Rock and Roll Lesson Plans

Students relate ballads and blues stanzas of the Harlem Renaissance to music. In this poetry lesson, exercises and activities help students recognize the iamb, anapest, trochee, and dactyl. The ballad measures activity allows students to actually measure lines of the ballad.

Young scholars examine protest music and songs from the Civil Rights movement. In this music of the Civil Rights era lesson, students listen to selected music before working in groups to determine who the music was directed at, what social ills the lyrics were addressing, and what affect the music had. They write an essay using music and a primary source document.

Learners explore Shakespeare as part of American culture. In this Shakespearean culture instructional activity, students view video clips about modern theater.  Learners read excerpts from Shakespearean plays and other commentaries.

Eleventh graders examine political, cultural, and social movements through music. For this 1960s American history lesson, 11th graders explore the music of the decade in order to better understand the complexity of the time period. Students analyze the lyrics of several sub-genres of rock music in order to identify literary devices, allusions, and themes.

Learners examine female artists who perform in the genres of rhythm & blues, jazz, soul, and hip-hop/rap. They compose lyrics and melody in one of these genres.

Students participate in a variety of activities surrounding Rock & Roll music, lyrics, drama and visual art and how they all help demonstrate examples of literary terms. They use Rock & Roll as an effective aid to stimulate their literary vocabulary and to broaden their knowledge about the art of writing.

Learners listen to popular music of the 50's and 60's to make literature connections to The Outsiders. For this popular culture lesson, students evaluate and analyze various songs and connect them with the themes in the literature related to social ostracism, forbidden love, and friendship. Learners then select a modern song that embodies one of these themes and write up an analysis of the lyrics.

Students discuss significant figures in music history and read an article about the Smithsonian's Hip-Hop exhibit. In groups, they develop and curate an exhibition of hip-hop music and history using artifacts that represent relevant people and events.

Students examine classical music and the "Art Rock" of 1967. They review classical themes in their original genre and discuss/analyze how pop musicians incorporate theses themes into a variety of pop music genres.

Young scholars explore the connections between Langson Hughes and blues music. For this African American culture lesson, students compare and contrast blues music with poetry and short stories by Langston Hughes.