From Professors
"Ella Elabz taught Hebrew classes for beginners under my supervision. She also co-taught a class with me in Comparative Literature. I had ample opportunities to observe her teaching and interacting with students. Ella is a naturally gifted teacher. She is always attuned to the students’ needs and their pace of learning, and she makes sure they are all following her. She is extremely respectful of each student, and she listens attentively and fully engages with his or her ideas, thoughts and interpretations, especially when reading literary texts. Ella is able to give substantial room for discussions and for guiding individual students through follow up questions, while not losing track of the goals of the specific lesson and while keeping perfect control of the time. I was also amazed to see how Ella can take even the most difficult text and, through guiding questions, help the students understand it and think about its argument's limitations and strengths. But maybe more than anything else, Ella brings to the class her personality and skills– her brilliant mind, her commitment and devotion to teaching and learning, her sensitivity to others and her bright and cheerful presence. It was a true pleasure teaching with her. I taught this course for 10 years and I was still taking notes while watching her teach!"
Vered Karti Shemtov, Stanford University, 2016.
"My impression of this class was very positive, and so I told Ella in our meeting after class. Her success stems from a combination of factors: a) her natural presence in class b) versitile interaction (in-depth questions, close-end questions, extending points out of students' comments and their work at home) which creates a feeling of a conversation rather than a lecture. c) nonetheless, there is no sense she's an amature, Ella indeed adds, sharpens, challenges and deepens the discussion and the lesson became deeper and deeper as it progressed. d) as a result, the class respects her and the atmosphere is attentive throughout the lesson. e) the respect is mutual: Ella wisely creates a instructional yet not competitive nor stressful environment in which almost every student participated in one point or another. She uses a lot of well-thought feedback that does not feel artificial."
Prof. Tzachi Zamir, Reading in Masterpieces, 2012.
From Students
"Ella improved upon my ability to analyze literature: in particular, I feel much more confident in my ability to interrogate/recognize the frameworks/underlying assumptions behind each piece, understand how the major themes fit into the time-period that the work was written in, and compare/contrast the arguments made in different pieces of literature. Since there is no "additional information" section on these reviews, I'll add this here: Ella was quite a phenomenal TA. While this class may not fall exactly in-line with my academic interests, she made all of the material incredibly interesting, and always provided us with complex questions to think about. She is most likely the best TA that I have had throughout my time at Stanford."
Reflection on the Other, 2015
"The most interesting course I took so far in the university. I learned a lot and became acquainted with many literary pieces I would have otherwise not have known. The course is given in a professional and interesting way, Ms. Elbaz delivers the materials in a fascinating way, with a plesant and homey atmosphere, her attitute is very patient and time there flew so fast, I sometimes didn't want it to end at all."
Reading in Masterpieces, 2011.
"Ella definitely wanted all her students to learn the most possible. I think that the way she taught and the way our assignments were structured really helped us to be engaged and actively learning the material."
Hebrew, 2015.
"Ella is an outstanding professor. She helped me learn more than I would have ever thought I could in such a short period of time."
Hebrew, 2015.
"Ella is an excellent teacher. The indirect connection to the main lecture was interesting and fruitful. Ella manifests immense familiarity and a high analitical ability with every text, while introducing new ideas and questioning things I personally took for granted in literature and genrally in worldview. She has a sharp introspect beyond the literary world, she brings in philosophy and other disciplines in the humanities and most importantly, she does not impose her perspective but attemps to create a fruitful discussion in class."
Reading in Masterpieces, 2012.