Module 3 Reflection Post: How Would you Teach Tchaikovsky?

If I were to teach this excerpt to a 5th or 6th grade general music class, the first thing I would do is provide them with a listening map for the first 0:02:40. It would look something like this:

1. :00 - :51 Oboe & Strings
2. :51 - 1:37 Cellos, Basses, Flute
3. 1:37 - 2:40 Full Orchestra

I would ask the students to just listen to the music the first time and I would call out the numbers when the instrumentation changed. 

I personally feel that students connect with music better when they are given creative freedom. I would ask students to prepare to hear the excerpt again. This time, they would be told to focus on how the music makes them feel or what it makes them think of. To help them keep track of their ideas I would encourage them to write the emotions they feel or to draw what the music is making them think of. 

I think it's important for the students to have two separate listening experiences. The first time we focus on the instrumentation and the second time the students mentally engage with the music to determine how it makes them feel. I've done an activity like this with a younger grade, but I used a song that some of them had heard before. In an attempt to introduce students to a variety of genres and styles I played "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles. I was surprised to hear students connect the song to a sad event (ex. a grandmother's funeral).