Third Grade- Ivrit Curriculum

Context:
Type of school: Orthodox Day School in the Five Towns
Age of students: 8-9 year old heterogeneous girls.
Grade Level: Third
Class Meets: Daily, four days a week for 30 minute sessions.
Content Area: Ivrit/ Lashon
Curriculum Development Team: Principal, all third grade Ivrit teachers, one
senior second grade teacher. One of third grade teachers will be made the leader of
the team, to be called Curriculum Advisor.
Time and Place of Meetings: The team will meet once a week before class
begins for half an hour. We will start off by working on basics in sentence structure
and composition.
The curriculum leader will present organized material that that he/she has
prepared on his/her own time. The team will also meet once a month during the
school year for a more comprehensive review of the curriculum and its
implementation.
Duration: 6 months (from after Sukkot until Rosh Chodesh Nissan and continues
after Pesach until the end of the year).
What theory is guiding this curriculum? Our curriculum is modeled using
Ralph Tylers Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction. We will be following his
four fundamental questions in designing this Ivrit curriculum. They are:
1. What educational purposes should the school seek to attain in teaching and
using the Hebrew language?
2. What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to attain these
purposes?
3. How can these educational experiences be effectively organized?
4. How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained?
Current State of Curriculum: There is a loose idea of what should be covered in
third grade. The categories within Ivrit listed on the report cards and cumulative
record cards show what is expected to be covered.

What challenges exist?

There is no formal curriculum.

Hebrew is a second language to most of our students.
Due to lack of standard benchmarks and formal assessments it is difficult to
determine the childrens prior knowledge.
Since there are parallel classes on each grade level and lack of horizontal
alignment, different educators have emphasized different things.
All of the above has resulted in gaps in student knowledge
This curriculum will help articulate appropriate goals, benchmarks, activities
and assessments for each subject.

An additional challenge is motivating teachers to cooperate with a new curriculum.

This is due to the following factors:

Teachers are comfortable with the curriculum and units they have covered
for years in their own classrooms. They have developed these units
themselves and therefore are attached to them.
It is difficult to organize meetings at a time convenient for all teachers which
does not interfere with their personal schedules and classroom needs.

Opportunity: There is an opportunity to develop a formal curriculum that is

aligned and that will help continuity of the learning experiences from one grade to
another. It is also an opportunity to unify the teachers in their collaboration efforts.
Additionally, teachers will be more motivated to implement the curriculum once
they are on board and have invested time and effort to create the curriculum.
What decisions went into making this map? We decided to make this map as
a way of solidifying exactly what needs to be covered in Ivrit and how the
curriculum will be taught and assessed. Ivrit is multi-faceted. Vocabulary, dikduk,
sentence structure, oral expression, written expression, auditory and reading
comprehension are all components of language development.
Value: Once students gain proficiency in Ivrit, they will be able to apply these
skills to the learning of Tanach, Torah Shebaal peh, and understanding tefillah.
Vision Statement:
We envision our students fluent in the usage and
comprehension of the Hebrew language. This will enable them become
comfortable Hebrew speakers and will help them grow in their understanding of
Tanach, Torah SheBaal Peh and Tefillah.
Purpose of Curriculum: It is our goal that each third grade student will be able
to:

Converse in simple Hebrew.

3

Read and understand age appropriate Hebrew selections.

Write grammatically correct sentences and short paragraphs in Hebrew.

Standards:

Students will be able to simulate an every-day conversation in Hebrew.

Students will be able to read the passages in the third grade level of
and demonstrate comprehension through answering oral and written
questions.
Students will be able to compose sentences and paragraphs using given
word banks.
Using the appropriate prefixes and suffixes learned, students will be able to
conjugate verbs, maintaining tense as well as subject.

Resources:
The educational philosophy and mission statement of the school along with
classroom worksheets and booklets prepared by the teachers in conjunction with
the Curriculum Advisor. Text used will be 2 - as a guide for
vocabulary and reading comprehension.
Understanding skills

The student will apply their learned knowledge of Hebrew to communicate in

Hebrew.
The students will demonstrate understanding of skills and Hebrew usage by
having opportunities to act as the Morah and conduct classroom reviews.
The students will demonstrate their understanding of the learned skills
through their classroom involvement and participation. In addition, weekly
exit cards and rubrics will be distributed to the children for self evaluation.
Cumulative worksheets and workbooks will be reviewed at the end of each
unit.

