Activity
Community building activities, Setting the tone activities, Warm up activities

Auditory Affect

Heather Kretschmer

Heather Kretschmer

Students explore an auditory digital tool and afterwards reflect on and talk about their experience

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ACTIVITY PURPOSE

This activity gives students the opportunity to explore an auditory digital tool, tune into their feelings, reflect on the experience, and share their thoughts/feelings with a partner or small group.

USEFUL FOR

  • Taking time to listen to an interesting auditory digital tool.
  • Focusing on feelings while listening.
  • Strengthening the bonds between students.

PREPARATION

Select an appropriate auditory digital tool for students to explore and listen to. Interesting ones include Radio Garden, earth.fm, Drive & Listen and Unify Cosmos.

INSTRUCTIONS

  • Give students the link to the auditory digital tool you selected. Ask students to stay muted as they explore the tool and listen to whatever interests them. Students should spend about 8 minutes exploring and listening. As they listen, students should focus on what they are listening to and how it makes them feel.
  • Ask students to stop listening and take 2 minutes to write down or draw how they feel.
  • In pairs or small groups in breakout rooms, have students talk about the experience for about 5 minutes. Students should only divulge what they wish to share. If they finish early, they can chill and chat.
  • When students return to the main room, invite them to share interesting aspects from the experience and/or group discussion in the chat.

DURATION

20 minutes 

ADAPTATIONS AND EXAMPLES

  • Students can be given the tasks of exploring an auditory digital tool , listening, and reflecting for homework. They can share their reflections during class with a partner or small group. 
  • If you’re teaching in a physical classroom and not every student has an Internet-connected device, one student can explore the digital tool at the teacher’s computer and select something interesting for the whole class to listen to using the classroom loudspeakers.  
  • Each week a different student could explore an auditory digital tool using screen and audio share in the videoconferencing tool or in a physical classroom using the teacher’s computer.  
  • Instead of having students focus on their feelings while listening, they could be given an alternative prompt like “What do you notice as you are listening? What does this make you think about or imagine?” 

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

  • Internet-connected device(s) for online synchronous classes 
  • Headphones/earbuds or loudspeakers when doing this activity in the physical classroom 

USEFUL RESOURCES

Radio Garden– Listen to thousands of radio stations around the globe.
Earth-FM – Listen to nature sounds, and fall in love with the Earth.
Drive & Listen – Listen to local radio stations while driving through the cities around the world.
Unify Cosmos – Listen to the most relaxing sounds in the world.

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ABOUT

  • Educator prep: None
  • Student prep: None
  • Synchronous
  • Music sharing
  • Duration: 5-30 mins

This activity is one of a series of activities from Equity Unbound, focused on equitable online community building. 

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