Sarah Cram
C&I 372
Grade Level: 8th
Unit Topic: “Your Brain on Music”
Lesson Title: Emotional Responses to Music
Standards:
Science Standard:
Students will know that learning and memory are enhanced by repetition, active first hand experience, multiple senses, emotional engagement, and association with familiar knowledge.
Music Standards:
Students will identify by genre and style (and, if applicable, by historical period, composer, and title) a varied body of exemplary music works.
Students will compare, in several cultures of the world, functions music serves, roles of musicians, and conditions under which music is typically performed.
Objectives:
Content Objectives:
Students will comprehend that:
1. Music can be represented with color and design according to their feelings and emotions
2. Music can be interpreted in whatever way the students see fit.
3. Different feelings and emotions are evoked for each person when different types of music are played.
4. There are different ways to analyze music to try to understand why it can evoke certain feelings or emotions for different people.
Process Objectives:
Students will:
· Classify, through the use of pictures and words, what types of music make them feel certain ways
· Formulate ideas fora data sheet that they will use as a class to ask questions about music and peoples’ feelings towards different types
· Employ the data sheets on at least 25 subjects for their study
· Analyze the data from the 20 different songs
· Share their findings with the rest of the class
· Graph each song, the feelings expressed with that song, and the number of people who expressed that feeling
· Compare their findings with other class periods
· Predict what types of things could influence a person’s feelings and emotions towards a certain song
Affective Objectives:
Students will:
· Respect the feelings expressed by their participants in their studies, since they will most likely be different than
Materials:
· 100 CDs with 20 different songs (different genres, loudness, meter, timbre, etc)
· At least 8 pages with initial instructions for students (see Appendix B)
· Hundreds of many colors of crayons
· Worksheet for students to fill out (see Appendix A)
· Markerboard/Smartboard/Chalkboard
· Discmans for students without one (software to put it on students’ iPods as well)
· 100 data sheets (see Appendix C)
· Paper cutter
· Paper, markers, colored pencils for graphs
· Tape to put graphs up on the wall
Context:
This will be the first and introductory lesson to a unit on music, the science of music, and the ways that our minds and emotions connect with that music. In order to understand more of why we react certain ways to different types of music, students will have to learn many things about music (such as pitch, loudness, sound recording, acoustics, etc) that will be incorporated throughout the unit. In this lesson, students will be getting a basic idea of how people react differently to different types of music.
This lesson will technically take place throughout the whole unit. It will be revisited at the end of each “topic” throughout the unit, where will we go through the songs that were played on the first day and that were played for collecting data, and really analyze the data to find out how different aspects of music can influence how people react and feel when they hear it.
Procedures:
Observation of the Phenomenon:
As students are coming into the room, there will be 20-second clips playing of all different types of music (different genres, different tempos, different loudness, etc.) At each table there will be at least 60 different crayons, as well as sheets with different boxes on it (see Appendix A). There will be instructions in the middle of the table, giving students specific instructions (see Appendix B). These students will be asked to use the crayons to express whatever emotion they feel with each different song. 2. Music can be represented with color and design according to their feelings and emotions. They will be encouraged to draw not only something simple like a line, but really let the music fill their whole bodies, minds, and souls and let whatever comes out onto the paper with whatever color they think coordinates with that emotion, as well as shape, into the different boxes. 2. Music can be interpreted in whatever way the students see fit.
After all students have heard each sound clip (there will probably be around 12 different clips), I will have all students, within their small groups at their tables, discuss each music clip and the crayon markings that they made with each distinctive clip. In order to do this (since students will be coming into the classroom at different times), I will play each sound clip and then have them discuss that clip and the markings they made for that specific clip. Leading questions that I will ask students before the clips begin are (and will be written up on the board for assistance):
· Why did you use that color?
· Why did you make that certain shape?
· How did that song clip make you feel?
· Did that song remind you of anything else in your life? Any memories? Any previous experiences?
· Do you think you know the genre of that song? How do you know?
