[HANASHIR:4612] Re: 6th and 7th graders

[Rachel Gurevitz <R.Gurevitz...>]

I'm finding this discussion really interesting.  Especially as I am due
to run a workshop in February at our UK Centre for Jewish Education
annual conference about getting age 9+ children to sing at Cheder.  I've
called it 'Can't sing, won't sing?'.  I've taught 9-11 year olds at
Cheder for about 8 years, and getting them to sing was never easy.  In
the end, my current line of thought is something like this:

Why do we want them at Cheder?  Do we want them to enjoy activities?  Is
there any point 'forcing' them to 'enjoy' activities that we think are
good for them?  Do we understand the basics of the social psychology of
that age group (if you do, it will be clear why it is 'uncool' for them
to sing, and why they love it if left to their own devices to come up
with a song and even do a dance with it)?  Being clear about some of
these questions helps to check in on the purpose of everything you do,
and also helps you get wise to how to integrate less 'cool' activities
into a larger project to increase the probability that the kids will get
into it (but no guarantees!)

In the end, there are no magic answers - and we all have classes of
individuals, so every class is different.  But a few egs. of times when
I've found singing and music to be no problem are:

Getting children to design a creative service - using existing words, or
making up their own, using existing tunes or ones from recent pop charts
(and dances too if they wish) - and doing this in *groups*.  (Unlike the
US, most kids haven't had a camp experience, but I will never forget
when the 2 girls in one of my classes who had been to a UK camp
introduced Debbie Friedman's 'Shema' and 'V'Ahavta' to their group -
because it came from them and they connected it with a cool camp
experience, it went down really well).

Using music when it enhances the topic or project they are doing - not
pushing it as a specific 'thing' in its own right when you meet with
resistance (if you don't meet with resistance then go for it!).  I was
teaching a group who were struggling with learning how to read Hebrew.
One said something like 'we'll never get this - we don't even know the
Aleph Bet in order'.  I was amazed that no-one had taught them that by
the age of 11, but told them that I knew a song, that maybe was a bit
'childish' for them, but promised they would know the Aleph Bet by the
end of the lesson.  They loved it, and asked to sing it every week until
the end of term to help them practice.

Also, remember that even in this day and age, there are still certain
music teachers and choir leaders who select kids to sing and tell others
to mouth the words - yes, I know they should be shot, but they are still
out there ruining the singing futures of many kids.  As they get older,
they get really self-conscious.  Playing music games - trying to make up
an East-european sounding niggun, one phrase at a time in a group
setting, or starting with getting a really good rhythm groove going
before adding a rhythmic and well-arranged set of simple tunes to sing
can work - the kids see that something that actually sounds pretty cool
(rather than sounding like the tacky old-fashioned stuff that many of
them associate with Jewish music) and can only work if every one takes
their part (for older kids, work with at least 4 parts to make it an
interesting challenge).

So there's a few that have worked for me in the past - please keep
sharing - I intend to report on our discussions at my workshop!!

Rachel Gurevitz

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