Assessments (in class and Homework)

Assessment will include basic knowledge questions and performance activities
incorporating the different levels of Blooms Taxonomy;
Knowledge: Questions on basic skills and units of what was learned each day.
Comprehension: Example: drawing a picture depicting vocabulary words or a
scene in the story.
Application: Example: based on what we learned today, how would you welcome
a Hebrew speaking guest in your home.
Analysis: Example: Based on the following passage, when did this story happen?
(past or present or ).
4

Synthesis: Example: Based on the story that we read today, can you write two
sentences to end it differently?
Evaluation: Example: Fix the following sentences to make it be grammatically
correct.

Learning is assessed daily in lesson work. Assessments will include

both written and oral work to guide students and help lead to
achieving the content and skill goals.
This will be done through
teacher developed worksheets, games, songs, and a variety of
modalities.
Journal writing daily
Student written sentences and paragraphs about specific topics.
Student self evaluations of their classroom involvement and
participation during the learning process. This will be through student
interviews and individual student ratings (or the like, for example, red
light, green light cards) which act as a rubric for this measure.
Workbooks and worksheets will be reviewed by teacher on weekly
basis and collected for cumulative portfolio.

Implement/Revise:
The purpose of this curriculum assessment is to judge the extent of which students
are performing according to the objectives by the current curriculum. This will be
useful in making future decisions for revision of the curriculum.
Teachers will be asked to fill in a short questionnaire about the curriculum:
1. Is the teacher aware of the goals of the current curriculum?
2. Does the teacher understand (and agree with) the criteria for the present
curriculum?
3. Does the curriculum (seem to) meet the objectives?
4. Does the teacher feel that there is room for innovation and change in the
curriculum?
5. Does the teacher feel that the curriculum is planned partly based on the
needs and interests of the students?
6. Does the teacher feel that the program meets the needs and interests of
the students?
7. Does the teacher feel that a variety of teaching methods are being used?
8. Does the teacher feel that the administration and teachers representing
various levels meet regularly to discuss curriculum practices?
9. Does the teacher feel that there are interrelationships between the
components of the Hebrew curriculum or are they taught in isolation?
10. Does the teacher feel that there are real problems with the current
curriculum?
5

Also, a brief survey for the students (to be designed) to find out whether they feel
that their (the students) needs are being met. This will include questions wherein
the students assess on a 1-5 scale their learning experience.
After the data on the current curriculum has been gathered and reviewed, there
will be meetings with the curriculum team to:
1. Add/change existing objectives.
2. Evaluate if revisions fit into time, facility, financial or other limitations.
There will be continual evaluations of curriculum with regular surveys and
meetings using similar questions as above.
STANDARD

BENCHMARKS

ASSESSMENTS

Weeks 1 & 2

Oral Expression (OE)

Begin simple
conversational Hebrew
Vocabulary (VOC) seasons and weather.
Ques words
Dikduk (dkdk)- review

Reading
Comprehension (RC) Read a story in the book
and demonstrate
comprehension.
Written Expression
(W.E.) Review of writing
the Hebrew letters
correctly and neatly

OE teacher will engage

student in a simulated
telephone conversation
answering basic questions
as delineated in
Benchmarks.
DKDK Complete
Worksheets
RC-Answering oral and
written questions
W.E. Write the morning
message correctly and
neatly in the Hebrew
Journal

Weeks 3 & 4

OE/VOC - family
members, numbers.
Ques words
Dkdk -review and add

R.C.- Read a story in the
book and demonstrate
comprehension.
W.E. Copying over
coherent sentences
written in Hebrew.

