The Kohelet Prize Database
Subject: Music
Explore the Kohelet Prize Database
Prize Categories
- Interdisciplinary Integration (79)
- Real-World Learning (105)
- Learning Environment (30)
- Differentiated Instruction (45)
- Development of Critical and / or Creative Thinking (56)
- Risk Taking and Failure (12)
Pedagogy
- Blended Learning (112)
- Constructivist (195)
- Design Thinking (41)
- Experiential Education (65)
- Flipped Learning (13)
- Gamification (6)
- Hevruta (31)
- IBL - Inquiry Based Learning (135)
- Language Immersion (13)
- Montessori (21)
- PBL - Project Based Learning (238)
- Social Emotional Learning (54)
- Socratic Method (10)
- Soulful Education (17)
- Whole Brain Teaching (27)
- UBD - Understanding By Design (105)
- 21st Century Skills (273)
Subjects
- Art (149)
- Computer Science (73)
- Economics (8)
- Engineering (28)
- English/ Writing/ Language Arts (181)
- Gemara (65)
- Halacha (104)
- History (173)
- Ivrit (118)
- Literature (159)
- Math (102)
- Mishnah (73)
- Music (56)
- Philosophy (46)
- Physical Education/ Health (11)
- Science (151)
- Social Emotional Learning (53)
- Social Studies (44)
- Tanach (177)
- Technology (40)
- Tefila (19)
Grades
- Elementary School (156)
- Middle School (213)
- High School (213)
- Kindergarten (79)
- 1st Grade (89)
- 2nd Grade (101)
- 3rd Grade (117)
- 4th Grade (129)
- 5th Grade (155)
- 6th Grade (151)
- 7th Grade (142)
- 8th Grade (138)
- 9th Grade (104)
- 10th Grade (110)
- 11th Grade (110)
- 12th Grade (109)
Mishkeh Mechanic / Success Strategist 2.0
Middle school students completed a project in their STEAM cross-curricular class and followed the Teshuva process to "realize," and thus capitalize upon, their mistakes and successes; this highly replicable, easily transferable project took on a far-reaching mind of its own, with students at the helm of the real-life skills ship.
Maimonides Integrated Connections
Three interconnected gears with the letters M.I.C. representing Maimonides Integrated Connections. This encourages students and teachers to find cross-curricular connections, bridging various subjects and disciplines, and integrating classroom learning with real life experiences.
Carpe Diem – How do you Seize your Day?
In my AP Language and Composition class, which combines grades 11-12 at our girl's campus, there is a pervasive theme in each of our texts this year. It is carpe diem, seize the day, or a lack of carpe diem. In order to truly understand this theme my class worked on a project to describe, create, and share their thoughts about this concept.
JCDS Learning Adventures
JCDS Learning Adventures are deeply immersive week-long interdisciplinary units developed around real-world challenges. While students in each grade have amazingly diverse experiences, all Learning Adventures are connected by a common pedagogical vision: students collaborating to develop and share solutions to tangible real-world problems.
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.
“Kids around the world do the same things in different ways.” Kindergarten students create The Museum of the Universal Languages of Childhood
The Kindergarten theme of community was woven into all aspects of our curriculum and was explored through the lens of global competency. Our multidisciplinary curricular approach to learning culminated in the creation of The Museum of the Universal Languages of Childhood that represented the languages of celebrations, games, and fine arts.
Book Day
Book Day is an authentic learning experience that starts with a book. Students connect to literature through a full day of extended interdisciplinary activities including literacy, Hebrew, Israel and/or Judaic studies, social studies, math, science, art and music, technology, physical activity, sound, and taste.
The Space We Create
The presentation that follows is based on years of perseverance and experimentation as to what makes for a meaningful and happy learning space for children. “The Space We Create" shows how this is cultivated by using everyday materials to create innovative and flexible classroom spaces. With dedication and care, children will thrive.
A Musician for Life: Improvisation, buckets, and multimedia reviving instrumental music for the centennial generation.
I’m reinventing the idea of middle school band – by orienting my lessons around creative improvisation and multimedia. improvisation in music curriculum is the key to countering the distractions facing increasingly wired youth. By using lessons like bucket band and film scoring, I’ve been stimulating their creative potential.
Community Partnership All School Read Program
Two schools, 12 miles apart, but on different planets socially and culturally. Have all students read the same two books, write penpal letters, and visit each other’s schools. What happens?
