Music and Emotion: A Listening Journal from Memory

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Arts · Music (General / Band / Choir)
SP-MUS-016 · Free to print and use in your classroom · substituteplans.com
Page 2
Music and Emotion: A Listening Journal from
Memory
Arts · Music (General / Band / Choir) · Grades 9-12 · 45 minutes
Time needed
45 minutes (one class period)
Prep
Copy the 2-page worksheet (one per student).
Technology
None. No recordings, phones or headphones are used.
Student
independence
High. Quiet individual writing, then an optional share.
Copies to make
One 2-page worksheet per student
Materials
Pencils, Worksheet
Goal for today: Students will use music vocabulary to describe a piece they remember and will explain in writing how
specific musical choices create a mood.
Before the bell
☐ Copy the worksheet, one per student (2 pages).
☐ Write on the board: Choose a piece you know well enough to describe from memory. It must be school
appropriate. You do NOT need a recording, and you may not use a phone or headphones today.
☐ Write on the board: tempo = speed. dynamics = loud and soft. timbre = tone color. texture = how many
layers are sounding together. form = the order of the sections.
☐ Keep the answer key on your desk. There are no wrong pieces and no single right answers.
Say this to start
Today is a quiet writing and thinking day about music. Pick a song or piece you know really well, and describe it from
memory. You will use five music words to explain what the music does and why it makes people feel a certain way.
There are no recordings or devices. There is no right piece to choose, only a thoughtful description.
Run of show
Minutes
What you do
What students do
0–5
Take attendance. Hand out the worksheet. Read the
vocabulary definitions on the board aloud.
Listen and look at the word bank.
5–10
Tell students to answer questions 1–3. Then ask them to
silently choose their piece and write it in question 4.
Complete the vocabulary check and choose
a piece.
10–28
Tell students to fill in the Element Map. Remind them to
describe what they remember, even if they are not sure of
the exact details.
Describe tempo, dynamics, timbre, texture,
melody or rhythm, and form in their own
words.
28–40
Tell students to complete questions 5–7. Walk the room
and encourage full sentences.
Write mood words, a paragraph and a
“what if” response.
40–45
Invite two or three volunteers to share one mood word and
the musical choice that creates it. Collect the worksheets
and stack them for the teacher.
Share if they wish, then hand in the
worksheet.

SubstitutePlans.com
Arts · Music (General / Band / Choir)
SP-MUS-016 · Free to print and use in your classroom · substituteplans.com
Page 3
If things go wrong
• If a student cannot think of a piece, suggest a theme from a movie or video game, a school song or something
they have heard at an event.
• If a student cannot remember details, tell them to describe the general feeling and use words like “probably”
or “I think.”
• If a student wants to look up the music, remind them no devices are used today and the point is to describe
what they remember.
• If a student chooses a piece that is not appropriate for school, quietly ask them to choose a different piece.
Early finishers
• Describe the same piece the way someone who disliked it might, using the same five words.
• Write a three-sentence review of a concert you might attend for this piece.
• Choose a second piece with the opposite mood and list two musical choices that differ.
Support and challenge
• Support: Allow students to complete only tempo, dynamics and timbre in the Element Map and to write two
sentences in question 6.
• Challenge: Ask students to explain in writing how a composer might change one element to turn a happy
piece into a tense one.
Notes for the teacher (you fill this in)
Jot a few lines before you leave. A full Daily Sub Report is in the free Sub Survival Kit at SubstitutePlans.com.
How far the class got / what to pick up next:
Students who were especially helpful:
Anything the teacher should know: