From Davka Corp.
Cost $29. 95
Reviewed by
Yitzchok Pollack
Features
4 lessons teaching identification of Rashi letters
Lesson 1:
1. Explains how a Rashi Letter is a letter style (font)
2. Introduces letters that are similar to standard letters. (such as a gimmel)
3. A drill in identifying Rashi letters that are similar to standard letters.
Lesson 2:
1. Introduces Rashi letters which look different than standard letters. This is done with color coding which points out the specific 8 letters.
2. The student is drilled through a game. The game is timed, which forces the child to decide quickly.
3. The student is presented with whole words as opposed to individual letters. The student must match the word in standard letters from a choice of three words in Rashi Letters.
Lesson 3:
1. Student is taught to recognize the differences between Rashi Letters which are similar. (such as an aleph with a ches) Diagrams and color coding are used.. Two letters are introduced at a time.
2. Student is challenged with a game which helps develop the recognition of these differences.
3. Another two letters are introduced which are similar.
4. These two letters are now drilled through a different game.
5. After all the letters are taught, the student plays a new game in which all the letters are used. A full word in standard letters is shown and the child must chose the correct match from 3 Rashi words.
6. One more game is given to the child as a general review on all the Rashi Letters. This game is a speed drill and the child must answer quickly.
Lesson 4:
1. A full Rashi is introduced. The student is shown a word of the Rashi with standard letters and must chose which word in the Rashi it matches.
2. Student is shown how the same Rashi looks in a Chumash.
3. The geography of a Chumash page is analyzed and identified with different colors. (Example the letter before each posuk is the number of the posuk, shlishi is the aliyah and so forth)
4. Two individual Rashi's are studied with full translation and narration. The child can hear the proper pronunciation of each word. The child is then is tested by matching the translation to the Rashi words.
Review option
1. Another review is done by using the familiar "Shema" written in Rashi letters. The student matches each word to the standard letters.
Life of Rashi
A biography of Rashi is included, which can be pasted on clip board and copied to be printed. However, it cannot be printed directly from the program.
Some pictures of Rashi's Shul and Bais Hamedrash are included.
Review
This program is a wonderful tool for drilling children in the Rashi letters. The games are fun and very interesting. The way the creator of the program, Rabbi Schwartz, broke down the tasks of teaching Rashi letters is phenomenal. I think this program is a must in every Yeshiva or day school with computer availability.
I only have the following critique on this program. There is no oral instruction, leaving all instructions to be read by the child. Therefore, this program will definitely need more explanation from the Rebbe , Morah or Parent. Also, lesson four of this program does not serve any real purpose as far as teaching a Rashi, as only two Rashi's are taught. I do feel this portion of the program should be studied by Torah Umesorah as an example of how it would be possible to have all or most Rashi's prepared on computer software to be used as a review tool by Rebbeim and Morahs.
The geography of the chumash page is definitely a good idea as this may be overlooked by many Rebbeim or Morahs.