Important work! I’d be interested to learn further what Hebrew language instructors in Jewish educational settings can learn from their public school counterparts in terms of pedagogical methods and approaches, and vice versa. I imagine, especially, that teaching Hebrew to students with no touch points with the language outside of the school (e.g., non-Jews who may never otherwise encounter the language liturgically, on a trip to Israel, etc.) will suggest strategies that might enhance teaching Hebrew to kids where the assumption is that they do have at least one or more other touch points with the language, though in fact they may not. I look forward to future work in this area.
When I was a student at both Erasmus Hall H.S. and Brooklyn College, I took Hebrew as a language requirement, although I had studied Hebrew at an afternoon Hebrew school and afternoon Hebrew high school. The approach at both these secular schools focused on the language, not the religious focus, which was interesting to and for me, and gave me another dimension for studying and learning Hebrew, which greatly added to my base of knowledge.
One side benefit was that I learned vocabulary terms, i.e., noun, pronoun, etc. in Hebrew before I studied these same words in English in a secular school.
Rebekah Sobelsays
You could also consider looking at afterschool programming, like MoEd– http://www.moedcommunity.org/– while in Hebrew and advertised as Jewish programming, is an open choice of afterschool programming for kids in public schools.
Important work! I’d be interested to learn further what Hebrew language instructors in Jewish educational settings can learn from their public school counterparts in terms of pedagogical methods and approaches, and vice versa. I imagine, especially, that teaching Hebrew to students with no touch points with the language outside of the school (e.g., non-Jews who may never otherwise encounter the language liturgically, on a trip to Israel, etc.) will suggest strategies that might enhance teaching Hebrew to kids where the assumption is that they do have at least one or more other touch points with the language, though in fact they may not. I look forward to future work in this area.
When I was a student at both Erasmus Hall H.S. and Brooklyn College, I took Hebrew as a language requirement, although I had studied Hebrew at an afternoon Hebrew school and afternoon Hebrew high school. The approach at both these secular schools focused on the language, not the religious focus, which was interesting to and for me, and gave me another dimension for studying and learning Hebrew, which greatly added to my base of knowledge.
One side benefit was that I learned vocabulary terms, i.e., noun, pronoun, etc. in Hebrew before I studied these same words in English in a secular school.
You could also consider looking at afterschool programming, like MoEd–
http://www.moedcommunity.org/– while in Hebrew and advertised as Jewish programming, is an open choice of afterschool programming for kids in public schools.