How can you improve your students' Online Learning Center completion rates? Educator Lida Abramov has answers.
Abramov is a teacher at Wilshire Boulevard Temple using Alef Bet Quest with more than 50 students who are new to Hebrew.
Even with the Temple's no homework policy and the Online Learning Center an optional tool, Abramov is seeing 50-60% of students completing work at home - That's a lot!
Parents have even told Abramov that their children love working on the OLC. One child completed one chapter ten times!
"They just like it. They love the jet ski game. Anything that has to do with computers, colorful animations, and with English instructions that help parents who can't always help with their children's Hebrew homework," Abramov said.
Are you wondering how you can get these results? Abramov has provided her own keys to success:
Take the time up front to make families comfortable. On the first day of orientation for the religious school, Abramov talked about the OLC a lot with parents and students. She showed it on a Smart Board; how to log-on, the intro, and Chapter one so everyone can see how easy it is, where to go, what to select. This helps to make it less scary and will feel more familiar to parents to help them get on board.
Reassure and motivate the kids. Abramov says, “If you want to become a good Hebrew reader, you need to practice at home. You’ll then be ready when we start the next letter.” Kids took it seriously. Make sure the kids know there’s nothing to worry about because it’s a replica of what they’re doing in class. It’s not too complicated, you won’t get stuck.
Give incentives. The school gave her the go-ahead to give a $5 gift card to Jamba Juice to children who did all the chapters up to Lesson 10 at home. She gave out 30 cards out of 50 students. This promoted a sense of pride. Abramov will hold a party at the end of the year – for the whole class.
Check for completion. Abramov's students know that she checks their assessments. The key for her is that they do it at home and how many times. The actual score is not important to her.
Of course no success story is perfect. Abramov hit a couple stumbling blocks along the way. Some students had trouble logging in, some fell behind in their work, others had other afternoon obligations. But overall the OLC is helping these students learn and have fun with Hebrew.
Are you ready to improve your students' use of the OLC, but nervous about the possible stumbling blocks? Behrman House has everything you need to prepare for a smooth start and experience success along the way.
Need something to show families about the importance of practice? Use this video, Hebrew in Five Minutes a Day.
We are always at work making the Online Learning Center work better for you. Your comments are always welcome--simply click the green "Feedback" button from any page in the OLC and let us know about your experiences and any new features that would improve your experience.
Are you ready to try the Online Learning Center in your school? Did you use it this year and want some additional help to encourage OLC use? Contact us for a 15 minute consultation that will get you on your way.
Remember, the Online Learning Center platform is free; you can create classes and discussion groups for any learners, using your own materials. You can augment your learning groups and classes with blended learning Hebrew and Bible materials, with lessons, videos, and articles from our Resource Libraries, and with lessons and curricular materials from our partners such as Rich Recht and ISRAEL21c.
