Tracks & Workshops

Professional Tracks

The Conference workshops are organized around four different tracks based on the following target audiences:

• Teachers in Their First Three Years: Hebrew teachers in their first three years of Hebrew language instruction
• Veteran & Credentialed Teachers: Teachers with four or more years in the field, advanced degrees in Hebrew & second language acquisition, or graduates of significant professional learning programs’
• Hebrew Leaders: Individuals responsible for managing the Hebrew department faculty and curriculum
• School Leaders: School heads, principals, board members and supporters, or other instructional leaders who work primarily outside of the Hebrew department

All Conference participants are invited to attend any of the workshops offered in any one of the tracks; however, the sessions will be designed for the specific audience of the track.

School Leaders Track 

• From Teacher Shortages to Your School’s Value Proposition: How to Move from Crisis to Success with Your Hebrew Program (Rabbi Andrew Ergas & Dr. Esty Gross)
  Research demonstrates a clear correlation between a well-articulated and supported Hebrew vision and education plan and the most central issues facing Jewish day schools: teacher retention and effectiveness, student and parent buy-in, strong student learning outcomes and attitudes and behaviors, and community leadership and philanthropic support. This lab provides a framework for clarifying six academic and affective goals common to day schools, shares a process to engage key stakeholders in making important but difficult choices regarding re-envisioning your Hebrew program given the Hebrew teacher shortage, and invites discussion on innovative solutions and strategies for talent retention.
• Pritzat Derech: A Field Initiative to Better Serve Jewish Day School Students with Dyslexia as They Launch Their Hebrew Journey (Brian Coonley, Gateways, Dr. Scott Goldberg, MaDYK, Dr. Esty Gross, Hebrew at the Center, Dr. Sarah Rubinson Levy, Pritzat Derech, Rebecca Ritter, Shefa, Rabbi Marc Wolf, Prizmah)
  Join an exciting conversation about initial findings from the discover phase of the Pritzat Derech initiative, a focused effort to identify existing knowledge, best practices, and the important questions that still must be answered to ensure that a Hebrew education is available to the significant number of students with dyslexia and other language-based learning disabilities. This initiative, powered by Hebrew at the Center, is a joint effort of Gateways, HATC, MaDYK, Prizmah, Shefa and a broader working group, with the generous support of the Lippman Kanfer Family Foundation.

• Inspiring Hebrew Engagement Through the Arts (Lilach Arie, Director of Hebrew, Krieger Schechter, Elan Grandel, Director of Israeli Music, Jewish Community Day School of Boston, Sarit Nevo, Middle School Hebrew Director, The Leffell School)
  Hebrew and Israeli culture are a wonderful entrance into Hebrew for day school students, creating opportunities to explore creativity, personal expression, and issues that can transcend a workbook or language lab. This session features school leaders who have introduced an arts component such as theater or graphic novels to their Hebrew program to bring Hebrew alive for their learners and create opportunities for Hebrew to flourish both inside and outside the classroom. Come learn from these innovators and find approaches that will enhance your school!

• Leveraging Visions of Excellence in Hebrew Education (Rabbi Harry Pell, Associate Head of School, The Leffell School, Sarah Shulkind, Milken School)
  Select schools in North America are really succeeding with their Hebrew programs, ensuring strong student language outcomes, recruiting, and retaining excellent Hebrew teachers and leaders, and fulfilling the promises they are making to their parents about Hebrew and its role in the day school value proposition. Come join the heads of school of three such schools who will share how they were able to achieve this level of excellence, key insights into making this work for your own school community, and lessons learned the hard way.

