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Yeshivat Nefesh Shokekah

Curriculum Project on Sefer Bereshit

Ely Matalon & Matti Blackman
Yeshiva University
Curriculum and Assessment SP14
Professor Dr. Jeffrey Glanz
May 11, 2014

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I. Context
1. Grade Level: 11th Grade Girls

2. Content Area: Humash - Sefer Bereshit

Selected narratives from the sefer that facilitate higher order thinking in terms of concepts
and life lessons, as well as developed textual skills.

3. Educational Setting: Modern Orthodox yeshivah girls high school

4. Student Composition:
Generally: There exists a variance in skill levels among the grade, in large part due to varying
degrees of strength in the Hebrew language.
Entry Skills: Students are proficient in textual reading comprehension, including identifying
and breaking down words grammatically.
Also, they have basic Rashi reading and comprehension skills, and a familiarity
with other commentaries.
Lacking:
Students generally lack the ability to independently identify nuances in the text
which motivate the explanations of the Commentators.

5. Curriculum Team: Limude Kodesh principal, curriculum specialist, department head, and 2
teachers rotating every two months.

6. Time and Place:

Meetings will take place once per week in the conference room, during an
agreed upon scheduled time, sometime after Humash classes meet.
The team assesses the effectiveness of the planned curriculum to that point, and uses feedback to adjust approaches to upcoming units.
Monthly, the entire Humash department meets to share successes, pitfalls and suggestions.
Decisions are made whether to adjust knowledge and skills benchmarks.

7. Theory:
The curriculum will be structured according to the UBD model. Overriding goals and enduring
ideas will initiate every humash unit, followed by the benchmarks that will carry out these
goals.
Formative assessments will then be devised which will serve as the barometers to measure

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success of student learning and skills proficiency. The process will culminate with designing
learning activities and instruction which align with the unit goals and assessments.
The curriculum will also utilize certain aspects of the Dewey curriculum model. Specifically,
as we will be emphasizing skills based and independent learning, our lesson plans will include
creating environments of collaborative learning, in which inquiry based and problem
solving exercises will be practiced.
Additionally, certain units will culminate with authentic learning features, which will prompt
students to conceive of practical applications from the unit, and glean real life lessons.

8. Outside Resources: Text of Mikraot Gedolot, the curriculum, a supplementary source

booklet, a worksheet booklet which aligns with the assessments, and a smart board or
projector.

II. Needs Assessment

1. Current State of Curriculum:
Currently, the curriculum divides the text into one unit of learning per parasha. These units
include the quantity of text to be covered (pesukim) as well as which Commentaries to use.
The focus of learning is generally more concept based and less text based.
The current curriculum map does not include standards and benchmarks, or any advance
planned assessments.
Teachers currently have minimal guidance in their lesson planning and lack end goals upon
which to focus their instruction.
The general approach to curriculum and instruction is inconsistent from class to class.
Currently, no progression exists from one grade level to the next in student learning abilities
and skills.

2. Challenges:
1. Scheduling, coordinating and investing the time into numerous periodic, curriculum team meetings.
2. Creating a curriculum that does not present too much of a content overhaul, rather
synthesizes some of the current curriculum content.
3. Creating a curriculum that incorporates text based learning, skills goals, and appropriate assessments.
4. General faculty and student buy-in with curricular changes.

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5. Soliciting financial support from the board of directors for the new initiative.
6. Preparing and training teachers for possible new multiple teaching approaches strategies.
7. Implementing the new curriculum without overburdening teacher schedules and time investments.
8a. regulating teachers to provide less frontal instruction, and promote more student input and
independent usage of the text.
8b. Regulating teachers to develop and utilize more formative assessments and to assess for learning
within the lesson context.
9. Adjusting students to a more technical textual learning mindset.
10. Maintaining a certain pace of learning and not sacrificing too much quantity for quality.
11. Fielding and dealing with parent, teacher and student pushback.

3. Opportunities:

1. An organized curriculum map will provide guidance and focus for current and future teachers in the
department, in their instructional strategies.
2. Uniform standards and benchmarks will serve to unify faculty goals, give them a common purpose and
encourage them to speak a common language.
3. Promoting communication and sharing instructional strategies among faculty, as well as assessment
results.
4. Fostering an environment of independent analysis and creative thinking.
5. Equipping students with textual skills to enable them to understand, analyze and solve textual issues.
6. Enables teachers to build upon students prior remembering and understanding skills and encourage higher
order thinking.
7. Opportunity to assess for learning and student understanding, frequently.
8. Increases the likelihood that students achieve predetermined grade-level outcomes.

