Ghost Stories

Objectives

The sounds and sensations of a story can draw us into new worlds, and they can help us think and feel in new ways and consider new perspectives. Thinking of this as a musical opportunity, our objectives are to create original spooky stories that captivate an audience. How can different voices, instruments, and dramatic actions involve the audience in the storytelling process?

Materials

• Paper (handout provided below)

• Writing utensils

• Drawing utensils

• Simple instruments

Facilitation Outline/Notes/Script

You may read parts of this verbatim or use this as a guide for personalizing the experience for the students you are working with.

1. Warm up the body to move, and the voice to sing/sound.

2. Group the students.

3. With your small group, start to think about what you want your story to be like. Who should the characters be? Where will the story take place (time/space)? What will happen in the story? How will the story end? How do you think this will make your audience feel? Is there anything you want to teach your audience through the story, or is there something you want your audience to think about because of your story? Take note of all these important details, so you can incorporate them into your story.

4. Using the visual plot on the handout (or if you need more boxes, you can use multiple pieces of paper/make your own alternative outline), start to draw your story. You might need to make changes to your story, so don't worry about starting over with a new paper if you need to. You can also use the opposite side of the handout to take notes and record your ideas.

5. Once the story is put together, reflect, and make sure your story has all the elements you want it to.

6. Soon you will act out the story with your partners, so to help you get started, decide who wants to play which characters. How can you give the characters different voices, to help the audience understand who they are?

7. While acting out your stories, start to think about how movements might help to tell the story. Is there a movement or dance you could teach the audience, or have them do with you to help them understand certain elements of the story?

8. Now start to think about how your story can sound, aside from the different character voices. Using the provided instruments, or finding your own sound makers, how could you provide sound/music to support your movement or otherwise tell the story?

9. Once the first draft of your story is created, perform it for the class, and follow the Critical Response Process to gain constructive feedback and learn about how the audience perceived your story (the basic steps are “statements of meaning,” “artist as questioner,” “neutral questions,” and “opinion time”). Did they take away what you wanted them to? Did they feel similarly to how you intended to make them feel?

10. Incorporate the feedback and give final performances.

National Core Arts Standards

• MU:Cr1.1.5a - Improvise rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic ideas, and explain the connection to specific purpose and context (such as social, cultural, and historical).

• MU:Cr1.1.5b - Generate musical ideas (such as rhythms, melodies, and accompaniment patterns) within specifically related tonalities, meters, and simple chord changes.

• MU:Cr2.1.5a - Demonstrate selected and developed musical ideas for improvisations, arrangements, or compositions to express intent, and explain the connection to purpose and context.

• MU:Cr2.1.8a - Select, organize, and document personal musical ideas for arrangements, songs, and compositions within expanded forms that demonstrate tension and release, unity and variety, balance, and convey expressive intent.

• MU:Cr2.1.8b - Use standard and/or iconic notation and/or audio/video recording to document personal rhythmic phrases, melodic phrases, and harmonic sequences.

• MU:Cr3.1.5a - Evaluate, refine, and document revisions to personal music, applying teacher-provided and collaboratively-developed criteria and feedback, and explain the rationale for changes.

• MU:Cr3.2.5a - Present the final version of personally created music to others that demonstrates craftsmanship, and explain the connection to expressive intent.

• MU:Pr5.1.5b - Rehearse to refine technical accuracy and expressive qualities to address challenges, and show improvement over time.

• MU:Re7.1.5a - Demonstrate and explain, citing evidence, how selected music connects to and is influenced by specific interests, experiences, purposes, or contexts.

• MU:Cn10.0.5a - Demonstrate how interests, knowledge, and skills relate to personal choices and intent when creating, performing, and responding.

• MU:Cn11.0.5a - Demonstrate understanding of relationships between music and the other arts, other disciplines, varied contexts, and daily life.

CASEL Core Competencies

• Self-awareness

• Self-management

• Responsible decision-making

• Relationship skills

• Social awareness