Has anyone developed a modified set of goals and standards for the Gemara classroom to use with language-disabled and otherwise academically weak students? What are the core ideas and skills that they should walk away with after four years of high school Gemara, when "making a leining" on a daf is not a realistic goal at this academic level? In what ways can Gemara learning suppby lernerc@maayanot.org - The LookJED Archive
If you have not yet seen the "Ani Tefillah" Siddur (edited by Rabbi Dr. Jay Goldmintz, published by Koren) I would suggest starting there. I haven't used it myself but I know it incorporates a lot of reflective exercises in the commentary and may be a helpful text for you to use in this setting. B'hatzlacha! -Chava Lerner Ma'ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girlsby lernerc@maayanot.org - The LookJED Archive
I did something like you describe this past year with my 12th graders--it did not involve parents. I found Google's Blogger platform easy to use, although students often had trouble posting comments from Macs. Additionally, the teachers were the only ones who had access to post new topics on the blog (so students had to email the initial post to one of us) since allowing access to each studby lernerc@maayanot.org - The LookJED Archive