Listening journals are one of my fave activities to do with my Music classes. You may be thinking to yourself, “What? That’s weird.” Maybe it is weird but one of my main goals as a Music teacher is to make Music accessible for everyone. So many students think that they aren’t musicians because they feel as though they can’t sing or play an instrument. Listening activities are what I use to break down that mental barrier for my students and help them develop musical literacy. While my approach to introducing listening is more than just writing, listening journals are tools that students can use to improve their ability to think critically and explore their own emotional responses to music.
1. Select an Engaging Piece of Music
First thing’s first – you need to select a piece of music that will grab your students’ attention immediately. They need to want to listen closely and they will totally shut their brains off if they don’t like what they hear. I like to choose either an acapella piece or a piece of classical music that has been featured in a popular movie.
1. GC Fiesta by Mark Jackson – This song is really hard to find but if you do come across it, hold onto it tightly. I have it on CD and hope to never lose it because my students love it!
2. The Circle of Life arr. Sam Robson – YouTube has a whole bunch of acapella covers that you can get lost in. I have an affinity for The Lion King which is maybe why I heart this one so much but it’s familiarity will help students to be impressed by the fact that all of the sounds are made by Robson’s voice. I recommend not showing the actual video since that takes away from the whole listening component.
3. Entry of the Gladiators by Julius Fucik – Your students may not recognize the title of this piece but it will instantly remind them of Madagascar 3 and will be stuck in their heads (and yours) for the rest of the day.
4. In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg – This is a fan favourite and your students may recognize it in Hair Up from the Trolls Soundtrack.
To recap, you can pick any song to start but just make sure it’s one that will grab your students’ attention and get them hooked on listening.
2. Introduce the Number One Rule of Listening
In order for listening journals to be effective your students need to stop talking. This is hard and will definitely be a struggle for some of your kids. Depending on your class, you may need to build their listening stamina and start with a one minute (or less) excerpt from a song.
Here’s how I introduce the “Number One Rule of Listening.” We play the quiet game.
First, I tell my students that we are about to do something that will help transform them into amazing musicians – we are going to LISTEN (add some drama here.)
Then, I have them brainstorm as many rules as they can think of that we would need to follow in order to be good listeners. Accept whatever they come up with and acknowledge their ideas but then cross out or erase them all. Yes, this is dramatic but necessary. Replace it all with this “Shh” sign that you can create or find here. Tell your students that this is the only rule they need to remember. Shh! Do not talk.
Once we’ve established that rule, I time them to see how long the whole entire class can remain quiet for. This means no chairs moving, no whispering, no coughing…nothing. However long they can go make sure you congratulate them! Take note of their time and try to improve on it next time. Students have the tendency to blame those students that “ruin the game” and I don’t like that. I also don’t like when other students make noise on purpose so I make sure to ignore that behaviour. It’s best not to draw attention to it and eventually they stop.
3. Before Using Listening Journals Engage in a Non-Written Response
This is where I like to incorporate a movement activity or a rhythm play-a-long. The goal here is not to have students listen intently, but again to help them engage with the music. This is a list of activities that have been successful in my class:
- Parachute games
- Scarves/ribbons
- Bouncing tennis balls to the beat
- Hula hoops
- Make marks on paper to show the long and short sounds
- Stretchy bands – stretch for long and short sounds
- Free rhythm play-a-long using egg shakers
- Structured play-a-long given rhythm patterns
4. Listening Journals -Give a Purpose for Listening
By now, my students are familiar with the piece of music and have had a chance to move around in some way. They are now ready to start using listening journals – a tool that helps them to listen with purpose. I tend to use duotangs to store their work and will either photocopy a page for them or give them a blank sheet of paper. I have my students keep the same duotang up until they start Band because I’m cheap and duotangs are expensive.
As the year goes on, the purposes for listening become more specific and related to the curriculum expectations that we are studying but at first I want them to get used to writing about what they hear.
To start off, I post this list of Listening Journal prompts. I like having it as an anchor chart so that throughout the year my students can brainstorm additional ideas to add to it. Music Play’s Listening Resource Kits (which I highly recommend) have other ideas to get you started.
5. Listening Journals -Give a Purpose for Listening
I give my students a choice from three different prompts to start off with. Otherwise, they could spend most of their time deciding which one they wanted to write about.
First, students write down the title and composer of the piece.
Next, they write down the prompt that they will be writing about.
Then, I have students split their page into two columns – one titled “Ideas” and the other “Response.” I play the piece of music again and have students listen and jot down ideas for how they will complete their Journal Prompt. This is where I would circulate and make sure that my students are actually jotting ideas down. They don’t like to but I found it leads to stronger responses.
Then, I play the piece continuously while students complete the Response section. You can grab a copy of my Listening Journals resource here.
The purpose of Listening Journals is to engage students and getting them thinking about the music they are listening to. The bonus is that it helps them understand that Music is so much more than just playing the right notes. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this blog series where I will go into more detail about how I teach my students to write responses that meet our Success Criteria for listening journals.
