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American Memory Sounds Off!By Gail Petri
Published on 01/10/2009
The American Memory collections are full of wonderful listening opportunities. Use these activities to introduce your students to the wide variety of music formats available at the click of a mouse!
- What Do You Hear? Today's students have multiple opportunities to watch and listen at the same time. The online activity What Do You Hear? can be used as a starter to help your students practice listening critically without using visual clues. Have students listen to the nine recordings representing various American Memory Collections and use the " Listening Guide" and " Vocabulary" pages to guide the listening activity.
- See, Hear and Sing. Visit this America's Library feature for an introduction to more of the wonderful audio and movie files in the Library of Congress collections. See, Hear and Sing features many music-related highlights. For example, by clicking on the Jammin’ Jukebox icon, you can access historical audio files. Put your students in the mood for World War I study with George M. Cohan’s Over There. Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever March played by the Imperial Marimba Band will start toes tapping and hands clapping! Also available are Children's Songs and games of the past and the unusual sounds of such Uncommon Instruments as the misnice, the zurna, and the cimbalom.
- Sousa Search. John Philip Sousa (1854–1932) was America’s most famous march composer. The handout provides a scavenger hunt activity in which students search the American Memory collections for pictures, sound files, and historic sheet music related to his life.
Play background Sousa march music while students are completing the worksheet activities. As a follow-up, you may want to have a "Sousa Sharing" event. In addition to reviewing the scavenger hunt answers, students can share their favorite Sousa items. You can also extend this activity by locating biographical information and listen to more of Sousa’s music by visiting the John Philips Sousa site maintained by the Dallas Wind Symphony.
Teacher Tips
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