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[ysusskind]

Dear Mechanchim/mechanchos, I'm looking for advice regarding the goals for chumah in 6th grade boys cheder. Any advice would be greatly apreciated.

Thanks,

YS

[yaichenbaum]

A vital skill to teach is vocabulary.  If the children can recognize shorashim, then they do not have to use up there active working memory on translation and they can focus on concepts.  Vocabulary acquisition can be done in a fun way without sacrificing much precious classroom time.  You can contact me for information about how to do this at yaakov@ybm.edu.

[batrot]

as the other mechanech said, the main thing is for the children to recognize shoroshim, pre and suffixes. The problem is if each class teacher works individually, and not as a team in the school. Lots of time gets wasted by teachers teaching the same shoroshim the kids have covered in earlier yrs. what we found helpful in our school was a uniform approach for all classes. in the translation sheets (which the children took home too), the shoroshim which are being taught are highlighted. the next yr, those which have been taught are marked, but only the new ones are highlighted. in this way we do revision but manage to teach new shoroshim without wasting time. since we have started this approach we have made much quicker progress in teaching chumash. the children also find it a thrill to recognize shoroshim, and one can do the whole thing in an exciting way. if you want more info you can email me on battylop@yahoo.co.uk. hatzlocho

[rdraiman]

Rabbi Hillel Mandel has a wonderful approach to teaching Chumash he calls "D.R.ASH. E.M.ET. H.ASHEM which should be including in lessons plans each week.

daled - dikduk
raish - rashi
shin - shorashim

aleph - unkelus
mem - mikra (as in taamei hamikra, such as esnachta is a period, rivii is  a pause, kadma v'azla tells you the word goes with the next as a phrase, etc)
taf - Tochen (content, story and understanding of what transpired)

Hay - Hashkafa (mussar, lessons, divrei torah, inspiration, etc)


***We also found that summarizing each pasuk is a very important skill 6th graders should be developing.  Having the rebbe guide students to formulate summaries and refine them together is a very important skill.  It also lends itself very well to chazara and webbing out from main subjects and groups of psukim.