HEBREW 401         Fall 2000

Email address:  eacoffin@umich.edu

Course Objectives
The objective of this course is to acquaint students with current political and cultural
events central to Israeli society through reading the news in newspapers, the Internet and
viewing television news.   There is a great deal of emphasis on the acquisition of new
vocabulary and language skills for communicating in this field. In addition to vocabulary
expansion, and the emphasis on speaking, there will be some review of grammar and
introduction of various syntactical structures that are commonly found in readings.  The
development of writing skills will also be addressed.
 

Course Materials
Course materials are (1) course pack (availabe at Michigan Book and Supplies or at Ulrich's
Book Store).  There are also handouts of current news articles  from leading Israeli papers,,
Israeli television news broadcasts(Mabat)  and exploration of information on relevant sites in
the Internet.

Reference Materials
available through Amazon.com.  (discount prices and available in 2-3 days)
VERY IMPORTANT for this course!
1.  The Oxford English-Hebrew Dictionary
by N. S. Doniach (Editor), a Kahane (Editor)
2.  501 Hebrew Verbs : Fully Conjugated in All the Tenses in a New Easy-To-Follow
Format alphabetically Arranged by Root -- Shmuel Bolozky, Abraham S. Halkin
 (Contributor); Paperback
 

PRINTING DIRECTIONS FOR INTERNET HEBREW MATERIALS FROM WINDOWS:
To print Internet Hebrew materials from Windows, you have to install a Hebrew font in
your system and copy the text to a word processor, and then print out.
Open this link: FONTS.ZIP.  Copy the fonts to C:\windows\fonts.  Now the fonts are
installed in your computer.  Restart the computer.
Now you can copy the article to your word processor, align it from right to left,
select the entire text, and change the font to FrankRuehl and then print it out.

Homework
 Students are responsible for assignments that will be given at the end of each class.
 The completion and handing of homework on time is mandatory. Students who miss classes
 are responsible to get the necessary information about assignments from their classmates.

Attendance and Class Participation
 You are expected to attend each class. Make sure to let your professor know either by
 e-mail or by a voice message if you cannot attend class. You will be responsible for class
 work.

Special Activity
An Israeli movie will be shown on Monday, November 20.  The same movie will be shown during
class time on November 21 at the regular time.  You can choose which showing to attend.
Written assignment will be given for after Thanksgiving vacation.

Final Project
The final project has not yet been determined.  It will be announced some time in February.
The project activities will begin on March 16th.  The project will be presented in class or video tapes
at the Language Resrouce Center on April 6th and a written version will be presented to the instructor on April 11th.

Personal Portfolio
 Every student has to keep a personal portfolio, which includes compositions assigned for
 class, quizzes and examination and other class projects. This portfolio will be handed to
 the professor at the end of the semester, to allow for taking your individual progress
 into account.

Grades
 Your final grade will be based on your performance in class, on two written tests, on
 occasional quizzes, and other projects assigned in class.
 
 

Important Dates: (will be included at a later date)
First test
Second test
Project taping
Project - written