Making Halacha interesting

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Forum -> Working Women -> Teachers' Room

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lefty1

Thu, Oct 15 2015, 6:39 am

Anyone here teach halacha? need tips how to make class more interesting ( I feel like I'm just reading a list of dos and don'ts)
Specificially Hilchot Shabbat

amother

Chocolate

Thu, Oct 15 2015, 6:44 am

In general, it always helps to bring issues up through something that they can relate to. Most teenage girls like makeup, for instance, so you can go from that angle and explain what melachot are involved, what issues you might not think of, etc. Also, bring up a few complex wwyd scenarios and then have them try to argue which way it should go based on the stuff they know.

Iymnok

Thu, Oct 15 2015, 6:54 am

Actually do each melacha. Tell them th AV melacha and have them try to figure out all the toldos based on their experience.
Ex: get a loom and have them thread it and use it. All the while marking down what the possible issurim may be.
Bring in a pan of dirt and some seeds. Have them do the parts of planting and mark down other actions that are similar.

chani8

Thu, Oct 15 2015, 6:55 am

Teach malachos of shobbos rather than hilchos shobbos. This way you start at the beginning and go forward with the development of hilchos shobbos.

lefty1

Thu, Oct 15 2015, 7:07 am

Chani I am doing that.
I tried going more into questions of how do we define the melacha but it just got complicated and I feel that the students really just want the bottomline of what they can and can't do. So I still start with the basic melacha and work through to practical application but keep the first part short and to the point.
The answer here might be that the students aren't bored and they are getting what they want and just I'm bored teaching it Wink

5mom

Thu, Oct 15 2015, 7:12 am

Recreate a kitchen.
Bring in an urn, a crock pot, and a blech. Add a few cups, a pot of soup, a kugel and some chicken.
Tell them to warm up a shabbos meal.
Then explain every step you did or didn't take. At the end of class, eat the food!

5*Mom

Thu, Oct 15 2015, 7:13 am

Yes to the above. Make it as much of a hands-on experience as possible. As little lecture as possible.

chani8

Thu, Oct 15 2015, 7:14 am

I am sorry you are bored teaching it. I enjoy halacha. I can't imagine it being boring.

PinkFridge

Thu, Oct 15 2015, 8:57 am

I'm not addressing your question but a few quick thoughts.
Not everything can always be interesting. It should be meaningful. So I hope that there is also some discussion of how meaningful Shabbos and halacha are - if not in your class, then as overriding themes to try to incorporate in the curriculum whenever it comes up, in whatever subject.
I didn't have as strong a halacha curriculum as my children did. When I did learn halacha as an older student I had a much harder time with the subject than I should have, so as a parent, I would be very grateful to you! Very Happy

I assume you're in touch with local poskim as to how and what to teach, and/or your vaad hachinuch as to the goals of the class. They need to know basic principles, and as much as possible, bottom lines. Hatzlacha, got to run!

queenert

Thu, Oct 15 2015, 12:54 pm

Our tests were fun - there were a couple scenerios of someone doing an activity (making a salad etc.) and we'd have to find all the malachot she did or we'd have to describe how to do the activity without doing any melacha.

PinkFridge

Thu, Oct 15 2015, 12:55 pm

queenert wrote:

Yes! It's imperative to give good tests. It's something a lot of teachers (with the certain exception of our OP Very Happy

) don't know how to do.

amother

Lawngreen

Thu, Oct 15 2015, 1:36 pm

I actually saw a Rabbi do this for both his girls and boys (separate) classes.
He made a scrap book of the 39 Malachos. Everything was made 3-d. He did a page a week. For example, weaving, the students started to weave something out of yarn, and they got hair from the dollar store and braided it, etc. some of them where quite intricate. Try to use different art mediums for each page. Try to use recyclable items. Ask your students to help you plan the page.
The Rabbi also made a larger vesion to hang up so there was a constant review.

Hashemlovesme1

Thu, Oct 15 2015, 2:14 pm

amother wrote:

We did something similar to this is school, except every girl made her own scrapbook. It got everyone to be creative and enjoying learning about hilchos shabbos. The pages were almost always something 3d too.

amother

Lawngreen

Thu, Oct 15 2015, 2:23 pm

Hashemlovesme1 wrote:

I

Exactly, this is what I meant, but besides they also made a larger version to hang in the class.
Maybe you can split the class in groups and have each group do the larger version and present to the class 1 a week.

amother

Lawngreen

Thu, Oct 15 2015, 2:26 pm

The girls can make skit depicting the halachot.

amother

Lawngreen

Thu, Oct 15 2015, 2:30 pm

You can play a game like jeopardy style.

amother

Ecru

Thu, Oct 15 2015, 2:38 pm

You can make a malarky game and have the girls come up with the different situations.

goodmorning

Thu, Oct 15 2015, 4:24 pm

OP, what grade(s) do you teach? Teaching HSers is completely different from teaching 4th graders.

PinkFridge

Thu, Oct 15 2015, 7:08 pm

Manipulating the knowledge is important. But I don't know if it's necessary to be "fun" in order to be "interesting." The greater good is learning the material and learning it well.

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