Habits of the Heart: Integrating Social Emotional Learning within Modern Hebrew Language Classes

Mick Fine
Director of Hebrew Language Curriculum and Instruction
Beit Rabban Day School; NYC

In every school, students interact with their classmates and develop as social beings. As teachers we plan for these interactions, we build activities, and watch our students develop those skills necessary for navigating their social circles. Since we know how crucial the ability to collaborate, and to resolve conflicts respectfully are, a question we need to ask is how might we effectively plan for social emotional learning, and what benefit might be found by doing so in a Second Language Acquisition (SLA) context? 

Integration of content areas is a staple in the Jewish educational field. Practitioners of progressive Jewish education are accustomed to thinking about innovative ways to blend learning of say the arts with Judaics, music with history, geography with cultural studies.

Social emotional development is a hallmark of early childhood, continues throughout the early elementary years into young adulthood, and even beyond. Just as people grow physically there is growth in terms of the ways that people understand themselves and their emotions, as well as those with whom they have meaningful relationships - their friends, family, classmates, and educators. 

Taking on the challenge of developing and powerfully implementing a Hebrew language curriculum that specifically addresses some of the most frequent challenges that students face — their emerging understanding of how to navigate interpersonal relationships and express themselves — is no small task. Each "subject" on it's own has associated methodologies, philosophies, and approaches. Why blend them? Beyond the well-researched and documented benefits that learning a second language provides, spending instructional time in a Hebrew class sends an implicit message -- that this is important enough that we attend to this issue with a variety of educators, in a variety of settings.

Why Hebrew? Well, for one it’s a language, and communication — and the skills involved in understanding another and expressing oneself are crucial in forming, nurturing, and strengthening relationships. Building proficiency necessitates interaction, the one is the result of the other. 

At Beit Rabban Day School we plan activities that demand of students a high volume of interactions through the use of surveys (picture 20 students asking one another What’s your favorite season? Did you eat a sufganiya last night?), and we explicitly discuss, define, and practice respectful interactions. Students learn about each other and how to express themselves through debates, group journal sharing, and interviewing, coupled with examination of “authentic” Israeli cultural products such as videos, poems, and songs that discuss experiences of fear, sadness, loneliness, silliness, and friendship. The students learn to use the vocabulary to describe the characters emotions and the social challenges that the characters experience in the “texts”. 

In one such class, students “read” a comic, by modern illustrator Yossi Abulafia that has only two words, the name of the comic: לבדי בבית — Home Alone. 

The seven and eight year old students, learning in relatively homogenous groups, are tasked with describing the action scene by scene, square by square. The open/closed nature of the prompt provides the students an opportunity to use the language they do have to tell the story of a child, his choices, what he’s thinking and feeling. Over the course of thirteen linked “moments” - students describe wanting what he doesn’t have (ice cream), noticing he was alone, and playing by himself (and his cat). The students tell the story in 1st person, casting themselves as the main character and sharing the thought process inherent in the choices. 

In another class a small group of “heritage learners” (advanced students with Hebrew speaking homes or particularly high aptitude) are tackling how one conducts oneself during a debate. As pairs of students face off, delivering pros and cons  — they are called upon to respond thoughtfully with prepared comments, to rebut their classmates in increasingly sophisticated ways. Given potential sentence starters such as 

אני מבין אותך, אבל בכל זאת... I understand you, but despite that... כן, אבל מצד שני — yes, but on the other hand... the students practice acknowledging the other and responding in carefully crafted and respectful ways while working on their articulation and fluency, strengthening their vocabulary, and developing their capacity to connect with others. 

As we continue to develop the emergent curriculum we respond to the challenges faced by the groups, for instance: an issue of cliques, of normal childhood fears (spiders? the dark?), and how there might be a מלכת השכונה — Queen of the Neighborhood; a בריון — Bully; or a מלך הכיתה — King of the Class. Each of the aforementioned is the name of a modern Israeli cultural element: an episode in an Israeli children’s series, a fun kids music album by famous Israeli (parent) musicians, or a modern Israeli poet.

Through the exposure to and discussion around the material, we uncover and discuss the emotions, concerns, and personalities of the characters, and present to students the language with which they can describe their own emotions, concerns, desires, preferences and experiences. Learning to use the language in these ways brings students to proficiency — ability to perform tasks in real settings.

Please write to mickfine@gmail.com for any associated files, lyrics (with vowels). Happy to help!