Composer Reports by

Middle Schoolers

The Challenge:

Middle Schoolers have limited familiarity with classical music.

The music, the vocabulary and the historical context are all unfamiliar.

Time is limited. Most music classes only meet once or twice a week.

How do you help students internalize and comprehend information about a composer’s life in this limited time?

The Process:

Teacher shows a movie about a classical composer to give them a sense of the 19th century and some initial exposure to classical music within the context of a biographical overview.

Teacher circulates a lists of composers and students choose a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice.

Students come to library and are given an easy biography of their composer.

The Process:

Sustained Silent Reading: 2 class periods

Students read without taking notes.

During the last 10 minutes of each period students pair up and share with each other orally what they can remember from what they read with books closed.

The Process:

Reading and note-taking: 2 class periods

Students use a worksheet to take notes in brief phrases.

Students draw pictures to show notable incidents.

The Process:

Searching Youtube for musical examples: 1 class period

Students use earphones while searching Youtube for music by their composer.

Use search term <animated musical graph> to find compositions with this feature.

The Process:

Creating Blog entires: 1-2 class periods

Create a list of "most interesting" facts.

Add a hyper-link to a composition.

If time allows, add an image of your composer.