Mission Statement of Temple Israel Religious School

The Religious School of Temple Israel is committed to teaching the essential skills of Jewish living and imparting the knowledge of our rich tradition. 

Our goal is to instill in our children a love of Judaism, a positive Jewish identity, and strong moral and ethical values.   

Through an active learning approach, we seek to engage and excite our students and their families, so together they can become more knowledgeable and committed Jews, and responsible community leaders.

Temple Israel Religious School Curriculum Overview

5767           2006-2007

James H. Dricker, Director

Through the winter months last year I worked with a curriculum review committee to identify questions, areas of concern, and topics for focus, discussion and recommendation. Concurrently, I shared the activities of the curriculum review committee with the school’s faculty and incorporated their feedback and comments into the process of curriculum review and development.

The recommendations that resulted have become part of the school’s curriculum this coming year. Specifically, we are enhancing the two areas of Hebrew reading skills and bible education.

Hebrew teaching in a supplemental school such as ours, with three and one half hours of class time a week, concentrates on the mechanics of correctly decoding the consonant and vowel sounds in multi-syllabic words, phrases and sentences. The goal is to develop the skills of fluently sounding out the words a child will encounter in the siddur (prayer book) and TaNaCh (Hebrew bible). Linguistic skills that would result in accurate translation of a Hebrew text are not the primary objective, although we do teach critical vocabulary words and important grammatical elements throughout all our grades.

Reviewing our Hebrew program at Temple Israel, we reminded ourselves of two things. First, young children learn the mechanics of Hebrew reading very quickly. Second, a large portion of instructional time, often more than fifty percent, in grades four and five is concerned with correcting, reviewing, repeating and reteaching many of the mechanical elements of reading that we assumed the children had learned in the earlier grades. If we could assure mastery of these elements by the end of grade three, then we could devote much more instructional time to other core components of Jewish education in the grades that follow.

What resulted is the design of a “bottom heavy” Hebrew program. We will be placing greater emphasis on Hebrew in the first four years of school - - grades K through 3 - - with the expectation that 90% of the students who have attended these grades will read with acceptable fluency and accuracy by the time they enter grade 4. We will devote proportionally more time to Hebrew instruction in these earlier grades. We will also rely on reinforcement and review in the home, with 15 to 30 minutes of weekly Hebrew homework assigned regularly.

What about the 10% who cannot achieve mastery, and the students who enter our school later? We have additional resources to help children catch up, to remediate difficulties, and to accommodate special circumstances. We will also work with parents to make sure that those children who need extra help, beyond what we can provide in our short week at school, will have a way to get it.

To summarize, we have refocused our Hebrew program to emphasize early mastery of the mechanics of Hebrew reading, and are reconfiguring instructional time in grades K through 3 accordingly.

Bible study is something that each grade has been doing, in one way or another, every year since I assumed the school director’s job ten years ago. What will be different this coming year is that there will be a new level of coordination from one grade to the next. The youngest children connect best to narratives and character development. Older children have the maturity to penetrate the ethical teachings, complexities of relationships, and questions of holiness. The scope and sequence reflect this.

Preschool and Kindergarten: Major stories and themes … creation, Noah,   Moses, Joseph, David, Solomon

Grade 1: Creation, holiday stories, Abraham

Grade 2: Genesis and Exodus to the Golden Calf

Grade 3:Exodus from Golden Calf through Leviticus

Grade 4: Exploring the weekly parashaot

Grade 5: Numbers and Deuteronomy

Grade 6: Prophets and Writings

Grade 7: Students study in depth the parasha and prophetic Portion of their bar or bat mitzvah Shabbat.

With this revised curriculum, we can be sure that students who leave our school after the seventh grade will know that there is more to the Hebrew bible than the books of Genesis and Exodus.