I am ever looking for educators that are experimenting with
successful approaches to davening. If you, or someone you know, dabbles in the
craft of teaching tefilla, please suggest they contact the blog.
The following post is from Tzvi D. Daum, an experienced educator who actively incorporates technology into his classroom. He is also the creator of TorahSkills.org.
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In my school, I daven together with a group of 6-8 graders
with the type of background I described in my Lookjed post.. many of them come
from homes where parents hardly go to shul and if they do.... I find that even
in very religious schools teffillah is very hard for this particular
age group and I believe it is a struggle all around. As such, our main focus
has been to train students about how to "act" during davening. The
number one rule being not disturb others who wish to daven (talking etc) and to
respect the sanctity of a shul, keep siddur open to the place etc. Hopefully
once they get older they will know how to act in a shul and feel comfortable
there. My understanding is that for better or for worse we are not the only ones
with this attitude...
Having said that we do speak twice a week during Shacharit
about the importance of prayer and different aspects of it. Also, we recently
introduced a "Minyonaires Club" where students are graded in four
general areas 1) coming on time 2) Not talking 3) Saying certain parts of
davening out loud (and the fourth category escapes me at the moment...maybe it
is having the place)...in any event, the daily results are put on a chart in
the hallway and students enjoy checking it. Basically one successful day
entitles students to an ice cream at lunch, a successful week is some other
prize and after a month there is a catered lunch and the students have their
pictures hanging on the wall in shul as members of the club (there is some
leeway for the occasional messup). I apologize for not being up on all the
details as I don't actually administer the program, however I can certainly
speak to the ones who do and get you some feedback as to its effectiveness to
date. I would say we introduced it about six weeks ago. I find at this age you
will have students who will naturally daven, others who simply won't and most
are probably a couple of shades in between.
Tzvi D. Daum
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