The Kohelet Prize Database

Database Entries Tagged with: tefillah

Keva Vs Kavanah: The Trial of the Millennium

Middle school students learn Rabbinic texts about prayer’s structure, purpose, and origins, while simultaneously evaluating their own relationship with Tefillah in a reflection journal. The entire unit builds to a trial created by the students and presided over by a panel of local community rabbis, pitting Keva Tefillah against Kavanah Tefillah.

By: Sarah Zollman from Carmel Academy

Grade(s): 6, 7, 8, Middle school

Subject(s) of entry: Gemara, Mishnah, Social and Emotional Learning, Tanach, Tefila

Pedagogy: Hevruta Learning, PBL - project based learning, Social and Emotional Learning, 21st Century Skills

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Reaching In, Reaching Out: A Tefillah Chug Focused On Dismantling Social Barriers Through Personal Identity Exploration

Using Sara K. Ahmed’s “Being the Change” (2018) framework, students connect and celebrate social comprehension skills and Jewish prayer. Through stories, identity webs, artwork, poetry, and Tefillah inquiry, students explore elements of their own identities, perspectives, and assumptions in order to weave stronger ties amongst our sacred community.

By: Shannon Rohlman, Rabbi Scott Slarskey, Samantha Thal from Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School, B'nai Amoona Congregation, Shaare Emeth Congregation

Grade(s): 3, Elementary school

Subject(s) of entry: Art

Pedagogy: Constructivist

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Kehilla: A Study in Empathy and Perspective

Our big idea is that: in order to be empathetic, we need to be able to understand others’ perspectives. Through experiences with text (Hebrew, Judaic and otherwise), music, visual arts, and drama, students explore what shapes perspective, how perspective changes over time, and how understanding others' perspectives helps us interact effectively.

By: Rena Markus, Jaime Saltz from Paul Penna Downtown Jewish Day School

Grade(s): 4, 5, 6, Elementary school, Middle school

Subject(s) of entry: Art, English/ Writing/ Language Arts, Ivrit, Music, Philosophy/ Values/ Ethics/ Hashkafa, Social and Emotional Learning, Tefila

Pedagogy: Social and Emotional Learning, UBD - understanding by design, 21st Century Skills

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Art & Tefillah Minyan

In this minyan, students use art as a medium for exploring and more deeply engaging with tefillah. Students study the themes of traditional Jewish prayers and create original works of art through which students can express their own feelings and ideas on these themes, using their art as an extension of their tefillah.

By: Rabbi Peter Stein from Frankel Jewish Academy

Grade(s): K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, Elementary school, Middle school, High school

Subject(s) of entry: Art, Social and Emotional Learning, Tefila

Pedagogy: Experiential Education, Social and Emotional Learning

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Creating a Culture of Goal-Setting: Intrinsic Motivation and Personalized Learning

In view of the importance of intrinsic motivation as well as personalized learning, kindergarten students at Yeshiva Lab School engaged in an in-depth study of goals and goal-setting. Each child set goals over the course of the year with the guidance of an educator, who used these goals to target instruction.

By: Rachael Simon from Kohelet Yeshiva Lab School

Grade(s): K, 1, 2, 3, Elementary school

Subject(s) of entry: English/ Writing/ Language Arts, Ivrit, Math, Social and Emotional Learning, Tanach, Tefila

Pedagogy: Constructivist, Social and Emotional Learning, 21st Century Skills

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Tefillah Curriculum

Our elective based tefillah program offers various options for students to connect to prayer in a way that is most meaningful to each student individually. One elective offered was a tefillah vaad. The vaad was a group of self selected students who were tasked with designing and implementing the electives that were offered during the next semester. While those students ran their electives for other students, the next group of vaad members were working on the next semesters options of electives.

By: Rabbi Adam Gindea from Golda Och Academy

Grade(s): 9, 10, 11, 12, High school

Subject(s) of entry: Art, Tefillah

Pedagogy: UBD - understanding by design, The students were given UBD guidlines, but were free to create the program that they wanted

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The Gift of Mincha: Drawing From the Text, Building a Siddur

This course addresses the driving question: “How might we improve our school's daily mincha experience through creating an originally drawn, translated, and annotated school siddur?” In this project-driven, team-taught, and inter-disciplinary senior Art/Judaics course, students respond to a very familiar text--the mincha siddur--through contemplative, artistic, and written avenues. Through studying the text in both a critical and soulful manner, and by creating and crafting their own translations, illuminations, commentaries, and illustrations, students are in the process of jointly building a siddur that will be used as the school community's daily mincha text.

By: Dr. Hillel Broder, Mr. David Friedman, Mr. David Wander from SAR High School

Grade(s): 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, Middle school, High school

Subject(s) of entry: Art, Gemara, Halacha, Literature, Mishnah, Tanach

Pedagogy: PBL - project based learning, Constructivist, 21st Century Skills

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