Now Spinning in my Classroom
Over the summer, I created a listening learning experience focused on the concept of what it means for something to be called a “Classic Album.” When the bell rang, and students entered my classroom, they were greeted with music playing from my vinyl listening center.
My plan was to pick some of my favorite artists and albums from the 1920s through the 2020s and spread them throughout the school year. Each morning I would start the day with an artist, album and song from a particular decade. A journal prompt would help students take a close look at the lyrics and the political, economic, socio-cultural factors that influenced each song/artist. I wanted to provide students with a context as to why these songs and artists have lasted throughout history.
As Professor Michael Spitzer, a British musicologist and academic states in his book, The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth:
Music is participatory in a duel and interlinked sense. We fill our lives with music as a soundtrack. We sink ourselves into the music in an act of focused listening.
Throughout my career as an educator, I’ve watched students interact with pop culture. First it was the Internet, then video games, and now social media and music streaming. I’ve observed how my students don’t really listen to music with intention. It plays in the background of their favorite YouTube video or video game. How often do ten-year-olds in 2023 sit down and listen to an entire album? From my experience, it is rare.
I wanted to design a moment in our day where students listened to music as an activity, not just as a background object.
So, how did I pick the music?
My selection of albums is influenced by my own personal, racial, socio-cultural and musical experiences. I want students to recognize that there is no objective and definitive list for the best album/artist. One can look at album sales, music streaming data, influence on history or pop culture, and artistic achievement, but ultimately, musical taste is subjective. I hope to give my students a musical history lesson that teaches them where their musical interests comes from. The music I showcase is also a reflection of me and my relationship to music.
Before I could get to the history lessons, I needed to teach my student how to actively listen to music.
It’s January, 2023 and so far, this is more challenging than I anticipated. We start each morning with a decade, artist, album, song, and journal focus question. The students love listening to a variety of music, but I have not been very successful with students deeply listening to and writing about the songs. For the most part, they quickly jot down the required information (artist, album, song title) and then quietly chat with their neighbors while the song plays in the background. We have a brief discussion (e.g.: what did you like/not like; what do you think the lyrics mean, etc.). I hope they are learning something!
I know that most of my students have opinions about music. There have been a couple of artists they absolutely loved so far (e.g.: Elvis and Sam Cooke) and many they have not (e.g.: Thelonious Monk and Bob Dylan).
This listening learning experience is a work in progress. The main constraint is that I am squeezing this into the first ten minutes of the day. As much as I would love to teach about music and history all day long, I still have all of the other content areas to teach. There is just too much good music and not enough time in the day!
One way around this has been to start a Now Spinning after-school club, which has been a lot of fun. My goal for this has been to have students share their love of music, while taking more time after school to learn about other genres. We are currently working on a student music magazine resembling Rolling Stone Magazine. Stay tuned!
I have been tweaking this learning experience since August. I’m sure I will write a more thorough blog post at the end of the school year, but in the meantime, I would love to hear your suggestions. How would you help young students to improve their active listening skills? How might I get kids excited about listening to and discussing a variety of music in class? How might I help students take a closer look at music, lyrics, and the political, economic, socio-cultural factors that influence a variety of songs?
Thoughts? Let me know!
