4 Passage (פסוק) Comprehension Skills

Passage comprehension builds upon other Chumash skills, most significantly vocabulary and language skills, and requires students to transfer the information that they learn from the פסוקים into a coherent understanding of the subject matter.

The student will be able to:

  • Find facts and quotes in one or more פסוקים.
  • Use higher order thinking to analyze פסוקים.
  • Demonstrate the ability to integrate knowledge and ideas.
Enduring Understandings
1. The חומש incorporates many different kinds of text styles, including narratives, quotations, instructions, lists and שירה (songs).
2. Recognizing the correct text style for a given passage is an important step to being able to extract key information from the texts.
3. A more holistic and comprehensive understanding and appreciation of the depth of the Torah text is only achieved through engaging with the original Hebrew text and language.
4. A more holistic and comprehensive understanding and appreciation of the depth of the Torah text is only achieved through engaging with the original Hebrew text and language.
5. Vocabulary and language skills are the crucial foundations for passage comprehension.
6. The חומש employs literal, figurative and symbolic language.
7. There are multiple levels of understanding, from basic to rigorous.
8. Students need to be able to demonstrate comprehension in multiple ways before rigorous understanding is evident.
Essential Questions
1. What is the style and function of this portion of the text? / What is the Torah doing here?
2. How do the features of this particular text style help me find the information I need? / What clues should I be looking for?
3. If I look more carefully, what else can I find- in this posuk or in previous pesukim?
4. How does this פסוק relate to what I learned earlier? / Does this add to or contradict what I learned elsewhere?
5. What skills/words do I need to learn to be able to do this?
6. What are the layers of meaning for this word/phrase/event?
7. How does this new פסוק or piece of information add to my greater understanding of this topic/person/theme?
8. What else can I do to show that I understand this?

Resources