Teaching creative teaching

New methods required to keep English pupils interested, raise scores, says head of Herzog College’s new English department.

By SHARON KANON
Herzog English Department 521 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Herzog English Department 521
(photo credit: Courtesy)
‘L earn one, do one, teach one” is the mantra of the new English Department at Herzog College. The college, on two campuses in Gush Etzion, hopes to lead a quiet revolution in the way English is taught in Israel.
“The only way to be a creative teacher is to be a creative learner. We believe that if you have a lot of different tools in your toolbox, you will bring them with you into the classroom.
The more we challenge students to be creative, the more likely they will grow into creative teachers,” says Amy Gelbart. The director of the English Department is fervent about having to shake up the system.
“There is a pressing need to prepare teachers who can teach our children to communicate in a global society in which English is the universal language.
Israelis have to converse, make presentations without sounding as if they are breaking their teeth,” she says. “We want tomorrow’s teachers to do a better job.”
The need to face the problem headon is clear. According to the State Comptroller’s Report for 2011, a large percentage of Israeli pupils in state schools need to raise their English scores. Tests given to eighth graders indicate a gradual improvement in grades over the past four years, but the averages (a score of 75 for secular schools and 65 for state religious schools) are worrisome. The comptroller’s conclusion is that we need more and better teachers.
The publication in October of Israel’s poor rating among OECD countries in the sciences, math and reading raises a red flag for Israel’s educational profile.
Can a country that lags scholastically continue to be a hi-tech star? The OECD report also indicated a correlation between education, poverty and employment.
“There is a major crisis in education,” observes Gelbart. “In today’s culture, everyone is looking for shortcuts and immediate gratification. It is becoming more and more unusual to find students who are willing to put in the time, energy and hard work it takes to excel. Finding teachers who demand this of their students is even harder.”
Gelbart does not shrink from the challenge. “Teachers’ jobs are harder than ever before. All the more reason we have to train teachers to be creative.
In the age of the SMS and the iPhone, students with nimble fingers on their laptops and mobile devices have short-term memory spans. They tune out in class unless the teacher is entertaining,” she says.
Can teacher training have an impact? Yes, says Gelbart.
“From their first class, our students learn new things, apply them, reflect upon their own experiences as learners, and even teach their peers,” she says.
Students at Herzog College are thrown into the water from the first lesson. In oral proficiency, for example, each one stands up in front of the class and gives a one-minute talk.
“At first, the students were terrified to get up in front of the class and give a speech. No one had ever made them do that in any language before,” says Gelbart.
Throughout the year, students are called upon to give increasingly challenging speeches – sometimes extemporaneously or with five minutes’ notice – and sometimes to give a prepared speech or to teach a class.
In poetry class, students not only have to learn about the different poetic forms, but they are also asked to write their own poems.
“No one had ever written a poem,” says English Department coordinator and poetry teacher Lindsey Shapiro- Steinberg. “At first, they thought it was an impossible mission, but in the end they were surprised and delighted by their creations.”
Linguistics can be boring, says Efrat Shani, 24, who spent two years in a special intelligence combat unit and is now working with 11th graders and soldiers in a Masa Yisrael program while pursuing a degree at Herzog.
“When Dr. Shulamit Kopeliovich teaches linguistics, it is interesting and approachable. She brought in a multisized wooden Russian doll to explain the structure of a word and built a mobile to demonstrate the structure of a sentence. She is amazing,” Shani says.
“It is not enough to just transfer subject matter to our students,” says Gelbart. “Our class is like a laboratory.
We try to guide the students to think critically and to reflect not only on the ‘what’ of the class but also on the ‘how.’ If teacher trainers do not exemplify these methods in their own teaching, they are in effect saying, ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’” Encouraging creativity in the students is not at the expense of the basics, emphasizes Gelbart. “We make sure our students acquire essential skills – how to outline, summarize, punctuate, use correct grammar and how to write essays and research papers. Students must attain high-level proficiency and develop their pedagogical abilities as well. In our education courses, they learn how to prepare lessons, manage a class, write fair tests and alternative evaluation methods.”
COMPLYING WITH the regulations of the Council for Higher Education, the Herzog English Department got the green light to open its program last year.
It is not surprising that an upstart English program has emerged like a butterfly out of the cocoon of Herzog College, an offshoot of the prestigious Har Zion Yeshiva, founded by Rabbi Yehuda Amital and Rabbi Dr. Aharon Lichtenstein, son-in-law of the venerable Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveichik. Lichtenstein earned a PhD in English literature at Harvard.
Gelbart explains why the English Department’s program is a natural for Herzog College. “The study of traditional texts in a yeshiva setting is as much about the way the text is interpreted as about the content of the text itself. Moreover, yeshiva study of Talmud is accomplished by means of active argument and thus gives students an excellent grounding for the highly interactive program in English literature.”
