This article examines the nature of student-to-student text discussion in a dialogically organized remote classroom. Conducted as teacher research, I investigated student talk in a PreK-1st grade biblical literature class. In the fall of 2020, I taught a biblical literature class to a fully remote PreK-1st grade cohort in a Jewish independent…

This study examines a Pre-K-first grade full-time synchronous remote track in a Jewish day school. In the fall of 2020, Hassenfeld (Fifth Author) remotely taught biblical literature to Pre-K-first grade students. Through our analysis of two months of classroom transcripts, we sought to understand, first, the nature of student-to-student text…

The purpose of this paper is to exemplify a "grass-roots" change based on Dewey's experimental progressive education model employed in the "Bridge over the Valley" bilingual school, a Palestinian-Arab and Jewish school in Israel. In order to identify the progressive "approach" underlying this change, the…

Creationism implies that God imbued each category with a unique nature and purpose. These implications closely correspond to what some cognitive psychologists define as an essentialistic and teleological stance towards categories. This study assessed to what extent the belief in God as creator of categories is related to the mappings of these…

New experiences, challenges, and opportunities inherent in biographical transitions are expected to foster the psychosocial development of individuals. Our study investigated, first, developmental gains in children's language competence, social support seeking, and self control following the transitions to kindergarten and school; second, whether…

Currently, there are no Hebrew (L2) reading assessments that have been tested to obtain evidence for reliability and validity on which to base decisions about Hebrew instruction. The authors developed a Hebrew benchmark assessment tool for first grade students modeled after Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills, a standardized test of…

Background: Despite the growing number of school-based interventions designed to reduce childhood obesity or otherwise promote health, no models or materials were found for Jewish schools. The current study describes an effort within a Jewish school system in Chicago to create, implement, and evaluate a school-based intervention tailored to the…

This article describes the collaborative work of three teachers -- two Arab and one Jewish -- as they taught first grade together in a then new bilingual/bicultural school in Israel. The article is based on an ethnographic study the author conducted at the school during the school's first year (1998-1999), examining in particular the interactions…

Background: Much research has sought to investigate emotions and forms of emotion management among teachers worldwide, including the connection between educational change and teacher emotion; the association between the culture of teaching and teachers' emotional experience within parent-teacher interactions; the link between teacher emotion and…

Research literature on writing storybooks overlooks first graders. This is puzzling as children enter first grade having emergent literacy, in reading, writing, and story composition. It may reflect the belief that at this age children should learn to read and write (conventionally) as the curriculum demands, while elaborate writing is assumed to…