Once we have gone through all of the music clips, I will questions to the whole class to ponder and share with all others, such as:
· Did anyone have the same exact representation for a song? Why or why not do you think that is?
· Did anyone share a common memory?
· Did everyone like all the same music?
· Did everyone use the same colors for all of the same songs?
Students will begin to see that 3. Different feelings and emotions are evoked for each person when different types of music are played. These are the questions that will get students to start thinking about music and how it affects people differently.
Posing the Problem:
Throughout this unit, students will be learning about different aspects of music and connecting them with the ways that people react and connect to music in different ways. With the first day of the lesson, however, students will be collecting a lot of data from all kinds of people about their reactions and feelings. For this specific day, the question will be: How do people respond to different types of music? I will emphasis, however, that these are questions that they will be thinking about throughout the unit. Although the following question is not a part of this lesson specifically, throughout the unit, students will be continuously asking themselves the question: Can I hypothesis why our brains respond to music in different ways?
Problem Solving:
Specifically on the first day of this lesson, students will be introduced to a data collection project that they will be doing throughout the next week. Each student will receive a CD (or whatever type of sound recording we have at the time, CDs seem to be disappearing now!!) of all of the songs that were played to them. They will work together to create a data sheet for their population of participants in the survey (that will look something like Appendix C). On each page of the data sheet will be space for answers for five different tracks, creating a data sheet of four total pages (5 tracks per page, 4 pages equals the 20 songs on the CD). Included in this data set will be the simple question: “How did you feel during this song?” Along with each song clip and the previously stated question, will be another question that students will be touching on today, but especially throughout the unit: “What was it about the music, the structure, and/or presentation of it that made you feel that way?” With this question, they are beginning to see that 4. There are different ways to analyze music to try to understand why it can evoke certain feelings or emotions for different people.
Throughout the next week, students will be collected data from peers (if a teacher will allow them, students can present this activity to a whole class at the same time since it will only take about ten minutes). With this, students will get experience collecting data and taking responsibility for their discovery. Perhaps the very first day, depending on where our school is, we could go around the neighborhood or downtown with CD players and ask people on the street if they would be willing to take the survey, so that students can get used to asking subjects to participate. Students will also be encouraged to ask subjects in groups of two or three in order to feel bolder with potential participants.
After the first week of initial research is over and students have at least 25 different results, they will come back to class a week after the assignment was given to them, in order to share their findings with their classmates.
Persuasion of Peers:
At this moment, students are all prepared to share their data with one another. Students will (hopefully!) have different feelings for each song and different reasons why they felt that emotion.
All students’ data sheets will be cut and organized between the different tracks (so there will be 20 skinny, but long slips for each person the student interviewed). Students will then be assigned a certain song out of the 20 tracks (some may be in groups of two in the classes). Once each student (or group of two) has one of the 20 tracks, they will graph the data for that specific song. In this graph, students will only be documenting the emotions, not the rationale behind it (that will be saved for further on in the unit after we have learned about certain aspects of music). After this, there will be 20 graphs for the 20 tracks the students used.
Lesson Closing:
Once students have made the graphs in all of the classes, data will be compared across class to see if the same sorts of results were observed in each of the classes. After observing all of this data, in small groups and then as a large group, we will talk about what we observe in the graphs. We will then initially tie in the second question for each song (What was it about the music, the structure, and/or presentation of it that made you feel that way?) and have an open discussion about our hypotheses of what aspects of music can influence a person’s feelings and emotions toward a song.
Assessment:
There are not many formal ways to assess the students formally in this lesson. However, one way is by observing the students graphs. It will be evident if the student understands the different emotions and feelings associated with each song if their graph reflects the data of the song they or their group was assigned.
Some ways to informally assess these students is to see if they are making observations and connections between their graphs and the graphs of the other classes. If students understand that this type of data set will be different every single time, depending on who they ask, they are understanding just how much music influences people in so many ways.
Resources:
Levitin, Daniel J. (2006). This is Your Brain on Music. New York, NY: Penguin Group.
