read and explain each prayer, students will gain an understanding of the overall design of Jewish worship. In addition, some Modern Hebrew skills will also be introduced.
In the 6th grade bar / bat mitzvah class students will apply their Hebrew skills to learn Haftarah and Torah trope. In addition, appropriate blessings and prayers will be taught that students will need for their bar / bat mitzvah.
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