Prayer Assessment

TORAH AURA CURRICULA PRAYER ASSESSMENTS Journeys Through the Siddur Pirkei T’fillah S’fatai Tiftah

Susan H. Shure

ISBN 10 1-891662-98-8 ISBN 13 978-1-891662-98-0 Copyright © 2007 Torah Aura Productions. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Torah Aura Productions • 4423 Fruitland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90058 (800) BE-Torah • (800) 238-6724 • (323) 585-7312 • fax (323) 585-0327 E-MAIL <misrad@torahaura.com> • Visit the Torah Aura website at www.torahaura.com

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES

Prayer Assessment Tests These Materials

making judgments about its worth and effectiveness.

These materials are designed to allow teachers (or schools) to assess the mastery of students after the study of individual prayers (as studied with Torah Aura materials) or final assessments for all Torah Aura tefillah (prayer) materials excepting Pirkei Tefillah.

These materials will allow teachers to evaluate both the progress of each student (when they are using Torah Aura materials) and to reflect on the successes and challenges they are experiencing in their own teaching.

In this collection you will find an assessment tool for each prayer covered in our materials and final assessments for each of the books in the S’fatai Tiftah and Journeys series. Schools who use Pirkei Tefillah will need to assemble their own final tools out of the prayers they have actually studied.

Assessment is effective when it...

• • • • • • • • •

is student centered is congruent with instructional objectives is relevant is comprehensive is clear (in purpose, directions, expectations) is objective and fair simulates “end” behavior/product/performance incites active responses shows progress/development over time Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu

The Nature of these Assessments The individual prayer assessments are made up of six parts. Each of these six parts tests a different objective.

What is Assessment Assessment... ...is the systematic, on-going, iterative process of monitoring learning in order to determine what we are doing well and what we must improve.

Assessment involves observing, describing, collecting, recording, scoring, and interpreting information.

1. Vocabulary: Given vocabulary icons to match, students will define key vocabulary from the prayer studied.

2. Roots: Students will be able either to complete roots or identify roots in context.

3. Translation: Given key vocabulary, students will be able to create a translation of a key verse (or two) from the prayer studied.

Assessment or Evaluation?

The term assessment refers to the systematic gathering of information about component parts of the thing to be evaluated. The evaluation process is broader than assessment and involves examining information about many components of the thing being evaluated and

4. Questions: Students can discuss “the big ideas” expressed by each prayer.

5. True and False/Multiple Choice: Students can answer questions about the

iii

basic details of the performance of the prayer being studied.

the prevailing standards of your class and your school.

The results from these tests will allow you to do two things. First, they will allow you to evaluate each student’s progress in a specific and objective fashion. Second, they will allow you to reflect on your own teaching, seeing the areas of strength and the areas of challenge where additional work needs to be done.

These exams will also allow you to share with Torah Aura the places where your classes are succeeding and to provide us with feedback on areas where additional resources would support your efforts. Email us at <misrad@torahaura. com>.

6. Recitation: The successful oral performance of portions of the prayer being studied.

The chart on pages v-vi will help you match the prayer being studied in the Torah Aura materials with the tests in the assessment notebook.

At the end of this material you will find endof-the-year exams that are based on the same pattern, but without questions on the big ideas.

This will allow you to evaluate mastery of books in the Journeys and S’fatai Tiftah series, excepting Pirkei Tefillah, because there the choice of materials is yours.

Final Reflections

Using These Assessments

Assessments are all the rage in the world of public education. It has become popular to evaluate schools for funding, teachers for rehiring, and students for moving on to the next grade through the use of tests. Yet, we as educators must be careful in how much faith we put in these tools. They are absolutely useful, but they are not complete or final measures. Some students do not test well, and more importantly, some kinds of learning do not readily lend themselves to testing. We do not know of a single form of assessment that will measure the way learning moves a student’s heart, or that can accurately predict the Jewish future of any student. What is most important, is that we as teachers, remember that not all of the important work we do in the classroom will be reflected in these evaluations or can we pretend that they are indeed assessments of our long term goals, the raising of a new generation of Jews.

The first five activities in each test (the first four in end-of-the-year tests) are paper-andpencil exams. Each of these is clear and easy to work on by students working alone. While this is taking place, the teacher can call the students aside, one at a time to take the oral portion of the exam. The exams are based on a scale of 100 points and should be easily scored by the teacher without curve (in most cases). The student’s individual score should give you a good idea of his/her progress. The classroom averages will give you a good idea of the success of the book with your class.

In order to score these assessment pieces you need only to turn to the CD-ROM that accompanies each of the notebooks. In it you will find answer sheets for each of the tests. It will be easy to run off the few pages you need and use them as a guide for your scoring.

The only two subjective parts of the scoring are (a) the oral performances and (b) the “Questions” that call for expository writing.

