10a+Alex+Weinberg

media type="youtube" key="dgIE0-MsJAc" height="390" width="480" [] This video is a cute Shalom Sesame clip of why we eat matza on Pesah. The students, who are Israeli, are spliced together to give their explanation of the holiday and the different explanations of Hag HaMatzot. The clip is only a minute long, but there is a great deal of content. The students most likely are using this video for English language practice, but it is spliced for the American/English speaking audience. There are four “lessons” associated with this video as well as take home and home experience projects. The challenge is that the “lessons” (which are really activities, not lessons) do not necessarily link back to the initial video. There isn’t language and vocabulary development linked to the video and the lessons do not explore strategies of how to expand the concepts into real time applied learning moments. This is most likely a result of the “lessons” being listed as activities with the hope that the teacher will be able to make these connections. A more targeted approach would be to explore specific vocabulary and themes that would be referenced in the videos and then expanded upon in the classroom experience.