Hebrew Leaders Track 

• Learning to Speak Hebrew from the English Model (Dr. Tziona Levi)
  For many language educators it is obvious that teaching the competence of speaking in the target language is an integral part of instruction. It is in fact a very complex skill to learn and to teach as an L2 ( second or foreign). Join us as we learn how to approach the skill of spoken presentation and integration of hebrew according to a successful model in Israel of teaching English as a EFL (foreign language) on a national level and discuss ways in making it a rich language experience aligned with international standards.
• Designing an Intervention Plan for Improving Students Hebrew Skills (Dr. Esty Gross)

  Our role as Hebrew teachers when tailoring instruction is to support each learner in achieving their learning goals (whether these are authored by the school, the curriculum, the teacher or the student). To support our learners to meet their goals, we employ various strategies that usually fall under these three categories: scaffolding, differentiation and flexible grouping, based on the assets and gaps in their knowledge and skills. We often wonder:

  • what is strategy the right strategy for the challenge my student is experiencing
  • how I would  know if and to what extent it is working (or not)
  • how can I track my student’s progress
  • how can I motivate my student to practice and persevere
  • and more . . .

  Join me in this workshop to review a sample of a systematic research-based and data informed intervention plan that you can adapt to fit your style and your students’ challenges and needs.

• What Will the Next Generation Know? Goals and Objectives of Hebrew Teaching in Israel’s Hebrew-Speaking Post-Primary Education (Tomer Buzman)
  In every generation, the heads of Israel’s education system lamented the supposedly poor state of Hebrew spoken by those enrolled in Israeli schools. From the state’s founding to the present, demographic changes and the shifting purposes of the Israeli education system resulted in ongoing alterations of the designated goals assigned to teaching Hebrew. This workshop will survey the alleged objectives of Hebrew teaching throughout Israeli history and present several possibilities for maintaining and enhancing relevance and interest among students in Hebrew classes today.
• Hebrew Beyond the Classroom (Dr. Tali Berkovitch & Nadav Wiesel)
  Including Hebrew in all aspects of school life is beneficial for the inclusion of all types of learners. In this workshop we will discuss different ways to incorporate Hebrew in school culture, outside formal instruction. This includes school wide campaigns, incorporating art specials, school decorations, and many other projects both small and large. We will share techniques that have worked for us, and come up with suggestions from your colleagues.

• Literacy for All: The Science of Hebrew Reading (Scott Goldberg & Balya Kopel)
  All Jewish educators who teach texts in Hebrew are teaching literacy – and to do that effectively, you need to learn its science. We will discuss the nature of attaining literacy in a second language and how its development is shaped by second language acquisition. You will understand the facts and misconceptions concerning language learning, literacy development as it relates to bilingualism, the unique literacy structures of Hebrew, and research-based approaches to reading and writing instruction and interventions. By gaining a robust understanding of the Science of Hebrew Reading, you will be able to improve each student’s access to Hebrew literacy.

• Zoom & the Tower of Babel: Technology, Language, and Jewish Peoplehood (Yael Rosen)
  Join us in this interactive session where we delve into the powerful connection between language, identity, and peoplehood. Discover innovative teaching methods that bridge cultural divides and harness technology to facilitate meaningful cross-cultural dialogue. Walk away with practical strategies based on ENTER’s One2One experience to promote language learning that connect us in our shared past and future.

• Critical Pedagogy and Hebrew Teaching – a participatory workshop (Tal Janner-Klausner)
  Critical Pedagogy promotes social justice and learner empowerment and at it’s heart is educational dialogue. In this workshop we will learn together about Critical Pedagogy and what it means in the context of learning Hebrew as an additional language. We will explore the origins of this educational philosophy and it’s key principles, as well as practical tools and methods. Additionally, we will work in small groups (according to age/context of teaching) on how to implement these principles in our own classrooms.