III. Vision
1. Broad Inspiring Statement:

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Our Vision is for our 11 grade Humash Bereshit curriculum to transmit Jewish values, knowledge and
skills, thus ensuring that our pupils are well equipped and motivated to continue their studies and Jewish
way of life.
This class will be challenging, in-depth and focused on the development of critical Humash skills. Our
end goal is for students to be able to extrapolate questions from the text and appreciate the styles of the
different commentaries. Besides the layers of insights and understanding which students gain into the
passages of the Humash, they will leave with the priceless gift of ownership of the text and the initial
stages of becoming independent learners.
Through an in-depth examination of core themes found in Sefer Bereshit, students will discover both the
deeper meaning and the practical relevance of fundamental concepts.
In our big picture, this Humash class will provide a higher order academic and hashkafic education
through a dynamic, textual based, forwardthinking curriculum, underpinned by high quality and
inspirational teaching, which will create a passion for learning.

2. Purpose of Curriculum:

It is our hope that this 11 grade Humash curriculum will serve as a framework which facilitates the
achievement of all our schools educational goals in this subject and grade level.
We seek to align all the activities and instructional strategies of our teachers with an established set of
standards and benchmarks, and provide guidance with appropriate assessments in place which will
measure, every step of the way, the extent to which we are achieving this goal.
More specifically, this curriculum will function as a conduit to equipping our students with the Humash
learning skills which we value, and a guide for our teachers to impart these skills within the units of
learning.
It will also provide an organized approach to instilling the Torah life values and relevant life lessons into
our students.

3. Knowledge, Skills and Dispositions Valued:

Our School and curriculum team value and seek to impart upon students the textual skills which will lead
to their independent study and creative thinking in Humash.

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We aspire to enable our students to:

Be sensitive to textual nuances and ask poignant linguistic and conceptual questions. Conversely, students
will explain why a commentator offers a specific comment on a phrase in the text being studied.
Compare and contrast textual differences and similarities within the narrative of study.
Relate to and understand how various commentators arrived at their explanation of the text.
Begin to independently seek and find the answers to their questions in the writings of the commentators.
We desire for our students to attain an understanding of:

1.
2.
3.
4.

The deeper meanings embedded in Humash and the messages that they offer.
The relevant life lessons which can be gleaned from Humash study.
The chronology of events.
The historical context both within units of study and how they relate to each other.

(See Curriculum Map)

VII. Framework
Our classroom and the structure of our lessons will exist within a specifically planned framework, which
will align with our target knowledge and skills goals.

Lesson Structure:

The students will have pre-assigned alternating partners with whom they will work during group work
throughout the year.
Every unit will begin with a group work session in which partners independently analyze the scope of the
text within the new unit and make note of textual difficulties which they come across.
These questions will form the basis of class discussions and exploration of sources.
Formative assessment will be administered consistently, with some assessments given during the lesson
and others at lessons end.
Students will receive immediate feedback of their proficiency in these assessments and both teachers and
students will make the necessary adjustments.

Pedagogical Approach:

The teacher will function as a facilitator for students to independently answer questions, solve problems
and discover information.
Planned lessons will include a variety of learning activities which offer students opportunities to hone
their skills and discover their strengths.

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White board and smart board usage will be planned, structured and consistent. Teachers will often present
information in the form of graphic organizers, flow charts, tables etc., providing visual clarity for students
and summarizing their learning.
A variety of worksheets will be used in both group work and self work during class, that will direct
student independent learning and help organize and focus their efforts.
The teachers will engage every student during the course of the lesson and play to their strengths.
The teacher will circulate during group work and spend time with every pair, monitoring their progress
and providing them with guidance.

VIII. Implement / Revise

A curriculum is only as good as the will, motivation and effort of the instructors to carry it out. We will
therefore have systems in place to help assure the instructional lessons in the classroom are aligned with
the standards and benchmarks which we have set out to meet. These systems will also serve as ongoing
support for teachers in their adjustment to the new curriculum.
We expect our curriculum to require revision, editing and adjusting along the way. It therefore must
remain fluid, and we must remain open to change and provide constant opportunity for updates as it is
taught.

To create the necessary conditions for implementation and revision, incorporating the following will be
critical:

Effective communication between the various responsible parties

Regularly scheduled times allotted for this communication
Clearly defined roles and task ownership among the responsible parties
Specific predetermined performance indicators
Achievable targets and goals

Systems for implementation will include:

1. Collecting weekly instructional lesson summaries from teachers, including responses to pointed questions
regarding assessments and learning activities.
2. Bi-weekly teacher observations, including pre-observation meetings and post observation debriefings.

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3. Informal but consistent teacher coaching and support by the principal, department head, and curriculum
designer.
Systems for revision will include:
1. Monthly department meetings, which will include feedback from teachers, sharing of successes and
pitfalls, and offering of suggestions.
2. Post department meeting decisions by the curriculum team as to necessary revisions.
3. Anonymous polling and surveying of students regarding their experiences with the new curriculum.