OE- students will be able to

answer question in full
sentences
about
their
name, where they live and
the weather
Dkdk Students will be
able to conjugate verbs in

R.C.-Students will be able

to follow as teacher reads a
story with the class. "
"Students will be able
to answer questions based
on the story.
pages 7-9
W.E. student will be able
to copy from board the
date, weather and hwk. in
journal.
VOC students will master
the learned voc.
DKDK students will be
able to list and translate
each of the
R.C.-Students will be able
to follow as a story is read
by the class. " "
page 10-11 Students will
be able to answer questions
based on the story. (page
12-14)
W.E. Collaborative class
expression
and
teacher
writing
(on
board
or
expression
chart)
of
morning

to
include in daily entries in

OE/VOC matching
games, teacher
worksheets.
DKDK Replacing proper
nouns with pronouns.
Continued review of
with occasional worksheets
RC-Answering oral and
written questions
W.E. Write the morning
news correctly and neatly
in the Hebrew Journal.
Student participation in
the collaborative effort.

Weeks 5 & 6

OE/VOC action words

related to family
members and their daily
activities

DKDK Review of

R.C.- Read a story in the

book and demonstrate
comprehension.
W.E. Writing sentences
about family members.

Weeks 7 & 8

OE student will be able

to engage in a 1 minute
conversation in Hebrew
DKDKConjugate

using
R.C. - Read a story in the
book and demonstrate
comprehension.
W.E. Writing sentences
about family members.

journal.
VOC students will master
the learned voc.
DKDK Students will be
able
to
classify
singular/plural, male/female
pronouns
R.C. Students will be able
to read and translate on
their own " "pp.20-21
Students will be able to
answer questions based on
the story. (pp.22-25)
W.E. Student will be able
to write 2 sentences about
what
family
members
typically do.
OE student will be able to
relate who is in their family.
DKDK: Student will be able
to conjugate using

R.C. - Students will be able

to read and translate on
their own " "
page 26. Students will be
able to answer questions
based on the story. (pp.2730)
W.E. Student will be able
to write 4 sentences about
what
family
members
typically do.

Weeks 9 11 OE/VOC body parts, VOC students will master

(includes
Chanukah
vacation)

clothing. Ques words

DKDK introduce
R.C. - Read a story in the
book and demonstrate
comprehension.
W.E.

Answering
questions about what we
wear on which parts of
our
bodies
and
in
different weathers.

Weeks 12 & OE/VOC action words

related to clothing
13
Review colors.

the learned voc.

DKDK Student will be able
to differentiate between
and words.
R.C. - Students will be able
to follow as the story "
" pp. 31-32 is read
by the class. Students will
be able to answer questions
based on the story. (pp.3336)
W.E. Student will be able
to
answer
questions
regarding clothing.
VOC students will master
the learned voc.
DKDK student will be able

OE/VOC students will

answer
oral
questions
related to family and can
describe to a class partner
a family from a given
picture.
DKDK Have students
draw pictures depicting the

R.C. - Answering oral and
written questions. Filling
out comic strip based on
story.
W.E. Students include a
sentence about a family
member in their journal on
two different days.
OE student will show
and tell their own family
from a self designed family
tree or family photos.
DKDK: Fill in the correct
verb in simple sentences in
which the subject is a
pronoun.
RC - Answering written
questions. Creating a
poster that depicts the
story including labels of
the in the story,
W.E. Students include a
sentence about a family
member in their journal on
four different days and
include a corresponding
illustration.
OE/VOC matching
games,
teacher
worksheets
DKDK game
R.C. Answering written
questions in workbook.
Creating a small skit in
which they act out the
morning scene from the
story and narrate the
scene in .
W.E. Students include a
sentence in their journal
describing her dress on
two different days.
OE/VOC students will
answer
oral
questions
related to clothing and can

Dkdk Review of ,
using the words and

R.C. - Read a story in

the
book
and
demonstrate
comprehension.
W.E. Writing sentences
about
what
family
members wear in various
scenarios.

to choose the correct tense

of the word in a sentence.
R.C. - Students will be able
to follow as the story "
" pp. 37-40 is read
by the class. Students will
be able to answer questions
based on the story. (pp.4141)
W.E. Student will be able
to
write
a
short,
grammatically
correct
paragraph which describes
how people are outfitted.

Weeks 14 OE students will be OE students will be able

able to engage in a 2 to describe what they are
16
(ends
at
mid
winter vacation)

minute conversation in
Hebrew
Dkdk: conjugating verbs
in singular
R.C. - Read a story in
the
book
and
demonstrate
comprehension.
W.E.

