Part of what is exciting about 6th grade, is our study of a unique curriculum called Trope or Cantillation. Cantillation is how we chant our holy texts, trope marks or cantillation marks tell the chanter exactly how and what to chant. For our first semester, we will focus on chanting Torah. In our second term, we will focus on chanting Haftarah.
As we discussed in class, trope marks function in 3 unique and important ways:
- The Melody – each trope mark has a specific melody attached to it.
- Syllabic Stress – where the trope mark is placed, above or below a word, indicates which part of the word should be stressed.
- Punctuation – each trope mark tells the reader to continue to chant, or to pause their chanting and take a breath. Each trope is either a m’chaber (connector) or a mafsik (separator).
We learned that the trope marks are divided into 6 clauses, or groups. So far we have learned the first two clauses, called Etnachta and Sof-Pasuk. Etnachta consists of the symbols: Mercha Tipcha Munach Etnachta. 
Sof Pasuk means ‘end of verse’ and consists of three symbols: Mercha Tipcha Sof-Pasuk.
We approach learning trope in a variety of ways: oral, aural, physically, and visually. First I chant a new symbol for the students to hear (aural). We chant it repeatedly together (oral) and use a hand symbol that connects the body to the sound (physical). Then once the students have the sound in their voices and bodies, I write the symbol on board and write out the symbols Hebrew and transliterated name. Then we look for examples of the symbols in the prayer V’ahavta. Once the students can ID the symbols, we color code the clauses. We also practice using an example from Genesis/B’reishit.
As we build on what we learn each Sunday in Hebrew, attendance is critical! If your student is going to miss Hebrew school, please make sure they come and find out what we will be working on, so they can practice at home. It is the student’s responsibility to make up what we have worked on in class at home. To assist with this, I have created a Trope page in the blog. The page contains pdfs of what we work on in class, as well as recordings of each trope clause, and much more.
The students are already making great strides in this work. I feel highly confident of each of their successes as we continue to study!