This document provides information and instructions for a virtual event on using music and songs to teach lessons. It includes guidelines for setting up audio and video equipment. It then discusses using a framework where students listen to songs and answer questions to analyze elements like feelings, tone, and meaning without seeing the lyrics at first. The document offers examples of Yiddish songs that could be used and modifications for students of different ages. It emphasizes using music to explore multiple aspects of culture.

1. Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change
Music and Lyrics:
Learning from Songs

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Inspiring Change
1. Adjust your volume using the speaker button (you should see a speaker
icon in the top, black menu of your meeting room).
2. Enable your microphone using the drop-down menu under the microphone
icon.
3. Practice muting your microphone (the icon will be green with a line through
it). Once the program begins, please leave it on mute when you are
not speaking.
4. Enable your webcam so we will be able to see you (the webcam icon will
turn green).
5. Practice raising and lowering your hand. This will allow you to ask
questions without interrupting the flow of the program.
Welcome, and thanks for coming!
Get Set Up

3. Yes! This program will
be recorded.
Recordings will be made
available at a later date, or upon
request.

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Inspiring Change

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Inspiring Change
Who is this person?
What did this person do?
Why did they do it?
Who am I?
What do I do / What do I
want to do?
Why do I do it?
You Cannot Be What You Cannot See

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Inspiring Change
Who am I? I am Pauli Katz
● Grew up in Boston Workmen’s
Circle
● Attended Camp Kinderland
● Parents spoke (and sang)
Yiddish in the home
● Lead music in Yiddish Classes
at the National Yiddish Book
Center
● Camp Counselor and Group
Leader at Kinderland
● Shule Teacher at the Boston
Workmen’s Circle

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Inspiring Change
What do you hope to learn in this
session?

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Inspiring Change
Why use music as a tool for learning?
● Gives students multiple
points of entry
● Engages new or struggling
readers
● Shows more sides to culture
than just text

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Inspiring Change
Framework for Classroom Activity
1. Ask students to listen to a song with key questions
in mind. Do not provide any introduction or the
words and translation.
2. If students are old enough, ask them to write down
answers to those questions or more generally how
they are feeling while listening to the song. After it
has finished, ask for responses.
3. With younger students, have a group discussion
and record student’s responses on a large piece or
paper or white board.

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Inspiring Change
Modification for Different Ages
● For younger students, focus on music appreciation
and conscious analysis of music. For example, “How
do the notes make you feel?” etc.
● For the next tier of learners, begin to broaden the
scope and delve more deeply into the content of the
song.
● For students who can appreciate complexity,
introduce ideas of purpose of the artist or the
translator.

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Inspiring Change
Listen to Mayn Rue Plats
● How does the song make you feel?
● How does the rhythm or background music influence how you
hear it?
● What are the singers doing to emphasize parts of the song?
How does it change what you feel as you listen?

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Inspiring Change
A Besere Velt Version
1. Listen to the song again, this time give the words and/or
translation for students look at as they listen.
2. If text is too much, read the words out loud before listening to
each verse.
3. Again, ask for feelings or think about what has changed between
listenings.
● What are they singing about?
● Do the lyrics match the tone of the music?
● What do you think the purpose of the song might be?
This activity develops music appreciation and serves as an
introduction to the content

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Inspiring Change
Dan Kahn Version
1. What changes when another artist sings the same song?
2. What is the purpose of this version?
3. What reasons can you think of for the different singable
translation of the song?

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Inspiring Change
After song has been introduced
Ale Brider and Mayn Rue Plats were written by the
“sweatshop poets”, Morris Winchevsky and Morris
Rosenfeld, respectively.
Turn a sweatshop unit to current events. What is
happening in our lives and how can we record what we
are seeing and feeling?

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Inspiring Change
Using music to show cultural dimensions
Children’s Songs
Folk Songs
Protest Songs
Ritual Songs
Theater Songs
Songs of Struggle

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Yiddish Song Collections
● https://yiddishsong.wordpress.com/
● http://www.zemerl.com/
● Pearls of Yiddish Song Books

17. What else do you
need to know?
What ideas do you
have?

18. Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change
TWERSKY WINNER TELLS ALL
Thursday, February 12 @ 1pm & 8pm
With Twersky Award Winner Rabbi Deborah Bodin Cohen