You go from complete segregation to an explosion of creative and interpersonal energy radiating from the students, connecting their common sense of community.
Beth Tfiloh’s Lower School Israel Fair: A Student-led Interdisciplinary Experience
Beth Tfiloh Lower School students participated in a multi-week and school-wide interdisciplinary learning experience about various landmarks in Israel. Students (K-4th grade) conceived of, developed, and created fifteen hands-on exhibits to share their learning with the broader student and family community.
Finding Meaning: Prayer Through Reflection and Integration
We launched an initiative in our Lower School where the General Studies teachers collaborated with their Judaic Studies counterparts to help students make meaningful connections between themes that were being studied across both disciplines in the second and fourth grades and themes that emerge throughout their daily Tefilla.
Bar Mitzvah Prep Program: Raising the BAR
As part of our mission to promote real world learning and student ownership, in line with our 3R’s initiative, we teamed up to create an engaging program to educate our students on the “how to’s” of participating at an adult oriented event in the public sphere via experiential learning.
The Innovation Lab – The Space where Maker Ed and Jewish Ed Inspire
We’ve built a culture designed around an open space where students actualize content learned in their Jewish day school & apply it in ways that are most meaningful to them. Students collaborate & think creatively, using 3D printers, woodworking, coding, graphic design, and a host of other tools to create tangible outcomes of their education.
“Change the world. It just takes cents”TM
"Change the world. It just takes cents"TM is a student-led, teacher-mentored, PBL, service-learning, experiential education, Tikkun Olam, multidisciplinary process, where lessons evolve organically, and students are the creators of their learning blueprint, rather than being enslaved to textbooks. Students emerge empowered advocates and leaders.
Pupkis: Travelling Yiddish Puppet Theater
Our students adapted a recently translated Yiddish short story for performance as a puppet show. They wrote the script, built the puppets and stage and performed the puppets. The show was performed for local Jewish elementary schools as well as for the rest of the student body at the Weber School
STEM Education and Crosscutting Concepts
The Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School has developed a model of STEM integration with general and Judaic studies using the Next Generation Science Standard's Crosscutting Concepts (CCC). This model of integration is the only one in the nation and is the subject of research and collaboration with The George Washington University.
Modular Educational Games
A kit to produce educational games in any language, in any subject, and at any level of difficulty. The process of creating these games develops the student’s learning abilities (focus on detail, categorization, collaboration,self-direction) and social skills.
These games can be used as a part of teaching, reinforcement, review, and assessment.
Rainforest and Tu Be’shvat
Why are trees important in our world and what is our role in taking care of trees? Our kindergarten students learned about the importance of trees in our world while studying about the the rain forest and the holiday of Tu Beshvat. Our learning concluding with performance of the Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry.
Inspiring All Learners through Multi-Age Classrooms
Through our new multi-age format, the Schechter faculty differentiates and optimizes student learning. This progressive model reaches diverse learners within a single classroom environment and is transforming student engagement, individualized instruction, social outlets, improved self-esteem, and richly integrated curriculum.
The Flexible Mindset
The Flexible Mindset, used in a kindergarten classroom, is a combination of growth mindset, flexible seating, and integrated projects. This combination makes for a learning environment that is ever changing to meet the needs of each student in the classroom community and bring learning to life.
Talking Trees in Kitah Alef-Impact of Trees in our Environment -An interdisciplinary Unit
1st graders learned about trees through literacy, science, math, Ivrit, art, movement and by working in cooperative groups. The unit included studying the parts of trees in Hebrew and English, the impact of trees on the environment and its natural resources. We emphasized the mitzvah of tzedakah and of planting trees in Israel for Tu B'Shvat.
DASH Weeks
DASH is a comprehensive school wide study of a topic that is carried out in every classroom, Judaic and secular, as well as in the arts. It is cross grade, cross curricular and integrated. The school has now done two DASH units, one last spring and one in November 2017. This fall's topic, "Water: Source of Life" was engaging and exciting.
MakerLab: Innovation and Creation
Hillel Academy's goal is for students to “learn how to learn”. We don’t give instructions in Makerlab, we give tools and guidance, and challenge the students to find answers and solutions on their own. It is amazing to watch the next generation of innovators get their first taste of inventing.
Movement, Music & Midot
M3a is a stand- alone or supplemental curriculum for teaching character development. It consists of process and value concepts attached to musical anchors impacting class behavior.
