Curated OER
African American Poetry: Songs of Protest and Pride
Students are introduced to various time periods in history in which African Americans wrote songs and poetry to cope. In groups, they travel between different stations to listen or read poems and music from the Civil War period, Civil...
Smithsonian Institution
Songs, Sounds and Stories from the Georgia Sea Islands
American music is the result of the influence of many cultures, including the traditions brought by the African slaves. Young scholars study the polyrhythms, the call-and-response format, and the vocal improvisations of the Gullah...
Digital Public Library of America
Women and the Blues
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...
Digital Public Library of America
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their eyes Were Watching God has been highly praised and severely criticized for its depiction of African American folk culture. A set of primary source materials, including photographs, articles, essays, and...
Curated OER
African American Poetry: Family and Traditions
Learners are introduced to the elements of African-American poetry. As a class, they are read different types of poems to discover there are different styles of poems and practice rhyming words. They share information on their family...
Curated OER
Say It Loud!: A Celebration Of Black Music in America - Louis Armstrong
Students listen to selections of New Orleans street band music. They explore the culture of New Orleans in the 1920's, and perform a closer examination of Armstrong's music.
Curated OER
African American Scavenger Hunt
For this African American music history worksheet, students research the history of African American music. Students then answer the fifteen questions.
Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford
Similes Activity using Jazz (featuring Duke Ellington)
Language learners get into the swing of things with a jazzy lesson about similes. They read an article about Duke Ellington, listen to samples of his music, and then try their hand at crafting similes to describe his improvisational and...
Curated OER
Black History Month - - Mary Seacole CV
Students commemorate black history month. Using the Internet, information books and printed web pages, students research the events of Mary Seacole's life. Students role play Mary Seacole being interviewed for a job.
Curated OER
Family Origins and American Cultural Pluralism
Students explore, analyze and discuss family origins, special legacies, and racial/cultural groups in literature and art that exposes them to positive examples in African-American history and culture. They encounter examples from dance,...
Curated OER
Get Your Mojo Workin': Part 1 Writing Your Very Own Blues Tune!
Upper graders listen to the blues. They discuss blues scale, read a description of the blues, and work together to write an original piece. A lesson like this ties into American history and African-American musical contributions very...
Curated OER
South Africa's Apartheid
Discuss South African apartheid, the anti-apartheid movement, and the literature and music it inspired. Slides contain images and facts about life in South Africa during apartheid, social uprisings such as Soweto, and the various...
PBS
Breaking the Code: Actions and Songs of Protest
Ezell Blair, Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil changed history. Their sit-in at the lunch counter of the Woolworths in Greensboro, North Carolina on February 1, 1960 became a model for the nonviolent protests that...
Curated OER
African-American Musicians
Students research three African-American musicians and compose a report based upon their research in this Music Appreciation lesson plan for the middle level classroom. The lesson plan could be adapted for various student levels and...
Curated OER
Hispanic Arts: Visual Arts, Dance and Music
Students observe global cultures by listening to music and watching videos. In this Latin American dance lesson, students define merengue, salsa and other dances from the Hispanic culture while listening to Latin rhythm music. Students...
Curated OER
"ART ZOO 'Blacks in the Westward Movement', 'What Can You Do with a Portrait', and 'Of Beetles, Worms, and Leaves of Grass'"
Students study black history, examine portraits and portrait making and create their own portraits, and investigate their natural environment. This humanities lesson provides a text that can be used to teach lessons in black...
Curated OER
American Culture in a Musical Setting
Students discover the significance of similarities and contrasts of three separate cultures of the United States through music. They take out maps and trace the expedition of the Spanish along the coasts of Mexico and North and South...
CHPCS
The United States in the 1920s: The New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance
Music, writing, and activism all tell the story of history! The resource uses these elements and more in a presentation to discuss the Jazz Age and Harlem Renaissance. Your class views biographies, discusses important events, and...
PBS
The Harlem Renaissance
A reading of Walter Dean Myers' "Harlem" sets the stage for studying the literature, art, and music of the Harlem Renaissance. The lesson plan begins with a review of the social, political, and economic conditions of the 1920s and 1930s...
Smithsonian Institution
Black Diamond
Score a home run with this packet of information on the very first player of the Negro League to be elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame — cultural groundbreaker and sports legend Satchel Paige. These worksheets include a...
Curated OER
The Influence of Musical Folk Traditions in the Poetry of Langston Hughes and Nicolás Guillén
Students listen and explore how African-American culture relates to learning Spanish as a foreign language. Poetry, music, and history are utilized while learning about Langston Hughes and Nicolas Guillen.
Curated OER
African Art: Ntan Drum
Students study African history, anthropology and culture using the lens of the art object, Ntan Drum. Lesson and instruction is differentiated for elementary, middle and high school students.
Curated OER
Draw Me the Music
Students explore and investigate the foundation and history of jazz music. They listen to various pieces of music while creating drawings, develop a timeline of jazz history, and read and discuss biographies of famous jazz musicians.
Curated OER
Social Studies, Music, The Blues, Urbanization, and Technology
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...