Veteran & Credentialed Teachers Track 

• Hebrew Across the Time (Inbal Barel)
  Many Hebrew teachers wish to explore their students to Israeli society and culture, but the low Hebrew level of the students makes them feel this is a ‘mission impossible’. Recently, the Department of Hebrew and Culture (WZO) developed a unique program that helps to deal with this issue. The program “Israel in the Time Tunnel” includes 75 units as the age of the state of Israel. Each unit is dedicated to an event or personality related to one year during 1948-2023, explores the students to a vocabulary and linguistic aspects, and suggests many activities for students of all ages and Hebrew levels. In order to develop linguistic skills and the ability to function in Hebrew. The workshop will present the various possibilities for using the program. During the workshop, we will taste and experience some activities and learn creative methods of teaching the Hebrew language and culture in a significant and meaningful way.
• Hebrew Language Prerequisites and Strategies for Teaching Students with LBLD (Angie Yucht Swenson)
  Teaching Hebrew to students with Language-Based Learning Disabilities (LBLD) might sound paradoxical. But the reality is far different. Please join us in exploring baseline prerequisites — and discussing approaches — that can set our students up for success in Hebrew skill areas like reading, writing, vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension.
• Discovering the Magic of Hebrew (Dr. Tamar Katsir)
  A fascinating journey through the website of the Academy of the Hebrew Language.

  A fascinating and colorful journey through the Academy of the Hebrew Language’s website. A special opportunity to be exposed to many treasures of the Hebrew language and receive up-to-date and qualified knowledge to enrich teachers and students. The workshop will provide you with diverse ideas and tools which can be used to prepare classroom and school activities and for any other purpose. Join us as we discover the magic of Hebrew!

• A Letter + Letter in Movement, Sculpture and Drawing (Dr. Orna Oryan)
  The creative workshop, for teaching Hebrew is through intelligences that exist within us (according to Gardner’s theory). In the interdisciplinary workshop, the body, creation, senses, and imagination are given expression and we learn how to impart knowledge through a combination of arts. The knowledge will be absorbed in a holistic and fun way, more than the traditional one absorbed only through the head. When the teacher goes through such an out-of-box learning experience, he will be able to teach the children a language in a tangible, sensory, movement way, which can be assimilated in three dimensions.
• Teaching with Purpose How to thoughtfully implement Evidence-Based Practices in the classroom (Karen Gazith)
  Participants will know 7 evidence-based practices to meet the needs of all learners and practical strategies to apply these practices in the classroom. Teachers will leave with the ability to use many hands-on, practical ideas the next day.

• Project Based Language Learning for Different Learners (Efrat Yakobi-Gafni)
  Project-Based Learning (PBL) is a student-centered pedagogy that involves a dynamic classroom approach in which students learn about a topic through problem solving or through inquiry-based learning that leads to action, or a product that is presented to an audience in a culmination event. The goal is to increase learners’ motivation and involvement in the learning process by connecting learning to real life outside the school. This instructional model also allows for tailoring instruction to different learners. In this workshop I will share how I implemented this model in a Middle School class with heritage Hebrew learners with varied abilities. Participants will receive tools and ideas on how to create a PBLL unit using their existing curriculum or starting from scratch.

• Teaching with Purpose How to thoughtfully implement Evidence-Based Practices in the classroom (Karen Gazith)
  Participants will know 7 evidence-based practices to meet the needs of all learners and practical strategies to apply these practices in the classroom. Teachers will leave with the ability to use many hands-on, practical ideas the next day.

• How do we read? Reading with a phonological approach (Vital Geiger)
  The process of acquiring reading is a fascinating process that engages many professionals. Join us on a journey, where we will describe the process of reading acquisition based on a phonological approach along with other principles and highlights. We will showcase real-world examples and cases using iTaLAM and more. Leave with a deeper understanding of reading instruction and actionable ideas for classroom application.

