For kids who have trouble learning their multiplication tables, Yael Weinreb has “3 million strategies” to help.
But teaching Hebrew and Judaica to children with learning disabilities, she says, is trickier.
This fall, Weinreb, learning resource specialist at Brandeis Hillel Day School, added a new resource to her repertoire of learning tools — Flora Kupferman, special education resource specialist for the S.F.-based Bureau of Jewish Education.
The Kohn Fund of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation’s Endowment provided Kupferman with a $5,000 grant to act as a consultant in four Bay Area Jewish day schools. Kupferman will serve established special education programs at Brandeis Hillel Day School in San Francisco and San Rafael, Mid-Peninsula Jewish Day School in Palo Alto and South Peninsula Hebrew Day School in Sunnyvale.
Each school serves between 10 and 30 students with learning disabilities ranging from attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity to dyslexia and visual-motor difficulties. All children are mainstreamed into regular classes.
As a consultant to the schools, Kupferman will provide materials and workshops, set up a network of special education teachers and coordinate funding for the schools through the Los Angeles-based Ziff Foundation — which provides money for speech therapy and special education in Jewish day schools.
Phyllis Shatz, education specialist at South Peninsula Day School, is looking forward to “getting together to discuss the children, the techniques.
“By having Flora as a resource, we can get a group together to share the wealth of knowledge,” she said.
Similarly, Weinreb is anxious to “get ideas. Especially for Hebrew and Judaica.”
With a grant from the Newhouse Fund of the federation’s Endowment Fund, Kupferman was able to do a needs assessment for the day schools.
She determined that the schools could “benefit from some central type of organization. I also recommended more community involvement in funding special education.”
Meanwhile, the Kohn grant and the resources it provides will complement programs already in place in the day schools.
At Brandeis in San Francisco, Weinreb teaches students bypass strategies for the classroom, such as using a mini-word processor during writing-workshop time. She emphasizes handwriting skills during 30-minute sessions with individual students.
For children with motor difficulties, using the keyboard “puts the emphasis on ideas rather than expending energy to form words on paper. The world opens up to these students,” Weinreb said.
Shatz also uses keyboards at South Peninsula Day School. In addition, she gives oral exams, allows extended time on tests and teaches students how to use computer spell-checks and calculators.
“There are so many different learning styles. What we try to do is teach students strategies to use in the classroom,” she said.
In addition to teaching children skills to help them overcome their disabilities, both instructors guide teachers in identifying students’ learning problems. Both also work to reduce the stigma of different learning styles.
For instance, Weinreb will teach an entire classroom alternative learning strategies so as not to always single out particular students. She also talks to the classes about learning differences and performs simulations so they can experience the frustrations of a dyslexic or motor-impaired child.
“`Demystify’ is the best word I can use to describe what I do,” Weinreb said. “I think it’s the best thing we can do for a child and his parents — to help them understand why the child can be so smart in so many things but have trouble in certain areas, and know there is something we can do to help it.
“I want these children to understand their strengths and weaknesses and to be their own advocates,” she continued. “Learning differences are a challenge, but they’re not an excuse to say, `I can’t do it.'”