8 years ago

4th Grade CVS Program Siyum

4th Grade Students in Oholei Yosef Yitzchok Lubavitch of Crown Heights have successfully completed stage 1 in CVS (Chumash Vocabulary System) cards and had their Siyum celebrated this Rosh Chodesh Kislev together with other elementary grades. Students reviewed the learnt words as well as got new words into their piles for future study. It was very inspirational for other grades to see and celebrate in the spirit of Hakhel with their peers.

OYYL has seen tremendous success with implementing this program into their Multi-Sensory Curriculum.

Within 2 month since this program was launched in OYYL Elementary Division, 4th graders has successfully completed the stage 1 of this program. They have memorized 261 words, and have developed automaticity which enhances their fast word retrieval with mostly used Shoroshim in Chumash. After completing this stage they are on their way to acquire total of over 800 Shoroshim which cover 90% words of all tanach with great precision!!

Program covers all Shimushim (Prefixes and Suffixes) and sentence structure so students are empowered to know and use the language in the most active way possible.

CVS Program has been developed by Rabbi Shoul Klein for over 40 years to help children of none Hebrew speaking background to acquire and possess high level Loshon Hakodesh Skills. This CVS Program has been successfully integrated in more than 27 Yeshivos across the globe.

Few month ago Rabbi Klein held extensive seminars for OYYL Educational Team, where his CVS Program as well as Kriah Remediation Program was introduced.

“Right from the beginning we fell in love with this program and were eager to start implementing it into our Kria and Chumash Curriculum”, – Say Mottel and Mila Schneiderman, OYYL Directors. We were very happy to have Rabbi Chaim Zylbernagel as a CVS coordinator in our yeshiva, who has been implementing this program for over 4 years with students who he has been tutoring privately. Rabbi Zylbernagel has been working very closely with OYYL teachers as well as monitoring each student’s progress in all elementary grades.

Program is divided in to 3 segments/Stages

Stage 1 – Word acquisition – Every student gets a box with 800 Shoroshim and Shimushim. Each card has a Shoiresh as well as a picture cue to help a student with the meaning of the word. Translation is written on the back of the card. Later, every student draws his own picture next to the word to help him personalize and internalize the meaning. With enough practice of flipping the cards children memorize words each at their own pace. As student gets comfortable with his first pile of words he adds more and more new cards, and again he/she feels empowered and in charge of his own knowledge to determine how many new words he/she is ready to add.

Stage 2 – Word hunting – students search and highlight known Shoroshim and Shimushim with different color highlighters directly inside the text, where they can put their gained skills and knowledge into practice.

Stage 3 – Learning directly from a Sefer – Now after thorough study and automatic word retrieval of all shoroshim and shimushim, as well as in-depth study of sentence structure, student has confidence to jump into the endless sea of Holy Text of Tanach! Now the chumash page is not bunch of confusing scribbles and scrabbles where student feel lost, but a meaningful map where each student has enough knowledge and confidence to navigate the pages and possesses enough mental tools to decode the message.

“As we implement this program into our curriculum we see that it serves far beyond our expectations. Our students have responded with great enthusiasm and excitement”- say OYYL directors. “It is interesting to note that besides serving a strong tool in their Loshon Hakodesh Language Acquisition, the program served to develop and strengthen other areas of their overall growth.

Hand eye coordination – by flipping cards.

Independence and self-control – Each student determines how many cards to add, and be in charge of his/her knowledge and feel the ownership.

Self-confidence and Joy for Learning – by being successful and by feeling accomplished one word at a time, and learning at one owns pace as well as feeling empowered.

Concentration and focusing – by staying on track while hearing other peers saying words at the same time, student develops and strengthens those important faculties.

Development and enhancement of Symbolic thought – by drawing associated pictures by each word that will capture the main point of the word.

This Program goes hand in hand with more than one of OYYL mission statements

To provide an authentic Lubavitch education within an environment that fully embodies the values and principles of Chabad Chassidus.
To raise students that have the spiritual, academic and social tools to experience a deep-seated spiritual awareness, be in touch with their inner selves, develop healthy relationships, and are motivated to fulfill the purpose of Hashem’s creation.
To cultivate a school environment where every student is perceived and treated as an individual, nurturing his/her unique talents and persona to achieve his/her potential in the service of Hashem.
To bring the best educational methods to our children,
To educate students on their individual level so they can each grow at their own pace and mature into healthy, happy, committed Jews (Chassidim).
To serve as a model for ideal Jewish education and an inspirational school community.

To learn more about OYYL Program and Curriculum Initiatives please visit PureChassidicEducation.Org