Overview:
Listening to music is an integral part of music instruction. To provide students with an optimum and enriching experience, the selection of quality music for listening lessons and activities is important. In addition, the examples of music can and should be drawn from diverse style periods, genres, and cultures to expose students to a wide variety of music readily available.
Objectives:
Students will be able to:
- Identify and model best practices for teaching a listening lesson.
- Examine best practices developing listening skills in young students.
- Identify ways in which music can be taught through a guided listening lesson.
- Identify age-appropriate music for younger students.
- Evaluate and analyze music literature to be used for listening lessons based on standards identified in the text.
- Identify ways in which technology can be used as a tool for guiding creative listening lessons.
Knowledge of Equipment
Several points about audio equipment are important to consider. The teacher needs to:
- Be familiar with the equipment and make sure the equipment will work during the class activity
- Have the music cued to the starting point so there will be no “down time” during the activity
- Use quality equipment to play the recorded selections
- Play the selections at a volume that students can hear comfortably in the classroom
Assessment of Listening Experiences
If an assessment is appropriate, a variety of subjective and objective tools are available to assess students’ knowledge of and response to a listening experience. Subjective assessment tools include any form of questioning or assignment that requires the student to describe the music either verbally, kinesthetically, or visually. Objective evaluation and assessment are usually in the form of paper-and-pencil charts or directed questioning sessions that focus on the objectives or goals of the listening experience.
Technology as a Tool for Listening Experiences
The use of technology is a natural partner for classroom listening activities. The development of the radio and phonograph—technologies from the early 1900s—facilitated the introduction of listening experiences in the music classroom. One hundred years later, technological advancements make possible a variety of instructional techniques.
- Using notation software (Finale™ or Sibelius™), teachers can reproduce musical themes or motives from repertoire selected for the classroom.
- Students can use notation software to compose music inspired by classroom listening activities. Free notation software is available to download from the Internet.
- With sound-editing software (e.g. Adobe Audition™, Bias Peak™, or Sound Forge™), teachers and students can isolate sections of compositions to develop examples to explain musical form.
- Teachers and students can use Microsoft PowerPoint™ to create multimedia presentations of listening examples. They can use presentations not only to provide listening maps but also to allow students the opportunity to reflect on the emotions and feelings evoked by the literature.
- They can also use Microsoft PowerPoint™ to combine stories and poems—published as well as newly created—with listening examples.