Writing a Chumash Curriculum?

Points to Ponder

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Key Issues for the Teaching of Chumash

1. What are my learning goals and how will I achieve them?
   Do I have any goals outside my basic learning outcomes?  e.g. motivating, exciting the children, imbuing Yirat Hashem and Ahavat haTorah?
   
   
2. How do I intend to achieve these?
   
   
3. What balance do I want between covering breadth and depth, respectively?
   
   
4. How do I want to teach Dikduk (Grammar)?  'Text out' or 'Dikduk in'?  ('Text out' refers to approaches which primarily draw grammatical lessons out of the text, as the text is studied; 'Dikduk in' refers to where Dikduk is taught in the abstract, with workbooks, etc., with links then made back to the text.)  You may prefer a mix of the two approaches.
   The next question is most relevant for those teaching primarily 'Dikduk in.'
   
   
5. How am I going to teach Dikduk so that it supports and enhances my teaching of text, rather than it seeming to be a separate and abstract discipline?
   
   
6. How am I going to assess the pupils' learning?
   
   
7. Am I going to mix formative assessment, e.g. daily, during lessons, and summative assessment, e.g. at the end of a block of text / period of time?
   
   
8. Do I want to employ conventional methods of assessment, e.g. oral / written tests and / or less conventional methods, e.g. monitoring and noting pupil participation in group work, class critiques of pupil presentations, pupil self-assessments, parental assessments of home review tasks, etc.
   
   
9. Can I make effective traditional learning styles even more effective by combining them with fresh approaches?
   
   
10. How will I balance:

• textual and contextual
• oral and written
• instructional and pupil directed
• new and review
• text and peirush
• peshat and drash
• conventional and creative styles
• 'inside' (focusing directly on the Chumash text) and 'outside'  (anything that supports the 'inside')
  

11. How will I challenge the stronger pupils and support the less strong pupils?
    
    
12. How will I elicit pupils' own ideas and draw on their personal experience in order to make Chumash meaningful and relevant to them?
    
    
13. What resources are available to support the kind of learning that I want to achieve?
    
    
14. Can I use any technologies (OHP, PC, audio cassettes, etc.) to support my teaching?
    
    
15. Do I want pupils to do any work at home?  What kind of work?  Will it require parental support and is such available in this area?