Lesson for Yom Yerushalim!

I use this text and the simple question below for a end of lesson - homework on Yom Yerushalim, which falls today and at my son's school which is in the Rova also tomorrow.  Happy Yom Yerushalim! 

Rachael Orbach 

The Seven Gates and The Six Day War
For nearly twenty years, Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, was a
divided city. The new city was part of Israel. The Old City was
controlled by the Arabs. The Israelis were not allowed to enter it.
One day, in 1967, war broke out in Israel. The soldiers of Israel
fought bravely and won great victories. This war lasted six-days, so
it was called the Six-Day War. When the soldiers reached the Old City
of Jerusalem they looked at the huge wall around it. They looked at
the eight gates (seven are open, one is closed). They did not know
which gate to go through to enter the Old City. Each gate begged, one
louder than the other, "Come in through me!"

Even G-d could not decide. The angel Michael said, "G-d in Heaven, let
each gate speak and explain why it should be chosen. Then you will
decide which gate is the most worthy and through which gate the
soldiers will enter." G-d thought this was an excellent idea.
The Jaffa Gate spoke first. "I am a very strong: no wind can blow over
me. The tower of David stands near me."
The Shechem Gate (Damascus Gate) was second. "I am the biggest and the
most beautiful of all the gates."
The Zion Gate spoke third. "I am hurt and broken from all the fighting
around me, but my name is the name of the Holy City - Zion."
The Dung Gate was fourth. "For centuries, Jerusalem’s garbage was
thrown on me, but I don’t care. The Western Wall is next to me. I help
it with words of hope when it is sad."
The Flower Gate spoke fifth. "Let the soldiers enter through me and
I’ll give them flowers."
The sixth voice was The New Gate. "I am the smallest and the newest. I
try to fight off the Arabs. Maybe the soldiers will enter through me
and help me."
Next the seventh gate, The Golden Gate(Mercy Gate), shouted. "Master
of the Universe, you promised that the Jews would return to the Temple
Mount in Jerusalem through me." The angels said the Golden Gate can
only be opened when the Messiah comes.
The eighth and last gate was silent. "Speak" G-d said.
The Lion’s Gate spoke softly. "My heart is breaking at all the
fighting. It doesn’t  matter through which gate the soldiers enter as
long as the fighting is stopped."
G-d and the angels whispered among themselves. Then G-d spoke, turning
to The Lion’s Gate. "You care more for the lives of the soldiers than
you do for your own honor. The soldiers of Israel will enter the Old
City through you.
The soldiers passed through The Lion’s Gate and freed the city. At the
Western Wall, they blew the shofar. Everyone then knew that the gates
of the Old City were open and Jerusalem was united once again.

                Taken from The Six-Days and the Seven Gates
                                by Yitzhak Navon




Gate    What did the gate say?

1,

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Learning Music can Increase School performance

Learning music can increase school performance. The discipline that learning a musical instrument such as the clarinet, saxophone, flute, mandolin, recorder or guitar teaches that even though a task may seem hard at first, the more that you work on it the better you become. Each step can be very small, but at the end of six months or a year of practicing every day for a half an hour, the student shows tremendous improvement in the physical ability to play the instrument as well as a profound increase in musical understanding. These abilities can carry over to the student's school work. This means that instead of thinking about music as an extra activity that takes time away from school work learning a musical instrument adds more value to school work.

Rachael Orbach

For more information: a free pdf report, and to schedule a music lesson 

call 058-750-0608

rachaelalice@gmail.com 

Lesson Plan to use at the end of the year Mind Matters Text book

I have  used Mind Matter from Eric Cohen for many years.  I have to keep updating myself with this book and come up with new ways of presenting the lessons and using the material in the book.  Here is a lesson plan that I use to finish Unit 3.  Good Luck! 

Rachael Orbach 

Lesson Plan Outline

Level: Intermediate 3rd Stage      Grade 8th          Date May 24

Lesson 4  This is a double class period lesson to finish the unit.

Domains:

Access to Information,  Presentation and Appreciation of Literature and Culture

Benchmarks:

Understand the structure and conventions of a trivia quiz.

Use additional information tools, such as reference and the Internet.

Present information taken from different sources.

Materials: Mind Matters course book, Extra paper, writing materials.

Stage:

Set Induction:  5 minutes

Teacher asks the class:

What is a trivia quiz? We turn to page 65 in the course book, and do the quiz out loud as a game with two teams.

Practice:  15  minutes

Pair work: The students use the Internet and encyclopedias to make up 20 musical questions.  The students write their questions and answers in their notebooks.

Production:  15 minutes

 The same two teams that were used in the beginning of class now play 20 questions with the trivia questions that the pairs of students wrote.  Points are awarded to the side that answers in the shortest time period.

Each pair in the class takes turns running the game. 

Closure 5 minutes

Homework is given: Students write 5 sentences about the most interesting trivia fact from their own questions and hand in the work the next class meeting.

The short vowel u

Rachael Orbach  - this is background why it is difficult for Israeli children to pronounce the short u sound. 

The Problem With The Vowel Short U.

This vowel can be hard to pronounce by Israeli children because it doesn’t exist in Hebrew.  The Hebrew vowels are

 אִ     אּוּּ      אוֹ.     אֵ    אֶ    אָ 

The pronounciations of these vowels are:

[ i:]        /a:/     /e/      /ei/                            /u:/

There are many more vowels in English.   The vowel short u, most Israelis pronounce as as Hirik, [ i:]

This vowel u   pronounced as : / ә/   appears in the word mother, and the color rusty.  In the word rusty ,  [rәstı:]  sometimes it is pronounced  “ risty” [rıstı:]. 

