Description
🎵 November Music Reading Comprehension – 30 Composer Activities
Introduce pupils to a different composer, musician or musical tradition every day throughout November with 30 ready-to-use music reading comprehension and listening activities.
Each activity combines an accessible non-fiction biography or informational text with five comprehension questions, suggested answers and a QR code linking to carefully selected listening. The collection is particularly well suited to KS2 and KS3, with flexible use for KS4 enrichment, literacy, starters and cover work.
⭐ What’s Included
- 30 complete Composer of the Day activities – one for every day of November
- An accessible biography or informational text for each featured musician or musical tradition
- Five comprehension questions covering retrieval, vocabulary, inference, explanation and summarising
- Full suggested answer sheets
- QR codes linking to carefully selected listening examples
- Print-ready PDF pages for straightforward classroom use
🎯 Benefits for Teachers and Pupils
- Develops reading comprehension alongside musical knowledge
- Encourages focused listening and discussion
- Introduces pupils to composers, musicians and musical traditions from different periods, styles and cultures
- Provides purposeful, no-preparation starter, cover and independent-learning activities
- Supports cross-curricular links between Music and English
- Gives teachers a flexible bank of activities that can be used daily or selected individually
🎼 Featured November Composers, Musicians and Music
The November collection includes:
Claudio Casciolini, Hugh Aston, Jean-Baptiste Loeillet of London, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Johann Friedrich Reichardt, Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg, Antonio (Anton) Rubinstein, Claudio Monteverdi, Scotland the Brave (Traditional Scottish), Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Alexander Borodin, César Franck, Joaquín Rodrigo, Franjo Kuhač, Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, Roger Quilter, Ennio Morricone, Karl Jenkins, Joonas Kokkonen, Ludovico Einaudi, Maria Schneider, Scott Joplin, Artie Matthews, Art Garfunkel, Takanori Arisawa, Luis Cluzeau Mortet, John Barry, Joni Mitchell and Atilio Stampone.
Together, the activities introduce pupils to a broad mix of early, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, jazz, film, folk, popular and contemporary musical traditions from different cultures and periods.
📚 Curriculum Links
English – Reading
- Retrieve and record information
- Understand vocabulary in context
- Draw inferences
- Explain ideas using evidence
- Identify and summarise key information
Music
- Listen attentively to a wide range of music
- Develop knowledge of composers and musical traditions
- Explore music from different historical periods, cultures and styles
- Discuss and respond to music using appropriate vocabulary
💡 Ideas for Classroom Use
- Begin each day with a Composer of the Day activity
- Use as Music lesson starters or plenaries
- Build a November composer display, timeline or genre map
- Combine the reading with whole-class listening and discussion
- Use individual activities for cover lessons
- Set as homework or independent learning
- Use selected musicians to support wider topics or musical styles
- Incorporate into cross-curricular English and Music work
🛒 Why Teachers Will Find This Useful
The resource removes the need to find separate biographies, questions and listening examples. Everything follows a consistent format, making it easy to choose an activity, print the relevant pages and teach.
🎶 Perfect For
- KS2 and KS3 Music
- KS4 enrichment and cover activities
- Music appreciation
- Reading comprehension
- Music history
- Daily starter activities
- Cover lessons
- Tutor time
- Homework
- Independent learning
- Cross-curricular English and Music
- Enrichment activities
Supplied as a downloadable PDF containing all 30 activities and suggested answer sheets.
👉 Want a full year of Composer of the Day activities? Explore the 366-activity Composer of the Day bundle for a complete year of reading, listening and musical discovery.
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