Maimonides Better Together
Maimonides Better Together students & seniors share & grow together; students actualize their study & seniors share their life experiences.
We integrate timely and relevant Jewish Respect for elderly, Torah values in classroom lessons, before meeting & hands-on activities with seniors.
B’reisheet Unit
The basic foundation of everything is the creation of the world, or as we Jews know it: Briat haolam. In my Kindergarten class, Briat haolam is not taught in the mere few days before Parshat B’reisheet, but rather over the course of two to three weeks, depending on the calendar of that specific year. The reason that we take this long in teaching our students about Briat haolam is because we are not just imparting information to them about what was created on each day, but rather, we are allowing our students to experience creation in many different ways: through Science, Literacy, Art and Math. By integrating so many different aspects of the world into the creation unit, we are sending our students an extremely important lesson: Everything is from Hashem!
Water: An examination
Using the bracha Mashiv HaRuach and Parshat Noach, this unit investigates water on a deep level. It includes many types of instruction so that all students can access the learning.
The Talent Center Handbook & Extra Challenge Project Kit
The Talent Center Handbook shows how to develop creative young Jewish leaders with an 18 word curriculum in just 30 Minutes a Week. Emek’s game-changing Extra Challenge Projects connect holistic Torah learning, technology, and Jewish design thinking through child-led community service passion projects.
TAP INTO IT!
This was an elective course, one option in the Enrichment Cluster Program at SAR, in which students choose an area that they are drawn towards, and explore that area with like-interested students and teachers. Each area begins with a probing question that is explored over the semester.
Shake Your Lulav!
This is a Google Slide presentation about the mitzva of Ushpizin, welcoming honorary guests into the sukkah, which integrates content and skill building, as well as Hebrew language acquisition. It was originally designed for use as a flipped classroom.
Global Competency For Jewish Learners
A Grade 10 Global Competency Course that will empower and engage our students to become global citizens within a Jewish context. Students will learn a diverse range of practical skills to prepare them for jobs of the future. The final class project will be a fully kosher, volunteer service trip to Ecuador, where students will build a school, visit a Synagogue in Quito, celebrate Shabbat in the Andes and put into practice the lessons they learned during the course.
Focus on Growth – Differentiation Through Student Goal Setting
Our committee of educators designed and implemented a Focus on Growth initiative for our kindergarten through fifth grade students. This initiative encourages students and teachers to work together to set differentiated personal goals, monitor progress, and celebrate achievement in a variety of areas.
Enrichment@Maayanot
To meet the educational needs of our strongest students, who are not fully sufficiently challenged by the Honors classroom we instituted an enrichment program. Each student chooses two projects (bekiut and b'iyun) to work on over the course of the year. The handful of students participating across the grades, through specially geared programming form a peer community of motivated achievers who push each other to discover and reach their full potential.
Differentiation and Newsela.com: A Match Made in Heaven
My entry discusses the need for every teacher and Learning Specialist to use this website in their classrooms or Learning Centers. It can be used for differentiation among students from third grade, all the way through high school.
“Reaching Each Child”.
Our Sages say "chanoch l'naar al pi darko" - teach each child in their own way. It is critical to understand the student as an individual with their strengths and weaknesses. Only then can we truly educate them.
Yad Hayotzer: An Interdisciplinary, Experiential Approach to Teaching the Prophets
Jeremiah Chapters 18-19 explore the interplay between God and His people as the fashioner of Jewish destiny through the agency of a potter. Jeremiah’s symbolic action comes to life as each student experiences "becoming" the potter, realizing the challenges of imprinting one’s vision on another. This project enhances the tefilla experience for our students as they explore the Yom Kippur piyyut - KaChomer BeYad HaYotzer, Like Clay in the Hands of the Potter - and helps shape their understanding of the roles of fate and free-will, both in the history of the Jewish people and in their own lives.
Pirkei Avot to Pop Song
Mishnah was made to be sung. Well, if not sung then certainly repeated (coming from the root shanah). How better to get our students to repeat -- and through repetition, remember -- the mishnayot of Pirkei Avot than by singing them? How better to get our students to sing sections of Pirkei Avot than by having them write and record their own songs?!