The way to pronounce the vowel   /ә/ is as follows: 

The mouth is opened,  the tongue is placed on the bottom of the mouth, the throat is opened.  This is a open-mid vowel. 

Practise with the vowel /ә/ 

First I will say two words, and you will have to tell me which vowel I am saying.

We will choose   the vowel [ i:]  and the vowel  /ә/

Bit                                burr                             

Pit                                purr

Mitt                              murmur

Sit                                summer

Now you will practice saying the two words in our list.

Now say more words with the vowel /ә/

Rusty                            Humble                        Hush                            Hunt    

Roughhouse                  Gymnasium                   Gumshoe                      Mother

Run                              Fun                              Father                          Hydration

Serve                           Sesame                        Trunk                           Villager

Make up your own words with the vowel   /ә/

                         

Ai worksheet

 

I use this when I am teaching privately.  

I read the words and then have the student figure out the sound of ai with the different words. 

Name________________________                Date_________________________

Ai   worksheet

Say these words to your neighbor and translate:  

תגיד המילים ותרגם לעברית

to paint __________________                                     rain_______________

red hair___________________                                    jail________________

to wait for the train______________                             a chair ____________

Match the rhyming words:  

להתאים את המילים החרוזים 

1. jail                 crazy

2. rain                     mail

3.wait                bare

4. hair                           train

5. Daisy                 hate

                                  talk

השלימו את המשפטים

Complete the sentences:

1.It's late.  I can't _________ for you.(want, wait)

2. The robber is in ____________ .(jail, jam)

3. Sit on this______________. (hair, chair)

4. There are clouds in the sky.  It is going to

_________. (train, rain)

Match the rhyming words

להתאים את המילים החרוזים 

play                say

walk              toot

wait                   phone

saxophone         date   

flute             talk 

What does the ay letters say?  Say ay  What does a say? Say a.  

Fill in the missing letters: ay or a  

השלימו את האותיות החסרות.

W____t for me!  I can't.  I'm going out to pl _ at the

p__rk.  I want to pl___ b__ll too! 

Ok, come with me.  I'll w___t. 

How to teach word order in English to young children

 Word Order or Syntax 

How to teach it to young children

Rachael Orbach

Syntax is word order.  This essay will help teachers to teach the proper word order to their students.

The difference between  Hebrew speakers as compared to  English speakers shows up very early in the language learning of English.

Because language is structure dependant, the student must understand where each part of speech appears in each language. 

In Hebrew, the adjective appears after a noun, whereas in English the adjective goes before the noun in a sentence. In the following sentence:  I have a green pencil, the adjective green is before the noun pencil.   In Hebrew, יש לי עיפרון ירוק  , the adjective is ירוק   appears after the noun עיפרון .  

The difference between Hebrew and English in adjective, noun placement causes many Hebrew speakers problems.  One of these might be that students might not even know the parts of speech.  The students speaks and says the native language without being aware of why what he is saying is correct.   The students might not know the native grammar before they are being taught a new language with a different grammar.

1. Ask the students the words for everyday objects:

Pen, sweater, desk, backpack

2. A person, place or thing is called a noun.

3. Ask the students to say something about the pen, sweater or the backpack.

4. Green pen, red sweater, small desk, large backpack

5. These words that tell something about the nouns are adjectives.

6. Ask the students to put the two words together.

7.  this explaining word is an adjective and it goes before the noun, whereas in Hebrew the adjective goes after the noun.

 One way to reinforce this idea is to read a book to the class, I have chosen, is Mary Wore Her Red Dress, by James Cross Giblin.   Each page has a different noun and a different adjective.  The students then can add different adjectives, instead of colors, small, short, long, big, little can be used and sung in the song. 

Book Review of Teacher Man

Teacher Man by Frank McCourt


By Rachael Orbach

Here they come.

Oh boy, that's exactly how I feel each and every one of my classes that I teach. Not
ready? Well, I've prepared a lesson according to how I've been taught, to have
different activities for the 50 minutes. But the students saunter in five minutes after
the bell. They then have to find their books, and finally they can learn.

Frank McCourt expresses what I feel. Well, the events that he describes didn't happen
to me, I teach in a boys school. I would never eat a student's sandwich, or talk about
sheep the way he did. I teach in a religious school after all.

I have had my eraser thrown at me. I didn't catch it. I brought a bell to class, I got
laughed at. Then I brought a castanet. That got a bit more response. The best thing
I've found is to go around with the grade book, and record a zero when the students
are misbehaving. "Ok, Yossi, thank you that earns you a zero for today." Then the
students put away their cards, or backgammon game, turn around and pay attention.

He finally finds his place in teaching by telling stories. The students are so smart that
they head Mr. McCourt off at the pass by asking him about his life. He can't resist.
So he colors his teaching with stories about his life, and that gets him into trouble.
He doesn't have a firm border between his life and his teaching. Is this what
characterizes all new teachers?

Everyone has to learn their own style of teaching. Mr. McCourt's style seems to be
very informal. Maybe it has to do with his own personality and background.

I would like to read the rest of the book. This taste was not enough. This was about a 15 page extract