Chumash educators gathered in Crown Heights for a powerful workshop called “Moving Beyond Translation.” Mrs. Sara Rosenfeld led the workshop twice under the auspices of the Menachem Education Foundation. The first run, attended by 45, targeted general mechanchos while the second workshop was part of Kinus Hashluchos, with over 60 participants.
Mrs. Rosenfeld spoke about the common pitfall of chumash classes – getting “lost in translation.” In other words, sometimes educators stress vocabulary, grammar and the like, whereas the actual meaning and a deeper look into the posuk takes a back seat. The workshop emphasized a host of techniques to dig deeper and trigger students’ critical thinking, allowing their learning to come to life. Mrs. Rosenfeld guided participants through practical steps for helping students glean meaning from the Pesukim, through textual comprehension, graphic organizers, higher order thinking and more.
Mrs. Rosenfeld is Director of Curriculum at Yeshiva-Beth Rivkah Colleges in Melbourne, Australia and has a Master’s in Education from the University of Melbourne. In her work for MEF, Mrs. Rosenfeld helped shape the widely acclaimed Zekelman Standards for Chumash, and this workshop is based on Standard 4: Passage Comprehension.
“This was a whole new approach to something that I’ve been teaching for years,” said one participant. “The workshop was well crafted and full of practical strategies that I will definitely use in my classroom.”
Mrs. Rosenfeld is a sought after speaker and author on teaching and curriculum.
