K-12 Lesson Plans

Title:  Comic Book Style Listening Log

Submitted By: James Berry, North Conway NH  

Objective:  Students will listen to a piece of music and determine the expression of various parts of the music.  

National Standards Covered: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music (6), Evaluating music and music performances (7)

Materials:  Comic Book Listening Log Handout, pencils, recording of Mussorsky's Night on Bald Mountain, or any other varying piece of music

Procedure:

1.  For Mussorsky's Night on Bald Mountain, this lesson is great for Halloween.  Explain to students that they will be hearing a piece of music and will need to make up a story in their head.

2.  Play the music and before the music is about to change or after 30 seconds, stop the music and ask students to draw what they are feeling in the first block on the comic strips.  Notice below they can circle the dynamic marking and also describe the music - This music sounds ______ (scary, crazy, sneaky, etc...)

3.  Students repeat step 2 until the piece is over and all 9 blocks in the comic strip are filled out.  Make sure students are writing a coherent story.

4.  Share with each other and see if students can see similarities in the ways that they have described the music.  This lesson will work great for any piece of music with lots of variation in it.

Assessment / Extension:

If students have accurately described the music with its dynamics and this is reflected in their story, you can assess that they understand the assignment.  One extension you could do would be to play 2 pieces of music and show another classes or your own listening comic strips.  See if they can figure out which one they were describing.

Download lesson in Microsoft Word Format