Herzog College is already recognized as the leading teacher’s training college in the fields of Judaism, biblical studies, Jewish thought and the Hebrew language. It now boasts 10 academic departments (including special education and Israel studies) and offers MA degrees in some subjects. Its five-day Bible Summer Seminar marathon, attracting thousands, has put Gush Etzion on the map for highquality adult education. The members of the new department have set themselves the goal of making the English Department equally prestigious.
The need for qualified English teachers, and particularly those qualified to double as teachers of Torah and Bible was no doubt a motivating factor for the college to add an English Department. Herzog is the only academic institution where men can major in teaching English in a religious environment. Recognizing the need, Herzog is offering a double major in English and special education.
“Calls often come in to the college asking for English teachers. Even before they finish the program, our students are being approached to fill vacancies,” says Gelbart. “I discourage them from taking on a job before they complete their studies. Teachers need to be fully prepared and certified to go out into the field.”
The State Comptroller’s Report adds impetus to the need to train quality teachers.
“We believe that literature is one of the most effective ways of enhancing proficiency in English as a foreign language, as well as critical thinking and introspection. Part of the training is to encourage a critical mind-set, to probe, question, not to accept things at face value,” says Gelbart, who lauds the decision of chief inspector of English Judy Steiner to return literature to the national curriculum. The new literature module and HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) formalize a method of adding critical thinking, analysis and problem-solving to the goals of teaching English as a second language.
A provocative article entitled “Even Geniuses Work Hard” (2010) by Carol Dweck, professor of psychology at Stanford University, assigned during the semester break, sets the tone for the innovative English Department. Dweck describes two mind-sets – a “fixed mindset,” the idea that intelligence is an inborn trait, and a “growth mind-set,” which holds the door open to improved performance and achievements.
“Students with a fixed mind-set do not like effort. They tell us that when they have to work hard, they feel dumb. This type of student tends to value looking smart above all else. Students with a growth mind-set value effort. They realize that even geniuses have to work hard to develop their abilities,” writes Dweck.
The growth mind-set is the ethos of Herzog College’s English Department.
“Often, people today give up when they encounter difficulty,” says Gelbart. “We want to create an atmosphere in which the students are not afraid to try new things. We emphasize the importance of process and encourage our students to adopt a growth mind-set and to take on challenges. Then they will bring their growth mind-set with them naturally into their own classrooms.”
Self-reflection is another by-product of learning in the English Department.
Students learn that it is okay to be vulnerable, that they can learn how to deal with a situation in which they feel threatened (such as speaking in front of an audience). “The ground is constantly shifting beneath our feet. Being a teacher means thinking on your feet and out of the box,” says Gelbart.
One of the tools Gelbart uses is film clips. Thought-provoking TED lectures by the world’s smartest thinkers, greatest visionaries and most inspiring teachers are used as models and starting points for discussion.
Yonadav Engelberg-Barbiro, 24, grew up in Kochav Yair before joining the Ma’aleh Gilboa Hesder program, which combines yeshiva study and army. He served three years active duty. He has been accumulating credits towards a degree in English and Talmud and wants to continue his studies toward an MA in comparative literature.
He takes a bus from Mount Gilboa in the Galilee to Herzog College every Sunday and Thursday. More than 200 students take buses subsidized by the college, which make pickups from as far north as the Golan and as far south as Dimona.
Engelberg-Barbiro is not a native English speaker. Empowered by the English program, he says: “I’m thinking of going for an MA in comparative literature. The set of tools I am getting from the department will help me as an educator and in the academic world. When we learn how to speak in public or how to write a research paper, it helps us teach our students as well. Whenever we learn something new, our instructors ask how we can make this relevant to the classroom.”
Another student, Efrat Shani, is unstinting in her praise. “I love the English Department. Classes are at a high level. Most of the time, I feel that I want to learn for the sake of learning.”
The dean of the college, Prof. Rabbi Yitzhak Kraus, former head of the Women’s Midrasha at Bar-Ilan University, a scholar in Jewish philosophy and thought, is enthusiastic about the fledgling department. “We are in an era where English skills are essential,” he says. “Herzog College trains its students to go out and teach in religious and secular schools. A special track is provided for teachers of the Ethiopian community.”
In the last four years, Herzog has had an enormous growth spurt. The Alon Shvut campus has more than 1,000 students; Migdal Oz, where the women’s programs are taught, has more than 750. Kraus is proud that Herzog was the only teacher training college selected for an honors pilot program, sponsored by the Tikvah Foundation, to educate future leaders of Israel in the realm of political thought and philosophy.
“We are responding to the increasing demand for exceptional English teachers both in the periphery and in the center of the country,” says Kraus.
“Our goal is not only to prepare wellqualified, creative English teachers. We also encourage our students to become growth-minded, resilient, lifelong learners who don’t run at the first sign of difficulty and are willing to take on the considerable challenges facing teachers today. Our children deserve nothing less.”