Facilitating Critical Thinking through Reflection and Problem-Solving
I facilitate critical thinking through a steady practice of reflection and problem-solving with my students. I believe that these social and emotional practices help them think creatively about themselves and, ultimately, their learning.
iPad English Classroom Trial: Challenges, Successes, Discoveries, and Failures
Over the academic year of 2014-5, I embraced the introduction of iPads across the entire SAR High School freshman class by taking certain risks and often failing at integrating the iPad into my already digital curriculum. A record of my efforts were recorded on a public blog that I used as both a record of my “trial run” and a platform for networking with other iPad educators via social media. In my year-long blog, I shared questions, answers, successes, challenges, and yes, even failures regarding the first-year introduction of iPads into my already paperless English classroom. My blog record shows that while I failed at fully integrating the iPad as a media device, and while I failed at fully aligning iPad apps with my already digital curriculum, I succeeded at researching, recognizing, and even demonstrating the iPad’s strengths and challenges in my English classroom.
In Defense of Learning Lishmah
Jewish educators often approach their subjects with the same modalities and grading system that are common in General Studies classes. Rather than continue with this approach, Shalhevet attempted to design two Judaic courses that would devalue letter grades and promote more authentic and deeper student learning. We were willing to take a calculated risk and we failed. While our initial pilot missed the mark, the effort has promoted some benefits and has jumpstarted further innovation in our approach to Judaic instruction.
Whole Brain Teaching
Whole Brain teaching is an approach that is designed to teach the way the brain is really created to learn while maximizing student involvement. It is a flexible method that can be adapted by any teacher to their own teaching methods.
Where the heart feels at home – מקום שלבו חפץ
The Netivot Upper Elementary learning environment is warm, inviting, stimulating, and vibrant like no other. Our classroom setting incorporates collective responsibility, independence, freedom of movement, freedom of choice and peer learning, and utilizes multiple modalities of instruction. This ground-breaking classroom promotes growth in all areas, academic, social, emotional, and spiritual, embodying the adage: אין אדם לומד אלא במקום שלבו חפץ.
Turn Tube
This is a tool I invented to maximize student work time and teacher conferencing. The teacher can work one on one with a child easily while other kids are engaged in their work. Every year, the children ask what this is and love using it!
The de Toledo High School Media Lab
The Amnon and Ronit Band Media Lab at de Toledo High School is an innovative learning environment which promotes academic, social, emotional, and spiritual growth. Over the last 12 years, the lab has evolved from a basic computer lab to a flexible and creative space designed to serve the varied educational needs of students and teachers in the media arts including: video production, animation, photography, graphic design, and computer science as well as serving the broader school community for instructional support, school and professional development.
Learning Environment – Jennifer Dolny
My presentation displays the learning environment in my classroom. This learning environment encourages student centered learning and promotes academic, social, and emotional growth.
“Unity in the School Community”
Jewish Day Schools often face a dichotomy between the Judaic and General Studies Departments. The Jewish Academy is making a priority of tackling this challenge through innovative means. Our goal is to create a seamless curriculum.
Tu’Beshvat School wide Interdisciplinary Unit
For Tu’Beshvat 2016 the Hamilton Hebrew Academy decided to create a school wide initiative that integrated science, biology, the arts, Ivrit and Judaic Studies. Our vision was to create a real world, interdisciplinary experience that would engage all learners.
The Living Haggadah: From Slavery to Freedom
The grade 5 students study the Exodus narrative through the lens of the Big Idea topic: “Who goes out from slavery to freedom? One who understands the meaning of a miracle and responds to its call.” This unit involves study in many disciplines, including Chumash (Torah) study, Hebrew language, Visual Arts, Music, Dance, Language Arts, and Social Sciences. Learning in all disciplines contributes to the final project, the Dramatized Haggadah performance, which is written and performed by the students.
The Akiva Broadcasting Network
The Akiva Broadcasting Network (ABN) is an interactive, team-oriented program of study where students develop communications skills; broadcast technology and technical skills; and critical life skills, integrating Jewish and Secular Studies across the curriculum.
ABN is part of the Kid TV program developed by Professor Larry Katz with the objective to teach cross curricular skills to students through the creation of TV newscasts that are shared with other members of their school community via an internal broadcast network and are also shared on the school website. Student select the news items, prepare the D’vray Torah, and stories on famous Jewish personalities, write the scripts, shoot and edit the stories, do the interviews, take on the roles of anchors and reporters, manage the broadcasts and handle all of the technical jobs
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj_uSY53-dM&feature=youtu.be).
