Running Header: MUSIC AND MOOD: A BRAIN COMPATIBLE PERSPECTIVE

Music and Mood: A Brain Compatible Perspective Bianca Whalen EDU 417 Joannna Savarese-Levine April 21, 2014

MUSIC AND MOOD Music and Mood: A Brain Compatible Perspective Grades: 3rd -5th My modified lesson plan theme: Music and mood. The things listed in red are the changes to lesson plan. Objectives:

Understand how our moods affect our decisions and overall health (Discovery Education, 2012). Know which areas of the brain and neurotransmitters are responsible for our moods and emotions. Understand the processes in the brain related to decision making. Do an experiment to find out the effects of music on emotions/mood (Discovery Education, 2012). Understand the different effects that music has on the brain Evaluate the outcomes of the experiment and utilize this data to develop tools to assist in managing emotions and improving mood (Discovery Education, 2012). Show everything they have learned through an individualized project.

Suggested Time: This lesson requires four thirty minute periods or five twenty minute periods (I added an extra lesson session). Resources: What Puts You in a Bad Mood? (Video) Your Mood Horoscope (Interactive)

MUSIC AND MOOD (Discovery Education, 2012) Materials: The two resources above, paper, pencils, markers, mood chart worksheet and computer. Lesson:

The teacher first makes cards with faces showing six emotions: happy, tired, angry, bored, sad and anxious, and find four music clips from different genres that help to show or activate a wide range of emotions in the students. Next, the teacher will tape the mood cards on the walls in the classroom. Start the class by giving each student a face card, and that the card stays face down. The students will hold the cards on their heads while their classmates act out their cards until they figure it out. When the students find other with the same emotion they should make up six groups. The students with then share when and how they have felt these emotions named on their cards (Discovery Education, 2012). Next the teacher will make a three column chart named: trigger, emotion and response, and then students will write down their shared experiences. The response part will be where the students name healthy and unhealthy choices. Help them figure out how feelings can help make healthy choices. Talk about how our emotions affect choices. Then teach the vocabulary of mood and emotion (Discovery Education, 2012). The next thing the students should be taught are which areas of the brain and neurotransmitters are utilized and affected when emotions and mood change. Have them use a worksheet with the brain areas and neurotransmitters used those areas. Have the students watch the video and explain triggers involved with negative moods and ways to improve mood. Then use the example of the girl listening to music in the video and then explain how music can influence our moods. Then you want to explain the brain areas activated and altered by music and which neurotransmitters are involved. The teacher will address that

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everyone responds to certain music in their own. Now we do the experiment on how music can influence mood and emotion (Discovery Education, 2012). The next activity will be where the student does a project where they choose between a drawing, a paper, a mind map, a short presentation or a speech. In this project the student will address the moods that they felt during the music clips, what senses were triggered, and the functions of the brain and neurotransmitters involved with the music, emotions, and the auditory senses used to listen to the music. This is when the teacher hands out the worksheet that helps to log the feelings that occurred during each music piece. Next the students will complete their mood horoscope. The students listen to the clips and chart their emotions. Once the students have listened to the clips, the students should assess and explain their moods. The student will use data tables and graphs to represent each musical piece, and then share the information. The students will point out the most common emotion triggered for each group. The students will develop their own playlists meant to help them handle their emotions. They should work in small groups to share what the songs are meant to trigger and the ways the songs improve mood. The students will then come up with healthy ways to cope with moods and to make better decisions (Discovery Education, 2012). The students will then address the areas of the brain and neurotransmitters associated with decision making.

Modifications/accommodations for children with special needs: Headphones for students with special needs during the video Closed captioning during the video for students that are hard of hearing. Letting the student choose the project that best meets their personal needs.

MUSIC AND MOOD Making the Lesson Brain Compatible

The first thing that I added to this lesson plan to make it brain compatible was the importance of understanding the brain areas, processes, and neurotransmitter associated with emotions and changing moods. The amygdala has an extremely fundamental and memorable function in experiencing and processing emotions. It is the main processing region involved in fear (Discovery Communications, 2011). The amygdala is very much involved in the fight or flight response. The amygdala is thought to create emotional memories that cause responses with no associating conscious recollection that relate to an event or experience. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that is associated with mood and emotions. Serotonin is more relaxing than stimulating. It is named the feel good neurotransmitter, and is found in many areas of the brain. Another neurotransmitter thought to improve mood and pleasurable feelings is dopamine, and is also found in several areas of the brain (Wolfe, 2010). The children are also expected to explain the physiological processes that occur when listening to music. First there is the auditory process that occurs. The areas associated with hearing are the temporal lobes. The temporal lobes process auditory stimulation. These parts of the brain that have many subdivisions that handle hearing, language, and elements of memory like auditory memory. Scientists have discovered that music is an extremely intricate neural activity. Sounds waves go into our ears and are changed into nerve impulses by the Corti in the cochlea. The impulses are sent to areas in the right and left temporal lobes. Music is dispersed among specialized areas in both hemispheres in the brain. Music experiences trigger cognitive, visual, affective, and motor systems through reading music, playing an instrument, composing a song, beating to a rhythm, and listening to a song (Wolfe, 2010).

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There are also brain processes that occur during decision making. Research implies that decision making requires the brain to consider many different sources before making choices. Sights, sounds, and other sensory data are entered and processed in sensory circuits in the brain. Brain cells collect and compare each compound of information. The area associated with certain judgments in the brain depends on the type of decision involved (Perry, 2013). Another element that I added to the lesson was to create a project of their choice to emphasize the music and its emotional triggers, sensory processes, brain areas, and neurotransmitters associated with music and emotion. By letting the student choose their own project the student is allowed to use their best learning approach. It makes the lesson more individualized and brain compatible. Choices also help to keep the student more engaged in the work because they are allowed to choose something that personally interests them. This concept comes from the theory of multiple intelligences. Choices are also great for special education. I also will offer a headphone option for the special needs students whom will require them to watch the movie and closed captioning for deaf students.

MUSIC AND MOOD References Discovery Communications. (2011). Where do emotions live in the brain? Intelligence. Retrieved April 21, 2014 from http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/where-emotionsin-brain Discovery Education. (2012). Mood Music! Fit 4 the Classroom. Retrieved April 25, 2014 from

http://www.fit4theclassroom.com/sites/fit4theclassroom.com/files/downloads/MoodMusi c_021513.pdf Perry, S. (2013). Decision Making. Awareness and Attention. Retrieved April 21, 2014 from http://www.brainfacts.org/sensing-thinking-behaving/awareness-andattention/articles/2009/decision-making/ Wolfe, P. (2010). Brain matters: Translating research into classroom practice. (2nd ed.). Alexandria,VA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.