Activity 1: Pre-task listening session and ‘Day in the Life’ task
Listening Session
Setting:
Classroom
space (or somewhere music can be played aloud)
Estimated
time: 45
minutes
Resources
needed: Access
to speaker system, music player e.g. Spotify, iTunes, copies of lyrics (paper
or digital), writing materials, post-it notes
Organization:
Participants
work in small groups (between 3 and 6 people) seated at the same table
Purpose:
Provide
musical contextualizing information about the time period, themes and location
which will be the focus for the DSSL activities
Activity
structure: Facilitators
select a song which they feel is rich in terms of the musical or lyrical
content as it relates to the context of the DSSL theme. Initial discussion
might involve asking participants if they are familiar with the song or artist.
Play the entire song through once.
Participants
are then divided into small groups and given a theme to listen for: physical
space; lyrics; music or melody; and feeling or emotion.
Groups are provided with copies of the lyrics and post-it notes to make notes
and annotations related to their theme. The song is played again and then
groups have around 15 minutes to collect their ideas together.
Facilitator
asks each group to feedback their response to what they heard related to their
theme. It is useful to have someone to scribe ideas on flipchart paper that can
be kept for use later in the project.
Example: At the beginning of a project to build DSSLs around the theme of the Civil Rights movement and social activism in Nashville, facilitators chose the song ‘Eyes on the Prize’ by Mavis Staples. This song was chosen as the lyrics reference the organizing role of religion in social activism and the song became popular during the Civil Rights movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Participants in the listening session had access to partially annotated lyrics hosted on genius.com. The lyrics can be found here.
Day in the Life task
Setting:
Classroom
or archive space e.g. library
Estimated
time: 90
minutes
Resources
needed: Writing
materials including Sharpies, post-it notes, base maps of research area,
acetate cut to the size of the maps, newspaper front pages from different
publications published on the same day, three photographic images featuring
people, menu stands (optional)
Organization:
Participants
work in small groups (between 3 and 6) seated at the same table, all resources
provided on tables
Purpose:
Set
the historical context of the DSSL activities; allow facilitators to assess the
historical knowledge and understanding of participants; familiarize
participants with the task of using maps and media to tell historical fiction.
Activity
structure: Facilitators
set up the classroom space with all resources
on tables. Go through activity prompt with participants (see next page
for example). Groups are given around 25 minutes to review the materials and
select a character(s) for their Day in the Life story. You may chose to
stop participants after an initial 10 minutes to share early ideas. It is
important to stress that you are not expecting the stories to be historically
accurate – participants should not worry about names, dates and locations. They
are aiming to tell a story which is plausible, a form of historical fiction.
Groups add notes and path to their base map by drawing onto the acetate.
Depending on how many groups you have, they can either share their stories with the whole class when finished or teams can pair up and feedback to each other.
Below is an example of the pre-task instructions used to introduce the context of the Civil Rights Movement in Nashville during the 1960’s.