C&I 372
Grade Level: 8th
Unit Topic: “Your Brain on Music”
Lesson Title: Emotional Responses to Music
Standards:
Science Standard:
Students will know that learning and memory are enhanced by repetition, active first hand experience, multiple senses, emotional engagement, and association with familiar knowledge.
Music Standards:
Students will identify by genre and style (and, if applicable, by historical period, composer, and title) a varied body of exemplary music works.
Students will compare, in several cultures of the world, functions music serves, roles of musicians, and conditions under which music is typically performed.
Objectives:
Content Objectives:
Students will comprehend that:
1. Music can be represented with color and design according to their feelings and emotions
2. Music can be interpreted in whatever way the students see fit.
3. Different feelings and emotions are evoked for each person when different types of music are played.
4. There are different ways to analyze music to try to understand why it can evoke certain feelings or emotions for different people.
Process Objectives:
Students will:
· Classify, through the use of pictures and words, what types of music make them feel certain ways
· Formulate ideas fora data sheet that they will use as a class to ask questions about music and peoples’ feelings towards different types
· Employ the data sheets on at least 25 subjects for their study
· Analyze the data from the 20 different songs
· Share their findings with the rest of the class
· Graph each song, the feelings expressed with that song, and the number of people who expressed that feeling
· Compare their findings with other class periods
· Predict what types of things could influence a person’s feelings and emotions towards a certain song
Affective Objectives:
Students will:
· Respect the feelings expressed by their participants in their studies, since they will most likely be different than
Materials:
· 100 CDs with 20 different songs (different genres, loudness, meter, timbre, etc)
· At least 8 pages with initial instructions for students (see Appendix B)
· Hundreds of many colors of crayons
· Worksheet for students to fill out (see Appendix A)
· Markerboard/Smartboard/Chalkboard
· Discmans for students without one (software to put it on students’ iPods as well)
· 100 data sheets (see Appendix C)
· Paper cutter
· Paper, markers, colored pencils for graphs
· Tape to put graphs up on the wall
Context:
This will be the first and introductory lesson to a unit on music, the science of music, and the ways that our minds and emotions connect with that music. In order to understand more of why we react certain ways to different types of music, students will have to learn many things about music (such as pitch, loudness, sound recording, acoustics, etc) that will be incorporated throughout the unit. In this lesson, students will be getting a basic idea of how people react differently to different types of music.
This lesson will technically take place throughout the whole unit. It will be revisited at the end of each “topic” throughout the unit, where will we go through the songs that were played on the first day and that were played for collecting data, and really analyze the data to find out how different aspects of music can influence how people react and feel when they hear it.
Procedures:
Observation of the Phenomenon:
As students are coming into the room, there will be 20-second clips playing of all different types of music (different genres, different tempos, different loudness, etc.) At each table there will be at least 60 different crayons, as well as sheets with different boxes on it (see Appendix A). There will be instructions in the middle of the table, giving students specific instructions (see Appendix B). These students will be asked to use the crayons to express whatever emotion they feel with each different song. 2. Music can be represented with color and design according to their feelings and emotions. They will be encouraged to draw not only something simple like a line, but really let the music fill their whole bodies, minds, and souls and let whatever comes out onto the paper with whatever color they think coordinates with that emotion, as well as shape, into the different boxes. 2. Music can be interpreted in whatever way the students see fit.
After all students have heard each sound clip (there will probably be around 12 different clips), I will have all students, within their small groups at their tables, discuss each music clip and the crayon markings that they made with each distinctive clip. In order to do this (since students will be coming into the classroom at different times), I will play each sound clip and then have them discuss that clip and the markings they made for that specific clip. Leading questions that I will ask students before the clips begin are (and will be written up on the board for assistance):
· Why did you use that color?
· Why did you make that certain shape?
· How did that song clip make you feel?
· Did that song remind you of anything else in your life? Any memories? Any previous experiences?
· Do you think you know the genre of that song? How do you know?
