More Than Words: How Kriah Comes Alive in Our Yeshiva
February 20, 2026
How One Ivrit B’Ivrit School Addressed Kriah
February 20, 2026
Rabbi Levi Solomon, Rabbi Moshe Tropper, Mrs. Ariella Rosenblatt, Mrs. Aphrodite Bakaleynik
Every Jewish educator knows the satisfaction of hearing a child decode Hebrew words for the first time. The rhythmic sounds of kamatz-alef=“uh” echo through classrooms across the world. For generations, kriah has been the foundational skill upon which all Torah learning stands. Yet, for many schools, including ours, an uncomfortable truth emerged: somewhere between first grade and middle school, fluency was fading.
We were teaching kriah. We were assigning homework. We were even assessing progress. But we weren’t sustaining mastery. By the time students reached the upper grades, accuracy and fluency often slipped. Words were still being read, but not fluidly, automatically, or with confidence. In Chumash, Navi, and tefillah, students were decoding instead of reading. What went wrong?
When it comes to English literacy, there is no shortage of research, methodology, and structured programs. Entire institutions exist to train teachers in phonics, decoding, and fluency instruction. Yet, when we looked for equivalent resources in Hebrew reading, the landscape was alarmingly thin. Research was limited. Comprehensive, evidence-based kriah curricula were rare. Most existing programs were designed decades ago, before modern understandings of how children learn to read.
Despite the centrality of kriah in Jewish life, kriah had quietly become one of the least standardized subjects in Jewish education. Many schools, ours included, relied on inherited methods, homegrown worksheets, or commercial programs that were inconsistent in scope and sequence. The passion was there but the structure was not. This realization was humbling but clarifying. We could no longer assume that effort alone would yield results. We needed a coherent system that used data, research, and consistency to ensure that every child, across every grade level, could not only learn to read but stay fluent.
Our leadership team decided to form a small but diverse kriah task force comprising an educator with deep Torah knowledge, a specialist in educational resources, a data-driven assessment expert, and a veteran kriah instructor who had spent years refining her craft in the classroom. Together, we set out to identify what was broken and rebuild it from the ground up.
Task Force Findings
As we began gathering data, patterns emerged. We found significant variation in how kriah was taught and practiced. Each teacher, often guided by personal experience or the materials he or she had inherited, was doing their best, but the absence of a cohesive, turnkey curriculum meant that instruction looked different from class to class. Some teachers emphasized decoding; others focused on speed. Some used review drills daily; others integrated kriah into Chumash lessons. New staff often arrived with different approaches, and there was no shared language or benchmark for mastery. Without system-wide alignment, students experienced an uneven trajectory. Those who learned under particularly strong kriah instructors thrived, while others lagged behind, creating a widening gap over time.
Another finding was conceptual: kriah had become embedded within other Torah subjects rather than treated as a standalone discipline. Teachers would review reading during Chumash or tefillah but rarely devote a specific period to explicit, structured kriah practice. This integration, though well-intentioned, meant that foundational skills were assumed, not reinforced. Reading fluency, like muscle memory, weakens without regular, deliberate exercise. Our students were reading Hebrew daily but not necessarily practicing how to read more accurately or fluently. We realized that integration is not a substitute for instruction.
While we had been administering periodic kriah assessments, the data was mostly archival, filed away rather than analyzed. Teachers were not consistently using results to target instruction or identify emerging gaps. We had numbers, but we weren’t learning from them. Once we began examining the assessment data systematically, deeper insights emerged. We quickly discovered that our schoolwide data lacked consistency. This inconsistency made it difficult to track progress or draw meaningful conclusions. It became clear that before we could move forward with data analysis, we needed to establish unified assessment practices and consistent instructional expectations across all grades.
Rebuilding Kriah
Last year, we launched a comprehensive, schoolwide initiative to rebuild kriah instruction with the same seriousness and intentionality afforded to core academic subjects. Our first step was to explore existing foundational kriah programs, both classic and newly developed, to identify best practices. We studied methodologies from Israel and North America, compared phonetic and syllabic approaches, and sought input from literacy specialists who understood both Hebrew structure and reading science. We also evaluated tools for data tracking and progress monitoring to ensure that any system we implemented would be measurable and repeatable.
Simultaneously, we restructured kriah practice across all grades, introducing a rotational model supported by kriah specialists. Students now rotate through targeted kriah centers that focus on decoding, fluency, and comprehension. Students who need extra support receive it, while fluent readers are challenged to advance. Kriah specialists push into classes from first through eighth grade to provide short, focused sessions emphasizing accuracy, pacing, and automaticity. These rotations have become a hallmark of our approach: every student, every grade, every week.
Recognizing that language acquisition reinforces reading, we invited our Ivrit department to collaborate. Hebrew language study now actively supports kriah development through shared vocabulary, grammatical reinforcement, and oral fluency. This partnership reenergizes our efforts to combine kriah and Ivrit instruction.
