Seminar Activities I’ve Created for Triad AM
Stress Management Activity
Assignment Description: This assignment was created shortly after we transitioned from face-to-face to online learning during Spring 2020. The assignment is designed to help students identify stress triggers, how stress manifests in their bodies, and how they can combat stress with a research-based stress-reduction activity. Students compose a reflection and cite one credible source.
Link: Stress Management Activity
Learning goals: self-awareness, research and source evaluation, self-care.
Foci of Control Activity
Assignment Description: This activity is designed to help students think about the situations they have some influence or control over and those that are beyond their control. The assignment encourages them to discuss how to focus their energy on the things they can control while also reflecting on how they will adjust their reactions to the things they cannot control.
Link: Foci of Control Activity
Learning goals: metacognition, stress management, self-awareness, coping with difficult situations, formulating plans to effect change, growth mindset.
Music Mad-Libs–A Listening Activity for Understanding & Enjoying Music Seminar
Assignment Description: Students listen to “Hello” by Adele and complete the mad-libs. The activity is designed to help students become more comfortable writing about music while also encouraging them to further develop active listening skills. Both writing about music and actively listening to music are skills needed for the concert review assignments in Understanding and Enjoying Music.
Link: Music Mad-Libs
Learning goals: articulating impressions about music, active listening, connecting musical terms learned in large lecture to a particular song, integrated learning.
Demonstrating Understanding of Romanticism vs. Classicism by Making Playlists
Assignment Description: The purpose of this activity is to allow students an opportunity to be expressive with their tastes in music in a small group or partner setting. Students create a short playlist of songs based on a single but specific theme, such as “freshly cut grass” or “Friday on campus.” Students are also encouraged to think about their own sensibility–is it more Classical or Romantic?–and discuss with peer(s). The difference between Classicism and Romanticism is a central theme of Understanding and Enjoying Music.
Link: Getting Creative with Playlists
Learning goals: discovering new ways to curate and enjoy songs, meta-cognition, understanding classicism vs. romanticism, fun and peer bonding in the classroom.
See also: Teaching Philosophy
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