Once we have gone through all of the music clips, I will questions to the whole class to ponder and share with all others, such as:
· Did anyone have the same exact representation for a song? Why or why not do you think that is?
· Did anyone share a common memory?
· Did everyone like all the same music?
· Did everyone use the same colors for all of the same songs?
Students will begin to see that 3. Different feelings and emotions are evoked for each person when different types of music are played. These are the questions that will get students to start thinking about music and how it affects people differently.
Posing the Problem:
Throughout this unit, students will be learning about different aspects of music and connecting them with the ways that people react and connect to music in different ways. With the first day of the lesson, however, students will be collecting a lot of data from all kinds of people about their reactions and feelings. For this specific day, the question will be: How do people respond to different types of music? I will emphasis, however, that these are questions that they will be thinking about throughout the unit. Although the following question is not a part of this lesson specifically, throughout the unit, students will be continuously asking themselves the question: Can I hypothesis why our brains respond to music in different ways?
Problem Solving:
Specifically on the first day of this lesson, students will be introduced to a data collection project that they will be doing throughout the next week. Each student will receive a CD (or whatever type of sound recording we have at the time, CDs seem to be disappearing now!!) of all of the songs that were played to them. They will work together to create a data sheet for their population of participants in the survey (that will look something like Appendix C). On each page of the data sheet will be space for answers for five different tracks, creating a data sheet of four total pages (5 tracks per page, 4 pages equals the 20 songs on the CD). Included in this data set will be the simple question: “How did you feel during this song?” Along with each song clip and the previously stated question, will be another question that students will be touching on today, but especially throughout the unit: “What was it about the music, the structure, and/or presentation of it that made you feel that way?” With this question, they are beginning to see that 4. There are different ways to analyze music to try to understand why it can evoke certain feelings or emotions for different people.
Throughout the next week, students will be collected data from peers (if a teacher will allow them, students can present this activity to a whole class at the same time since it will only take about ten minutes). With this, students will get experience collecting data and taking responsibility for their discovery. Perhaps the very first day, depending on where our school is, we could go around the neighborhood or downtown with CD players and ask people on the street if they would be willing to take the survey, so that students can get used to asking subjects to participate. Students will also be encouraged to ask subjects in groups of two or three in order to feel bolder with potential participants.
After the first week of initial research is over and students have at least 25 different results, they will come back to class a week after the assignment was given to them, in order to share their findings with their classmates.
Persuasion of Peers:
At this moment, students are all prepared to share their data with one another. Students will (hopefully!) have different feelings for each song and different reasons why they felt that emotion.
All students’ data sheets will be cut and organized between the different tracks (so there will be 20 skinny, but long slips for each person the student interviewed). Students will then be assigned a certain song out of the 20 tracks (some may be in groups of two in the classes). Once each student (or group of two) has one of the 20 tracks, they will graph the data for that specific song. In this graph, students will only be documenting the emotions, not the rationale behind it (that will be saved for further on in the unit after we have learned about certain aspects of music). After this, there will be 20 graphs for the 20 tracks the students used.
Lesson Closing:
Once students have made the graphs in all of the classes, data will be compared across class to see if the same sorts of results were observed in each of the classes. After observing all of this data, in small groups and then as a large group, we will talk about what we observe in the graphs. We will then initially tie in the second question for each song (What was it about the music, the structure, and/or presentation of it that made you feel that way?) and have an open discussion about our hypotheses of what aspects of music can influence a person’s feelings and emotions toward a song.
Assessment:
There are not many formal ways to assess the students formally in this lesson. However, one way is by observing the students graphs. It will be evident if the student understands the different emotions and feelings associated with each song if their graph reflects the data of the song they or their group was assigned.
Some ways to informally assess these students is to see if they are making observations and connections between their graphs and the graphs of the other classes. If students understand that this type of data set will be different every single time, depending on who they ask, they are understanding just how much music influences people in so many ways.
Resources:
Levitin, Daniel J. (2006). This is Your Brain on Music. New York, NY: Penguin Group.