Through our collaboration and research, we decided to incorporate multiple kriah modalities, combining established program resources with teacher-developed activities. In the lower elementary grades, instruction is closely aligned with language acquisition strategies, emphasizing decoding and vocabulary as a foundation for comprehension. In the upper elementary grades, our focus shifts to kriah maintenance, which naturally strengthens students’ learning across all areas of Torah studies, including Chumash, Navi, and Gemara.
We implemented a schoolwide assessment calendar: kriah is now tested two to four times annually. Each round assesses accuracy, fluency, and automaticity. The results are not merely recorded; they are analyzed collaboratively in data debriefs with teachers and administrators. This has transformed assessment from a compliance exercise into a growth tool.
Perhaps one of the most transformative shifts has been integrating literacy pedagogy from our general studies program into kriah. Concepts such as modeling fluent reading, echo reading, timed passages, and explicit vocabulary instruction, long staples of English literacy, are now applied to Hebrew reading as well. Teachers use familiar literacy strategies to build parallel habits, creating continuity between students’ two reading worlds.
In the lower grades, we introduced a new ksiva program that aligns with our kriah curriculum. Writing and reading reinforce one another; forming letters accurately deepens recognition and decoding. By embedding kriah practice into ksiva rotations, students strengthen both fine motor skills and visual memory for letter-sound associations.
The Road Ahead
Our renewed kriah initiative has already produced encouraging signs: measurable fluency gains, stronger cross-grade alignment, and a culture that views kriah not as a lower-grade obligation but as a lifelong skill needed for a Torah-observant lifestyle. Yet, the real work is just beginning.
We are now compiling multi-year data to establish a longitudinal study tracking student progress from early elementary through middle school. Our goal is to determine whether this structured, methodical approach leads to sustained fluency and greater automaticity over time. We aim to cultivate students who not only can read Hebrew but love to read Hebrew. Confidence in kriah spills over into every Torah subject; students who read fluently engage more readily in Chumash, Gemara, and tefillah.
Our next aspiration is to create a “plug-and-play” kriah framework: a clear, turnkey model that can be adopted by any teacher in any grade. This includes defined learning targets, pacing guides, assessment templates, and resource libraries. Such a system would not only help new teachers enter seamlessly but also preserve institutional memory year to year.
We are investing in our greatest asset—our teachers. Through workshops, peer observations, and targeted coaching, we hope to build teacher confidence in both methodology and data interpretation. For many, this was the first time kriah was framed not merely as a skill to teach but as a discipline to master. Teachers are beginning to see themselves as literacy instructors in Hebrew, equipped with tools to diagnose, remediate, and extend learning.
Rabbi Levi Solomon has been an educator for over three decades and is the current principal of Emek Hebrew Academy, a vibrant school that educates nearly 1,000 children in Sherman Oaks, CA. He earned a B.A. in Rabbinical Studies from the Rabbinical College of America, a Qualified Teacher Status from the University of London, and a Master of Arts in Educational Leadership from Touro University. Rabbi Solomon’s teaching career has spanned two continents, including London, England, and Emek in California. Throughout his career, he has held roles such as classroom rebbi, admissions director, and curriculum coordinator, bringing a rich tapestry of experience to his leadership role.
Rabbi Moshe Tropper has been an educator for over 30 years and is the current vice principal at Emek Hebrew Academy – Teichman Family Torah Center. Rabbi Tropper spent close to two decades as Emek’s first-grade teacher, where he gained experience in teaching and assessing kriah fundamentals. Over that period, he developed a kriah accuracy assessment that is used in a number of schools throughout the country. He continues to be active and passionate about kriah and is part of Emek’s kriah oversight team, working diligently and with direction to educate students in kriah accuracy and fluency.
With over 15 years of experience in education, Aphrodite Bakaleynik holds both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Touro College in New York City, including a master’s degree in general education and special education (birth–2nd grade). For the past 10 years, she has worked extensively with struggling readers and previously spent seven years as a classroom teacher, teaching students to read in both English and Hebrew. She is trained in several literacy instructional models, including the Orton-Gillingham approach and Fundations® by Wilson, and mentors new teachers teaching reading and kriah. Aphrodite currently serves as the Lower Elementary School coordinator at Emek Hebrew Academy, where she is also an alumna. In her role, she emphasizes literacy development in both English and Hebrew, intentionally applying English reading standards, such as phonemic awareness and concepts of print, to enhance kriah instruction and ensure accessibility for all learners.
Morah Ariella Rosenblatt holds a B.A. from California State University, Northridge, an M.A. in Education with a concentration in differentiated curriculum and instruction from California State University, Bakersfield, and advanced training in educational therapy. A fluent Hebrew speaker with over ten years of experience teaching kriah, Morah Rosenblatt has taught in a range of educational settings, including teaching English as a Second Language in Israel. She currently serves as Middle School Girls Torah studies curriculum coordinator and is passionate about moving the needle in Torah studies through intentional instruction, data analysis, and skill-based learning.