Writing
a
coherent sentence that
can be included in daily
.

Weeks 17 & OE/VOC

objects,.
18

household
Ques words

Dkdk:
continue
conjugating
verbs
in
singular
R.C. - Read a story in
the
book
and
demonstrate
comprehension.
W.E.

Answering
questions
based
on
where objects are found
in a house and who in

wearing.
Dkdk students will be
able to conjugate three
given verbs.
R.C. - Students will be able
to follow as the story "
"pp. 44-45 is read by
the class. Students will be
able to answer questions
based on the story. (pp.4748)
W.E. Students will write
their own sentence to
include in the daily
.

VOC students will master

the learned voc.
Dkdk students will be
able to conjugate any given
three letter verb that does
not end with a ""
R.C. - Students will be able
to follow as the story "
"pp. 49-51 is read by
the class. Students will be
able to answer questions
based on the story. (pp.5255)
W.E. Student will be able

relate what her classmate

is wearing (when dressed
up by teacher).
Dkdk Choosing the
correct
tense
from
a
worksheet
R.C. Students will create
their own question sheet
for other students to
answer which will include a
milim
section
and
5
content questions based
on the story.
W.E. Students include a
4-6 sentence paragraph in
their journal describing the
dress of their family as
they go to either a simcha,
on a hike, or to play in the
snow
and
include
a
corresponding illustration.
OE students will describe
the process of getting
dressed by using her own
paper doll.
Dkdk - Play hot and cold
game to review verbs they
have learned.
RC-Answering questions in
workbook. Students will
also create a poster with
labels, using the
opposites described in
the story.
W.E. Each student will
have the opportunity on
the board to write their
own sentence to include in
the daily for the
entire class to copy into
journals.
OE/VOC

matching
games,
teacher
worksheets
Dkdk

teacher
worksheets and around the
world game.
R.C.

Answering
questions in the workbook.
Writing a short essay
summarizing the story.
W.E. On two different
days, Students include 2
sentences in their journal
describing a room in their

the family uses them.

Weeks 19 OE/VOC action words

related
to
morning
21
(includes Purim
vacation)

Weeks 22 &
23

routine


Dkdk

Conjugating
verbs in plural
R.C. - Read a story in
the
book
and
demonstrate
comprehension.
W.E. Writing sentences
using all of the learned
vocabulary

OE students will be
able to engage in a 3
minute conversation in
Hebrew
Dkdk continue
conjugating verbs in
plural
R.C. - Read a story in
the
book
and
demonstrate
comprehension.
W.E. Writing a two
paragraph story using
word banks and
sequential pictures as a
guide.

to
answer
questions
regarding
household
objects.
VOC students will master
the learned voc.
Dkdk students will be
able to conjugate three
given verbs in plural
R.C. - Students will be able
to follow as the story "
"pp. 56-58 is read by
the class. Students will be
able to answer questions
based on the story. (pp.5961)
W.E. Student will be able
to write sentences with
little or no assistance using
given word banks.

OE students will be able

to describe a typical
morning routine.
DKDK student will be
able to any given three
letter verb that does not
end with a ""
R.C. - Students will be able
to follow as the story "
"pp. 122-123 is
read by the class. Students
will be able to answer
questions based on the
story. (pp.124-125)
W.E. Student will be able
to write a two paragraph
story with little or no
teacher assistance.

house.

OE/VOC students will

answer
oral
questions
related to morning routine
and can describe to a class
partner such a scenario
from a given picture.
Dkdk Students will
display
knowledge
by
showing
proper
conjugation with a wipe off
board
R.C.

Answering
questions in workbook.
Class discussion of the
story including students
answering oral questions.
W.E. Students will put
sequential picture cards in
order
and
write
appropriate captions for
each card.
OE students will put on a
play with small group of
peers that enacts a typical
morning routine.
Dkdk Students will
change sentences from
to .
R.C.

Students
will
answer questions in the
workbook. They will also fill
out a comic strip based on
the story.
W.E. Students will write a
two
paragraph
story
describing a typical home
morning
routine
that
begins with waking up and
ends with arrival in school.