Hi Shalom,
I employ much of what Rav Tal suggests in my classroom (I teach 5th grade). The response is quite positive, as students are actively engaged. We sing not only Baruch She'amar, Ashrei, Yishtabach, and Aleinu, but also all of the hal'lukot and the entire birchot k'riat Sh'ma (thanks to their 4th grade experience which I simply continue), and each new t'filah I introduce. Sh'ma we do with the trop. By the end of the year we're also singing Az Yashir to the same tune I learned when I was in 5th grade in Israel when my family was on sabbatical. Singing works, for young kids, teenagers, and adults.
I too take the approach of "less is more", or more bluntly, "tafasta m'rubeh lo tafasta". Therefore we sing only one hal'lukah each day, rather than all five. This way the kids will have greater patience for the rest of the t'filot. This non-overwhelming approach also leads to greater accuracy in reading/pronunciation.
Finally, we often don't recite shir shel yom together at all. Rather, I use it as an exercise for general k'riah, calling on kids at random to read a pasuk. Year in and year out the kids' eagerness to read for the class (there will always be the two or three who are not so eager, either due to poor reading skills, or because they put on a front of being "too cool" to read out loud, or are simply still not moved--all of which are the topic of a different post) is a sight to behold. Additionally, I often save shir shel yom for later in the day rather than at the conclusion of shacharit, in order for t'filah to not seem so drawn out and "boring".
Kol Tuv,
Avi Herzog
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2016 04:19PM by mlb.
