Unit Plan 21 (Grade 3 Music): Expressive Listening
Grade 3 music unit where students listen for dynamics and tempo, describing how expressive choices shape musical meaning and performer intent.
Focus: Describe how dynamics and tempo shape musical meaning, and explain how performers use expressive choices to show their intent.
Grade Level: 3
Subject Area: Music (Responding • Listening • Expression)
Total Unit Duration: 1–3 sessions (3+ weeks), 50–60 minutes per session
I. Introduction
In this unit, students learn to listen like expression detectives. They focus on how dynamics (loud/soft) and tempo (fast/slow) change the feeling and meaning of music. By comparing different pieces—and sometimes different performances of the same melody—students describe how performers’ expressive choices make the music sound exciting, calm, mysterious, or sad. They practice talking and writing about how these expressive qualities show what the performer is trying to communicate.
Essential Questions
- How do dynamics (loud/soft) and tempo (fast/slow) change the way music feels and what it means?
- What does it mean for a performer to show expressive intent in music?
- How can we describe what we hear when a performer changes dynamics or tempo?
- Why might two performances of the same melody sound different because of expressive choices?
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:
- Identify changes in dynamics (loud/soft) and tempo (fast/slow) while listening to short musical examples.
- Use simple music words (e.g., loud/soft, fast/slow, crescendo, decrescendo) and feeling words (e.g., excited, calm, scared, joyful) to describe how music sounds.
- Explain how performers’ choices in dynamics and tempo show their expressive intent—what they want listeners to feel or imagine.
- Compare two pieces—or two performances of the same piece—and describe how different expressive choices change the meaning or mood.
- Create a short listener’s description or “mini guide” that explains how dynamics and tempo shape the feeling of one selected piece.
Standards Alignment — Grade 3 Music (NAfME-Aligned)
- MU:Re8.1.3a — Demonstrate and describe how expressive qualities are used in performers’ interpretations to reflect expressive intent.
- Example: Identifying how tempo creates tension.
Success Criteria — Student Language
- I can hear when music gets louder or softer, faster or slower.
- I can describe music using both music words (dynamics, tempo) and feeling words (excited, calm, tense, peaceful).
- I can explain how a performer’s expressive choices show what they want the listener to feel or imagine.
- I can tell how two different performances (or pieces) feel different because of dynamics and tempo.
- I can write or say a short description that helps another person understand the expressive meaning of a piece.