Ragtime Lesson Plans

1st graders view video of dancers and compare the dance and the time periods in which they took place.  In this Renaissance and Ragtime Eras lesson 1st graders look at primary source material and list differences in the time periods.

In this lesson students will explore ragtime music and gain an understanding of its development in relation to jazz. They will also investigate the historical events during the time the genre evolved.

In this lesson students examine the development of ragtime music and its relation to jazz. They participate in an online Interactive timeline and read about the history of ragtime music, listen to examples of music, and in small groups create short syncopated rhythm examples of music in various meters.

This lesson has students examine the origins of ragtime music in American and analyze its musical form.

In this lesson learners enact scenes similar to silent films using the Olympic Games as their subject. In this Olympic Games enactment lesson, learners view film from the last century to learn about the silent film genre. In this lesson learners then work in groups using ragtime music to act out scenes of Olympic Game activities in that style.

Students investigate the concept of Rag Time Music and the times associated to it in American History. They conduct research using a variety of resources and listen to a sample before writing down some of the results of the information search.

Learners browse current issues of Targetnewspaper and their local newspaper and look for articles/advertisements featuring jazz, blues, funk, hip-hop, gospel or ragtime musicians. They discuss the African American roots in these types of music.

Learners study Scott Joplin. In this music lesson, learners read articles about Scott Joplin and listen to recordings of his music. Learners complete a worksheet about Scott Joplin.

In this lesson students listen to, analyze, and describe music. They explain musics relationship to history and culture.

Students listen and analyze various samples of genres of music. After reading an article, they discuss the fate of New Orlean's Jazz after Hurricane Katrina. Using the internet, they investigate the life cycles of musical genres with roots in the United States. They share their information with the class in an oral presentation.