App: Simple Mind +

The first project I had my music appreciation students complete was a Musician Family Tree Project. They had to research and artist and find out who influenced them. Through and Twitter conversation on Twitter I discovered the app Smart Mind. It is a mind mapping application,  but I had my students use it to create a tree of who influenced their musicians. I love free apps! This one is great and easy to use. Plus it is another great example of thinking outside of the box when using an app. 

Here is my example of the Musician Influence Tree I made for my class. 

Day 352: Artist Family Tree (Material Monday)

Daily Blog Challenge Day 352/365

Material Monday

I am teaching music appreciation for the first time this year.  The 8th graders had the class last year, so I have to find new activities for them.  One project I am going to have them do is one that I found online.  My students are going to create an Artist Family Tree.  They are going to pick an artist and find out who influenced them and then research who influenced each of them and so on.

I have started working on an example for this project and I will post it when I am finished.  My hope is that my students will discover that music regardless of genre is all interrelated and many artists influence each other.  I think this will be a great way to start the class and will open up many other conversations.

What is your favorite music appreciation project?

Thank you for reading.