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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

Musical Harlem: How Is Jazz Music Reflective of the Harlem Renaissance?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Bring jazz music and the Harlem Renaissance to light with a lesson that challenges scholars to research and create. Pupils delve deep into information materials to identify jazz terminology, compare types of jazz and jazz musicians,...
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

Harriet Tubman: An Informative and Impressionistic Look

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Informational text and impressionistic art lead a lesson about Harriet Tubman. Working in teams, scholars examine a variety of resources. They analyze, compare, and contrast the work.  Using their research findings, pupils create an...
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Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

Singing for Justice: Following the Musical Journey of “This Little Light of Mine”

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
Scholars go on a musical journey to discover the origin, importance, and evolution of the song, "This Little Light of Mine". Class members boost their voice talents and clap to the beat while learning the lyrics in both English and Zulu....
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Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

The Vocal Blues: Created in the Deep South of the U.S.

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Bring the sounds of the deep South vocal blues to the classroom with a Smithsonian Folkways lesson. In preparation, scholars listen to and count the 12 bar blues patterns in several works and identify the I, II, IV, and V chords as well...
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Unit Plan
Institut Obert de Catalunya

20th Century Music: Jazz

For Teachers 9th - 12th
A 67-page packet provides instructors with a complete course in the history of Jazz. Lessons look at the roots of jazz in early 20th century African American communities in the southern United States and continues to the New Orleans...
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Activity
Digital Public Library of America

Women and the Blues

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
A 12-piece primary source packet sets the tone for a study of the role women played in the origins, development, and impact of blues music. Legends like Bessie Smith, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Mamie Smith, and Ida Cox are featured, as are...
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Hidden Messages in Spirituals

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
Slaves laboring in the cotton fields of the old South singing joyously may have convinced overseers that their workforce was happy and content, but in truth, these spirituals contained secret codes. After viewing a short video about...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Spirituals

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students review factors that contributed to the development of the spiritual, which reflects the influence of African religious and Christian traditions, and slavery. Students collect spirituals/songs of their heritage from family...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Jews and Blues

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students examine how American Jews affect music and entertainment. They identify problems between immigrants and their children. They relate the Jewish American issue to those of African Americans.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Social Studies, Music, The Blues, Urbanization, and Technology

For Teachers 4th - 9th
Enable students to use the blues to explore urbanization, technology, and their effects on everyday life in the 20th century. Musicians were among the large number of people who, between 1914 and 1945, participated in the Great Migration...
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Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series: Removing the Mask

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Describe, analyze, compare and contrast poets from the Harlem Renaissance. Critical thinkers analyze the imagery, characterization, tone, symbolism, and historical context of Jacob Lawrence, Helene Johnson, and Paul Laurence Dunbar. A...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Being Me in the Face of Adversity - Americans Who Stood Up for Their Beliefs

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students identify important Americans from the colonial, revolutionary and slavery periods who are noted for standing up for their beliefs in the face of peer disapproval. They identify the importance of music in motivating and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Ella Fitzgerald: Something to Live For

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students examine the basic characteristics of jazz, and its relationship to African-American culture and history. They listen to examples of jazz, conduct research, and create a 20th century timeline of music and historical events.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

American Music Styles: European Roots and African Influences - Lesson 3

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students describe some of the characteristics of country and blues music. They see how country music rose to a nationally known music style. They write a two-paragraph essay on what they think country music be like in the next 100 years.
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Habari Gani: What is the News?

For Teachers K - 2nd
Display creative works of art after learning about Kwanzaa. Kindergartners hear stories about the history of Kwanzaa and its celebrations. They then create artwork, practice African dances and listen to African music.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Pop Culture and Art

For Teachers 6th
Learn about American pop culture, art, and the social voice that art can convey. The class discusses the life and art of Barton Benes, views his piece Reliquarium, then discusses what they see and feel when they view his work. Make sure...
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Handout
Penguin Books

Up Close: Ella Fitzgerald

For Students 5th - 7th Standards
A reading of Tanya Lee Stones' biography of Ella Fitzgerald lets middle schoolers get up close and personal with the First Lady of Jazz. Stone recounts details of Fitzgerald's life from her early days through her experiences as a teenage...
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Lesson Plan
Maryland Department of Education

A Raisin in the Sun and Dreams Deferred

For Teachers 10th Standards
To conclude a study of A Raisin in the Sun and to prepare for a visit to the Lewis Museum, class members analyze Langston Hughes' poem "Harlem." Learners then draw connections to characters in the play and to their own experiences by...
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Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

Spirits Across the Ocean: Yoruban and Dahomean Cultures in the Caribbean Brought by the Slave Trade

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Much of Latin American music owes its origins to the slave trade. Peoples from the Yoruban and Dahomean cultures brought with them the distinctive rhythms, time signatures, and eighth note patterns that now characterize Caribbean music....
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Music of the Civil Rights Era, 1954-1968

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Learners experience the aesthetics of music and learn about freedom songs that motivated the Civil Rights activists. In this music history lesson, students learn how music can motivate and move listeners. Learners then describe how...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

A to Z of Black Inventors

For Students 2nd - 3rd
In this Black history worksheet, students trace the letters and color the invention for all of the inventions created by Black inventors.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Photographs of the 369th Infantry and African Americans during World War I

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners engage in a discussion regarding images of war we see, how quickly do we see them, and how they affect us? They view and analyze war photographs taken during World War I.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Louis Armstrong

For Teachers 2nd - 3rd
In this reading comprehension worksheet students read a biography of jazz musician Louis Armstrong. Students answer 6 questions.
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Lesson Plan
Core Knowledge Foundation

Ray Charles

For Students K - 3rd Standards
Introduce young learners to the read-aloud process with a short biographical passage about Ray Charles. After listening to the passage, class members respond to factual, inferential, and evaluative questions, and then create a timeline...

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