The Learning Journey in the Accelerated Learning Cycle
A Learning Journey involves using music to accompany guided journeys through important content information. A Learning Journey can be presented to activate information during overview or presentation steps in the AL Cycle, or as a review and memory processing technique later in the cycle.
As teachers, we can provide students with opportunities to form their own visual memories about course information which they can then return to for improved recall. Learning journeys lead students through content information and encourage them to create an internal image of subject matter. The neural memory patterns formulated in the brain to create a mental picture can be accessed later to recall clear and detailed information.
Music is used to support the spoken learning journey because it helps students stimulate images and will facilitate a reflective, intrapersonal experience. The combination of visual images and music is effective because the student has been involved mentally in constructing personal visual meaning through the activity.
A wonderful example of the effectiveness of this simple technique comes from an auto mechanics teacher frustrated with the difficulty students had remembering specifics of how oil moves and functions in a car engine. He decided to take his students on a learning journey as if they were the oil moving through the engine! Using reflective music, he mentally led students from place to place in an engine, describing the oil temperature and viscosity as well as the path of oil flow and how the oil functioned in each area. The results were rewarding—his students really learned the information and aced the test!
How to Present a Learning Journey
Preparation
The beauty of this activity is that it is easy to present spontaneously. Because you know your topic, you can easily imagine and describe details and processes important to your students’ understanding. It is best to write out the first Learning Journeys, but this activity soon becomes easy to ad-lib.
To prepare, follow these steps:
- Select the subject matter. Determine the important details.
- Write a description that incorporates the details using illustrative words that stimulate sensory experience. For example, prompt students to see colors and key words, hear sounds, imagine movements and feel textures. If describing a process, lead students through each step with vivid imagination.
Presentation
When presenting material, follow these steps:
- Ask students to sit quietly with eyes closed so external stimuli does not interfere with the internal image process.
- Start the soundtrack and let it play from 30 seconds to one minute first.
- Then begin presenting the Learning Journey. Speak clearly; if using a reflective format, be sure to slow down your speaking pace.
- When you are done, fade the music out and bring your students’ attention back to the classroom.
Sound Suggestions
Following are a list of musical selections that are especially effective in Learning Journeys.
Calming Music for Memory Review
Memory Beat, “Pachelbel, Canon in D,” Daniel Kobialka
Relax with the Classics, Volume 1-3, LIND Institute
Classical Harmonies, LIND Institute
Mozart Effect: Relax, Daydream and Draw , Mozart/Campbell
Classical Harp, Patricia Speero
Gymnopedies, Eric Satie
Music for Relaxation, Chapman, Rhodes and Miles
Piano Music for Reflective Memory Review
Touch, Living Music, Pianoscapes, others, Michael Jones
Nightfall, Cristofari’s Dream, others, David Lanz
December and Winter to Spring George Winston
10 Pebbles, Memories, Dreams and Reflections, others, Kostia
Air, Earth, Christopher Peacock
Piano Forte: Classical, Eric Daub
Another World: Harry Pickens
Mid-Level Energy for Memory Presentation
*Baroque Music to Empower Learning and Relaxation, OptimaLearning Classics
*Dance of the Renaissance, Richard Searles
Memory Beat, Mozart: “Violin Concerto in B-Flat,” movements #1, #3
Mozart Effect for Children: Tune Up the Mind, Mozart/Campbell
Music to Evoke Creative Imagination for Memory Presentation
Childhood Remembered, especially #1, #6, Various Narada Artists
Concerto in E Major (The Four Seasons), Antonio Vivaldi
Excalibur and Medicine Woman, Medwyn Goodall
Land of Enchantment, Deuter
Magica Melodia, Rondo [back accent after the last o] Veneziano
The Moldau, Bedrich Smetana
Natural States, Lanz and Speer
Oceans, Christopher Peacock
About Chris Brewer
Chris Brewer is a certified Level III AL Trainer, musician, and expert on the use of music in education. She is the author of eight books, including Rhythms of Learning co-authored with Don Campbell. Chris holds certifications and a master’s degree in the therapeutic use of music and art. She is dedicated to teaching others to use music intentionally for the enhancement of learning and living.
The selection above is an excerpt from her upcoming book, Soundtracks for Learning: A Guide to Using Music in the Classroom (Crown House Publishers).
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