Tashlich STEAM Waterfall
This project was planned for grades TK-8 to participate in a school-wide STEAM project to learn about Rosh Hashana, Tikkun Olan, Teshuvah, and Tashlich. The project included integration of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math into Judaic Studies.
Movement,Music & Midot
M3a is a stand- alone or supplemental curriculum for teaching character development. It consists of process and value concepts attached to musical anchors impacting class behavior.
Technology Opens Our Musical Minds
At Yeshivat Noam in Paramus NJ the use of iPads and a variety of music apps in our music program has opened up an exciting new world for our students. It has sparked widespread interest on the part of our students to eagerly pursue areas of music not only in our classrooms, but independently out of school.
SOLE Student Leadership Seminar
The SOLE Student Leadership Seminar is a full-day, interactive leadership seminar for grades 9-12 which combines real world skill development learned from world experts, with the application of Jewish values in the community.
Students learn from SOLE mentors including Rabbis, Commanders in the IDF, Professors specializing in Israeli Affairs, and other thought leaders in an innovative learning environment called a Self-Organized-Learning Environment or SOLE.
After each keynote, the speakers join the students in small group discussions on how to apply what they just learned from the presentations to their clubs, committees and Israeli-themed projects.
Realizing Dr. King’s Dream: Facing Choices and Becoming an Upstander
This day, the first in a new school tradition, was structured as a call to action for students and families in a time when action is sorely needed. We hope to give our students the tools they need to to stand up for what is right, like our social justice heroes throughout history have done.
Real-World Learning: Experiential Learning Designed and Implemented by Students and Faculty
The office of Student Life at Beth Tfiloh High School has developed beyond cute programming and is now seen as an Educational Department, working alongside all Academic Departments to enhance, collaborate, deepen and apply values, ideas and skills being taught in various disciplines and give them a meeting place of relevance and application through experiential programming. This is a new and exciting way to envision teaching for the Real World and I am excited to share the fruit of the first three years of this experience with you in the hope of inspiring more schools to develop this approach as well.
Passion Learning for Elementary Schools
Kindergarten through 5th grade students exercise already existing passions or new interests in multi-age/grade elective classes. Electives span such disciplines as sports, computer programming, engineering, robotics, culinary arts, fine arts, the environment, etc...
And There Was Light
This is an interdisciplinary unit, teaching the history of festivals and religions involving light across many cultures. Students were exposed to the symbolism of light in literature and Torah as well as the science of light in creating day and night, seasons and electricity with the creation of lamps in the school's pottery labs. Students learned Tfillot and added the Hallel for Hanukkah the festival of light, as well as created a book demonstrating of all of their learning.
L’Dor V’Dor: Linking Youth to Elders from the Ground Up
L’Dor V’Dor provides deep one-on-one encounters between students K-6 from Columbus Jewish Day School and Jewish and non-Jewish elders around lifecycle and holiday events. Through carefully planned and facilitated exercises, simulations, and activities, the intergenerational wisdom of elders interacts with the joy of youth among participants aged 6-106, through the use of art, music, text study, guided interactions, prayer, and more.
All School Read
Every student in our school reads the same book, author or Jewish value-themed text. Working across grades and disciplines, students develop projects synthesizing ideas related to these texts from Art, Music, Judaic studies, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies. Most years we have found a partner school to widen our students' horizons and deepen their understanding of the theme or value being studied.
8th Grade Integrated Project
The Integrated Project (IP) is a year-long study that spans the curriculum and represents the culmination of the students' K - 8th Grade studies at Mandel JDS. Students choose a theme or topic they want to study and integrate it into each subject within each of the disciplines throughout the year. Through the visual and dramatic arts, and often the performing arts and technology, students bring their fully integrated topics to life in an evening program.
6th – 8th Grade PBL: Entrepreneurship Program
This project simulates a real world experience, in the context of an interdisciplinary approach, and helps students finance their 8th grade Israel trip. They are exposed to the basic of money management and investments and learn about different types of investment vehicles and create an investment portfolio. This entrepreneurial program builds the middle school students' critical thinking skills and advanced communication skills, while building creativity.
Civil Rights
In this unit, students were exposed to some of the major Civil Rights leaders and their impact on rights for all people. Second graders explored the history of the movement through literature, art, writing, and theatrical performance.
The World We Live In
This interdisciplinary unit explores cultures around the world. It aims to teach students that where one lives affects how they live. We use this big idea to examine Jewish traditions, food, arts, day to day life and more.