Both of these you will be able to judge against

iv

ASSESSMENTS BY PRAYER PIRKEI T’FILLAH

JOURNEYS JOURNEYS JOURNEYS SHABBAT AT TORAH & SHABBAT HOME CONCLUDING MORNING











JOURNEYS EREV SHABBAT

S’FATAI TIFTAH VOLUME 3

S’FATAI TIFTAH VOLUME 2

S’FATAI TIFTAH VOLUME 1

PAGES



1–3





5–7

 

9–11

 

13–15

 

17–19

 

 







 

PRAYER









21–23











25–27











29–31

 





33–35







37–39





41–43

  



45–47







 







49–51

 









53–55











57–59









61–63

— 

65–67

— 



69–71

 



73–75

 — 



77–79

 — 



81–83



  







 





85–87

Beginning the Torah Service







89–91

The Ark is Opened







93–95

Taking the Torah Out of the Ark







97–99

The Torah Blessings





101–103

 





105–107

 

v

PIRKEI T’FILLAH

JOURNEYS JOURNEYS JOURNEYS SHABBAT AT TORAH & SHABBAT HOME CONCLUDING MORNING





JOURNEYS EREV SHABBAT

 

S’FATAI TIFTAH VOLUME 3

S’FATAI TIFTAH VOLUME 2

S’FATAI TIFTAH VOLUME 1

PAGES

PRAYER



109–111 Haftarah Blessings



113–115



117–119 Returning the Torah to the Ark



121–123 Returning the Torah to the Ark

 





125–127









129–131

 





133–135

 





137–139

 

141–143

 / 

145–147

 

149–151

 

153–155

 

157–159



161–163



165–167

 

169–171



173–175

 

177–179

  and  



181–183

 



185–187

 



189–191 What is a ?



193–195



197–200 S’fatai Tiftah Vol. 1 Final Assessment

 

 



 















  



 

 

201–204 S’fatai Tiftah Vol. 2 Final Assessment



205–208 S’fatai Tiftah Vol. 3 Final Assessment



209–212 Journeys Erev Shabbat Final Assessment



213–216 Journeys Shabbat Morning Final Assessment



217–220 Journeys Torah Service & Concluding Final



221–224 Journeys Shabbat at Home Final Assessment

 vi

Name ________________________________

 1. Vocabulary. Match the vocabulary icon to the word in Hebrew. Hint: more than one word matches one of the icons. (10 points)

     2. Language. Circle all the words that contain the root word . (10 points)  

 

 









 



.1



.2











.3











.4

S’FATAI TIFTAH, VOLUME 1, JOURNEYS THROUGH THE SIDDUR EREV SHABBAT & SHABBAT MORNING, PIRKEI T’FILLAH

1

– 1

Name ________________________________

3. Questions. Answer two of these questions. (30 points) A) Why is the  (“Let’s bless God”) a good place to start a prayer service?

B) How do we dance the ?

C) Explain one way that the  make us a community.

________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

4. Multiple Choice. Circle the correct answer. (10 points) A) The  is only said 1. if there is a minyan 2. if there are 5 people 3. anytime 4. only on holidays B) A minyan is defined as 1. 2 people 2. 5 people 3. 10 people 4. 15 people S’FATAI TIFTAH, VOLUME 1, JOURNEYS THROUGH THE SIDDUR EREV SHABBAT & SHABBAT MORNING, PIRKEI T’FILLAH

2

– 2

Name ________________________________

5. Translation. Take your best guess at the meaning of this prayer. (20 points)    _____________________________________________





Cosmos

bless

_____________________________________________

Words no meaning =  Adonai, Eternal (God’s name) =  forever and ever =  to the Cosmos and more



     _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________

Word Parts to = 

the = 

6. Recitation. Your teacher will ask you to recite two lines from the text below.

(20 points)

     .  

.1

         

.2

        

.3

        

.4

        

.5

S’FATAI TIFTAH, VOLUME 1, JOURNEYS THROUGH THE SIDDUR EREV SHABBAT & SHABBAT MORNING, PIRKEI T’FILLAH

3

– 3

4

Name ________________________________

  1. Vocabulary. Write a definition for five of these words. (10 points) __________________________



__________________________

.5



.1

________________________  .6

_________________________  .2

___________________________  .7

___________________________

___________________________



.8

__________________________

2. Roots. Circle the words built out of the root from the root



.3



.4

and underline those

   . (10 points) 

 









 



 





.1







.2







.3

S’FATAI TIFTAH, VOLUME 1, JOURNEYS THROUGH THE SIDDUR SHABBAT MORNING, PIRKEI T’FILLAH

5



 -1

Name ________________________________

3. Translation. Take your best guess at the meaning of this prayer. (20 points) Words creates =  creates =  Adonai =  our God =  do or make =  peace =  all =  Word Parts and = / the = 



darkess

 light





Cosmos

ruler

 you

 bless

              ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________

4. Questions. Answer two of these questions. (30 points) A) God created light on the first day of Creation, but didn’t create the sun, moon and stars until day four. Describe God’s light.

B) Explain the difference between the two words  and .

C)   is in present tense. What does this teach you about creation?

________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ S’FATAI TIFTAH, VOLUME 1, JOURNEYS THROUGH THE SIDDUR SHABBAT MORNING, PIRKEI T’FILLAH

6

 -2

Name ________________________________

5. Multiple Choice. Circle the correct answer. (10 points) A) We say   __________ the .

B)   is a prayer about

1. before

1. sun

2. after

2. God

3. during

3. light

4. not at all

4. night

6. Recitation. Your teacher will ask you to recite two of these lines. (20 points)      

.1

        

.2

    

.3



      



.4

         

.5

      

.6

     

.7

    

.8

S’FATAI TIFTAH, VOLUME 1, JOURNEYS THROUGH THE SIDDUR SHABBAT MORNING, PIRKEI T’FILLAH

7

 -3