LISTEN, THINK, WRITE!

 

Georgia Standards

 

South Carolina Standards

 

Key Vocabulary

 

Materials

• Paper
• Pencils
• Teacher access to computer and Internet

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

• Engage students in “Listening: Ten Times Two” thinking routine (modified to “Three Times Two”).
• Prepare students for the listening activity by telling students they are going to listen to a musical composition and list three words or phrases that come to mind while they are listening. (See “Additional Resources” section for musical suggestions. Use a listening excerpt about 45-60 seconds in length. The excerpt can start and end at any point during the composition.) 
• Wait until the end of the listening activity to tell students the title and composer. Revealing the title and composer before the activity may influence the listener.
• During the first time listening to the music, students listen without talking and generate their first list of three words and phrases.  
• Ask students to share what came to their minds. Record students’ answers on the board. 
• Students listen a second time without talking and generate three additional words to add to the list.
• Ask students to share what came to their minds. Record students’ answers on the board. 
• Choose one or two of the words or phrases that students listed. Ask students what sounds they heard in the music that made them think of the words that they shared. Play the music a third time so that students can listen again. 
• Musical sounds can include: pitch (high/low sounds), rhythm (long/short), dynamics (loud/soft), tempo (fast/slow), timbre (instruments), form (same [repetition], different), and articulation (smooth/detached).
• Facilitate a discussion with students about how musical sounds can inspire and enhance writing and storytelling. Ask students if there is any music that they associate with stories. 
• Remind students that songs have a structure–beginning, middle, and end, and that some songs have lyrics that tell a story that accompanies the melody of the song.
• Transition into the lesson about narrative writing.

 

Work Session

COLLABORATIVE NARRATIVE WRITING

• Introduce or review a lesson about narrative writing. Use modeling, visual representations, and hands-on manipulatives to help students understand the concept of narrative writing.
• Tell the students they are going to practice writing a narrative as a whole class using the opening activity as inspiration.

• Optional: Show students an example of a story that is told through music – New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s presentation of Peter and the Wolf (it is not necessary for students to watch the whole performance). 

• Tell students to refresh their memories of the opening music and review their list of words while the teacher plays the music again.
• Ask students how the music they listened to made them feel. The feelings that the music generated should match the feeling of the story.
• Project a graphic organizer such as the Narrative Writing Graphic Organizer to guide students in writing a whole class story. 
• Teacher and students will read the final product and discuss possible edits.

• Option: Students can act out the story.

INDEPENDENT NARRATIVE WRITING

• Tell students they are going to do another “Three Times Two” with a different composition and write their own narrative based on that composition. (See “Additional Resources” section for musical suggestions. Use a listening excerpt about 45-60 seconds in length. The excerpt can start and end at any point during the composition.) 
• Students complete another round of “Three Times Two”. Remind students to think about how the music makes them feel. 
• Allow time for students to share ideas for narratives as a class.
• Remind students that their narratives should have characters, a setting, and a beginning, middle, and end. Grade 1 students should include temporal words to show sequence.
• Allow time for students to plan using a graphic organizer, sentence starters, and/or drawings.
• Circulate the classroom, observe student progress, and offer constructive feedback or conferencing during the writing process.

 

Closing Reflection

• Allow students to volunteer to share their narratives with the class. Ask the class to identify the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
• Review the concept of narrative writing facilitating a conversation around the connection between music and storytelling.

 

 

Assessments

Formative

Teacher will assess students by:

• Observing and listening to students’ discussions and answers.
• Conferencing with students during the writing process.
• Listening to students’ responses to the activity, Three Times Two.

 

Summative

CHECKLIST

• Students can write a narrative with characters, setting, and a beginning, middle, and end.
• Students can use music to inspire narrative writing.
• Students can use music elements to analyze and evaluate music.

 

DIFFERENTIATION 

Acceleration: Have students write and illustrate their stories. Students should focus on including descriptive details in their writing. Remediation: Reduce the number of words from three to one or two during the listening activity. Younger students can use illustrations to show the beginning, middle, and end of the narrative. Use scribing or speech-to-text technology.

 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

“Listening: Ten Times Two” thinking routine Narrative Writing Graphic Organizer  Listening Suggestions:  YouTube: Dramatic Classical Music YouTube: Tense Cinematic NoCopyright Background Music Compilation YouTube: Classical Music for When You’re on a Deadline YouTube: No Copyright Music-Royalty Free Music Optional: Show students an example of a story that is told through music – New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s presentation of Peter and the Wolf (it is not necessary for students to watch the whole performance).

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Ideas contributed by: Rue Lee-Holmes. Updated by: Katy Betts.

Revised and copyright:  July 2024 @ ArtsNOW