Getting to know your students
Discover their "musical me"
Whether you’re starting a new school year, or would just like to get to know your students better, this Musical Me lesson is an effective and easy option with lots of flexibility.
In this lesson, students will tell you more about their musical background, interests, likes, dislikes, instrumental skills and more by choosing prompts to respond to. They will gather images, icons, write text, find videos or links to websites to illustrate their musical me facts and then present them in a digital format.
The software or app that students use to present their work is totally flexible. Use whatever you have! Using a digital format is ideal for those of you that are being encouraged to go paperless, and/or you want a format that can involve multimedia or sharing options.
Whenever I’ve run this activity in the past, it has uncovered a range of surprising skills and interests!
Musical Me Prompts
Here’s the list of prompts that you can give to students.You can download a copy at the end of this post.
Students don’t need to answer every single question – 5-10 work well, and they can do more if they have time.
- The first concert I went to….
- Memorable live music performance
- Favourite composer and/or songwriter
- Performer that I would like to see live
- My favourite performer
- I am a total fan of…
- A musician I am in awe of is…
- A musician I would like to meet one day is…
- The instrument/s I play
- I love learning from…(name a music teacher, a music Youtube channel or a musician friend)
- An instrument I wish I could play
- An instrument that’s played by someone in my family
- A song/piece that calms me down
- A song/piece that motivates me
- The song that always gets stuck in my head
- My favourite musical genre (you can list more than one!)
- My least favourite musical genre
- Share a funny or inspirational music quote
- Did you know…? Share an interesting piece of music trivia
- The song that always gets me on the dance floor
- My favourite non-musical sound (birds, my baby brother/sister laughing, the wind in the trees, the ocean, a sports car, my cat purring, something else?)
- An inspiring musical TED talk
- Your go-to karaoke song/s
- An artist you’ve discovered recently
- A favourite musical place
- Your secret musical talent or skill
- Before I was a music teacher I was…
- Share a funny music joke
- Favourite musical experience/s
- Something else? Be creative!
Choose a tech tool
There are LOTS of tech tools you could use for this lesson. Students can submit their Musical Me responses in any of these ways:
- as a simple static image that includes text, icons and pictures
- as a digital “poster” that features images, text, video, music and links
- as a video which features the student speaking to camera
- as a simple website which shows images, video, text and links
- as a presentation file which includes images, video, text and links
Take a look at the software and apps you already have access to as a starting point and select an option that gives students the most flexibility. Here are some ideas:
- Padlet– students create an interactive digital poster which includes written text, images, embedded videos and links. Padlet is a great option for this lesson since viewers of the Padlet board can click through on included links and play videos and so on. See my Padlet example below!
- Canva– a flexible option which allows students to create many types of projects: a poster which pulls in icons, pictures and text, a presentation with included video, animations and audio, a video project or even a one-page website
- Explain Everything– students can create an Explain Everything presentation with one slide for each Musical Me prompt. They can include video, images, audio files, links, text and drawings. A great option for iPads.
- Powerpoint, Keynote or Google Slides – students can create a presentation file with one slide for each Musical Me prompt. They can include video, images, audio files, links and text
- Google Sites – create a mini website that includes videos, images, audio files, links, text
- Then there’s also Book Creator, SeeSaw and many others!
Example Musical Me using Padlet.View the interactive version here.
Instructions
- Download the Musical Me Prompts list (click the button below)
- Choose a tech tool for your students to use (or let them decide!). See the options in the Choose A Tech Tool section of this blog post
- Give the students some parameters: let them know that they need to choose a minimum of 5 prompts from the list to respond to (adjust that number to suit your students and the class time you have available). If you’re working with younger students, you may like to choose just a handful of prompt that all students will respond to
- Give them a time frame to work to, or assign the task for homework
- Students can then gather multimedia resources to create their Musical Me assignment (images, icons, written text, links to existing videos on Youtube, links to websites
- Set aside some class time so that students can share their Musical Me facts with each other.
Want more resources for music tech teachers?
Hello! I’m Katie Argyle – an Australian music technology trainer and consultant with a passion for helping music teachers through my business Midnight Music. Yes – I’m a qualified teacher but I don’t currently teach in a school. I help teachers through the Midnight Music Membership Community– a go-to online hub for tech-focussed professional development.
The Midnight Music Membership Community features:
- step-by-step training
- world-class online courses
- bite-sized learning through digital badges
- creative lesson ideas
It’s designed for teachers of all skill levels – from self-proclaimed ‘technophobes’ to intermediate and advanced tech users. You’ll learn how to integrate technology into your music teaching without the stress, so you can boost classroom outcomes, engage your students on a deeper level, and inspire a lifelong love of music!
If you want simple, effective ideas for using technology in music education, I would LOVE to help you inside the Midnight Music Community.
6 Comments
Thank you.
School starts next week for us (ugh!). This is a fantastic lesson, and I know my students will love doing it! Thanks!
Thanks Julie – hope it goes well!
Our students loved it! Thank you 🙂
You’re welcome! Good to hear they enjoyed it!
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