How to use YouTube, Quizlet and Kahoot for teaching Classical Composers and Forms
What are three apps that immediately engage students?
YouTube, Quizlet and Kahoot.
A few years ago, I began curating YouTube videos for young musicians to watch as inspiration. I've found that engaging videos of unique performances trigger enthusiasm, a good dose of intrinsic motivation and at the same time they broaden listening palettes.
My latest episode features composers and forms of the Classical Period (1775-1870.) There are three components included in Episode 16:
Videos feature informative clips on main composers and extraordinary performances by top artists of the most popular forms used in the Classical Period. Of course, there's a few humorous videos as well!
Flash cards generated in Quizlet to review the major composers of the time period. In addition, there's a set of cards that includes the common forms like concerto, symphony, sonata-allegro form and more.
Kahoot games based on the Quizlet flash card terminology and facts.
How to use Get Inspired! Episode 16 with your students?
Divide the episode into segments and assign one every week or every other week as time allows. Here are suggested assignments:
1. For older students, read this post to introduce the period: Classical Era Music: A Beginner's Guide.
2. Watch only the videos about the composers.
3. While waiting to begin lessons or during Off Bench Time, assign students to use LEARN mode in Quizlet to become familiar with all terms in the COMPOSER flash card set.
4. Watch videos of two of the forms.
5. While waiting to begin lessons or during Off Bench Time, assign students to use LEARN mode in Quizlet to become familiar with all terms in the FORM flash card set.
6. Watch videos of two of the forms.
7. While waiting to begin lessons or during Off Bench Time, assign students to use MATCH mode in Quizlet to become familiar with all terms in the COMPOSER flash card set.
8. Watch videos of two of the forms.
9. While waiting to begin lessons or during Off Bench Time, assign students to use MATCH mode in Quizlet to master all terms in the FORM flash card set.
10. Continue until students have watched all videos.
To test what they know, use Kahoot and play a rousing game of review at a group lesson or piano party.
Here's Kahoot games featuring facts taken from the Quizlet Cards.
Kahoot game reviewing Classical Composers here.
Kahoot game reviewing Classical Forms here.
Learn how one teacher takes things a step further with Get Inspired! Episodes.
A big thank you to fellow teacher Jan Sherman who shares how she is using these episodes:
Our studio's theme this year is Musical Super Heroes. They have developed their own Super Heroes for each team (that is composed of a group of students), with their own super powers and arch nemesis. They can earn super hero stickers for practicing special challenges using their super power or overcoming their arch nemesis, etc.
Each week we have a Musical Super Hero from the past...composers whose birthday falls on that week. If they discover something about the composer and find out what their super power is (what they are best known for), they get 3 composer trading cards. They can trade these cards at group lessons (we have four per year).
The Go Baroque videos were particularly fun... because they learned and saw performances of some of the composers for their research. We will follow the theme through the recital with the students' drawings of their own original super heroes on the screen. They will perform Super Hero music from the past for the performance part of our recital and then their original songs will have to do with their personal team super heroes.
-Jan Sherman
Enjoy the videos and here's to inspiring your students with powerful apps like YouTube, Quizlet and Kahoot.
