Submitted by Gretchen Taylor, Illinois
Idea posted August 18, 2004
I attended a piano teacher's workshop that dealt primarily with the task of making classical music come alive for students. The clinician lead us all in a neat listening activity that I thought could work well for a SQUILT activity in the classroom.
First, she passed out a sheet of paper with a list of numerous "feeling" words all under the heading "What feeling does this music evoke in you?" While she did not limit our responses only to those words listed, the list was pretty exhaustive. She individually introduced several short repertoire excerpts by telling a little about the composer and any background information about the piece. Then, she played the excerpt. We were to respond to the music by choosing one or more of the "feeling" words that the music evoked in us. Afterwards, we shared our responses.
I decided this might be a good idea for my classes (especially the middler schoolers), so I prepared my own list of feeling words (I pared her list down a bit). I plan on printing two lists on 8.5" X 11" card stock (one list form on the top half and the other on the bottom half), laminating them, and then dividing them so you get two lists from one full sheet of paper. I'll make enough for all the students and pass them out when I want to use them. They'll be for reference use only. The kids can record their responses in their music folders or on separate piece of paper. The students can return the list cards after the activity, and I can use them again.
Here's my list of feeling words:
lonely, restless, happy, sad, empty, grief, confident, anxious, tired, frightened, hopeful, satisfied, eager, excited, tense, brave, bold, yearning, contented, rejected, joyous, free, warm, energetic, alive, enchanted, loved, confused, gloomy, longing, angry, inspired, jubilant, timid, peaceful, silly.
It was an interesting activity and really helped me listen to the music (which I was familiar with) with new ears.