Teachers in Their First Three Years Track 

• Maximum Acquisition with Minimum Language (Mira Angrist)
  The language in the public space in Israel contains a “reasonable amount” of language so that we as teachers can use it for maximum teaching of language and culture. We find the minimalist language on street signs, billboards, store signs, advertisements and more. In addition, the Hebrew language is rich in short cultural expressions such as: after the holidays, it will be fine, Israel is alive, which are also authentic learning material for acquiring language and culture. At the end of the workshop, the participants will raise their level of awareness of short and accessible authentic materials in the public space that are also suitable for learners at beginner levels and will acquire pedagogical tools on how to make them accessible to their learners in order to maximize language and culture acquisition.
• Making Hebrew Accessible to All Learners (Hamutal Keinan & Orit Shakarghi)
  Our workshop will demonstrate strategies in make Hebrew accessible to all learners. we will show how to incorporate learning materials and create ones appropriate for all learners and learning types. we will establish differentiation in the classroom and implement those strategies to a variety of learners.
• Learning Strategies to Help Support Learners in the Hebrew Classroom (Dr. Doran “Dodie” Katz)
  This workshop will focus on practical strategies to help support Hebrew learners. This workshop will also debunk certain myths associated with language acquisition and provide suggestions for how to design an inclusive language learning environment.
• Empowering the Learner in the Language Classroom: Why and How? (Ketty Granite)
  Promoting learner autonomy in teaching a second language empowers students, increases motivation, and develops crucial skills. Join us as we learn why and how to empower students in their learning process and promote your teaching practices. During this session, practical ideas will be shared, and teachers can plan an activity based on three principles: collaboration, critical thinking and language learning strategies to improve students’ learning process and promote learner empowerment.

Research, Trends, and Innovation in Hebrew Language Learning

A highlight of Hitkadmut is the opportunity for conference participants to learn about key trends and new ideas emerging from research in the field of Hebrew language education. These deeper insights and leading data inform instruction, build shared knowledge, and ensure a living bridge between researchers and practitioners. We are pleased to feature two components in this year’s gathering: the sharing of highlights from the annual State of the Field of Hebrew language education in Jewish day schools and a dedicated block of presenters sharing their latest research and providing an opportunity for questions and conversation.

The following papers will be presented during the paper session at Hitkadmut:

• Methods and Tips to include Students with Disabilities in Hebrew Class (Tali Jackont)
  Teachers will get tips how to include students with learning disabilities in Hebrew class.
• Take the Humor Seriously: The role of Humor in Teaching Second Language (Roman Shnaider)
  The teachers will be able to consider the integration of humor as an effective educational tool in their teaching, after learning its advantages and disadvantages.
• Level of Linguistic Knowledge of Hebrew (Eyad Mohana)
  Teachers will be able to examine the level of linguistic knowledge of Hebrew as a second language.
•  Intercultural Pragmatics in the Era of Globalization of the 21st Century (Shelli Putterman-Kenett)
  In this lecture Shelli will discuss how Intercultural Pragmatics has become a central issue in human communication in the global world. The lecture will focus on the question of whether the linguistic style, practices, and linguistic pragmatics, which characterize the members of the Israeli team, “imported” and employed by Jewish day schools, can have effects on the professional status of the team members within the organization.
• Combine or Separate? This is the Question!!! Integration of Students with Learning Disabilities in the Hebrew Language Class (Iris Cohen) 
  Should we combine middle school and high school students diagnosed with learning disabilities in a second language class at a low beginner level or create a completely separate class for them?
• The Experience of Teaching Hebrew to Refugees from Ukraine as Part of a Holistic Experience (Dorit Peled)
  Following the war in Ukraine, youth without parents arrived in Israel through the Jewish Agency. They are considered refugees, because they were forced to leave their home without prior planning due to existential danger to their lives. The circumstances of the Aliya and the nature of the group, required the teachers to develop adapted teaching methods in teaching Hebrew. In this meeting I will make the voices of the teachers heard in adapting the ways of teaching Hebrew, Israeli culture and tradition to this group.
• Bifurcated Heritage: Israeli-Americans as Consumers of American Hebrew Education  (Hannah Kober)
  As Israeli-American families continue to relocate and settle in the United States, they undertake a range of strategies to transmit the Hebrew language to their children. This paper explores the ways in which families in the San Francisco Bay Area navigate various Israeli-serving and American Jewish educational institutions, as well well as other resources, to give their children access to Hebrew language instruction. The participants’ narratives illustrate how parents understand and respond to the Hebrew learning landscape in the United States and its frequent entanglement with religious practice and usage. The ongoing study has broad implications for many stakeholders, including but not limited to educators, leaders, and administrators across diverse Hebrew and or Jewish educational contexts.

All sessions will be recorded and available to all Conference participants