Smithsonian Institution
Spirits Across the Ocean: Yoruban and Dahomean Cultures in the Caribbean Brought by the Slave Trade
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....
Curated OER
The American Cowboy
Middle Schoolers produce a class newspaper about the American cowboy and the times in which he lived with illustrations, feature stories and advertisements typical of the times. This is an ambitious, yet worthwhile project for youngsters...
Curated OER
Thomas Hart Benton: The Sources of Country Music
Students examine artwork by Thomas Hart Benton. In this interdisciplinary lesson, students analyze the painting The Sources of Country Music, listen to folk music, and examine how recording technology and the movies shaped the images of...
Curated OER
American Music Styles: Blues - Lesson 2
Students describe some of the distinguishing characteristics of blues music. They compare and analyze two versions of the same 12-bar blues song. They read and identify notation symbols for rhythm and tempo.
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Hispanic Arts: Visual Arts, Dance and Music
Students observe global cultures by listening to music and watching videos. For this Latin American dance lesson, students define merengue, salsa and other dances from the Hispanic culture while listening to Latin rhythm music. Students...
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Stories of the American Experience
Learners interview a veteren of any of the major U.S. wars. They must identify one quote from the veteren that sums up their experience.
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Billie Holiday's Song "Strange Fruit"
Pupils analyze a variety of primary source materials related to lynching (news articles, letters written to or written by prominent Americans, pamphlets, broadsides, etc.) in order to assess the effectiveness of the anti-lynching...
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Say It Loud!: A Celebration Of Black Music In America
Students examine the role music played in African American history and research events of the Civil Rights movement.
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Northwest Native American Art
Eighth graders first study the art of the U.S. Northwestern Coast Native American peoples. They select an image or make their own and make a drawing and then make a 6-inch linoleum block print.
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African American Music
Students investigate a variety of sites to gather relevant information for a
presentation about African American musical forms in this general Music activity for middle school and high school. Resource links are provided to aid...
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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.
John F. Kennedy Center
Harriet Tubman: Secret Messages Through Song
A lesson all about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad introduces scholars to African American spirituals. By way of reading, speaking, and listening, learners discover, analyze, and decode African American spirituals. They...
Curated OER
From Page to Stage
Young scholars, utilizing video clips and Web sites, compare specific passages from original texts to moments in Broadway musicals on which they were based, analyzing similarities and differences between them. They adapt literature into...
National Woman's History Museum
Songs of Protest: Seneca Falls to Vietnam
Long before the songs of the 1960's Peace Movement, long before the songs of the Civil Rights Movement, and even before the songs of the Abolition Movement, were the songs of the Suffrage Movement. To understand the power of protest...
National Park Service
Lesson 3: Resistance
During the time of slavery, resistance was a way of life for the men and women held in bondage. Using music as evidence of their fight against oppression, learners explore how enslaved people fought back. Writing prompts round out the...
Pace University
The Harlem Renaissance - The Journey to Freedom: An Interdisciplinary
The Harlem Renaissance if the focus of a carefully crafted, interdisciplinary unit designed to introduce middle schoolers to the contributions key figures made to American art and culture during the period. Class members select...
Curated OER
American Colonists Protest Song
Students explore the role of protest songs. In this early American history lesson, students research the acts passed by the British that angered colonists. Students then listen to protest songs from contemporary American history prior to...
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.
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Slices of American Pie: The 1960s Through Music
Eleventh graders examine political, cultural, and social movements through music. In this 1960s American history activity, 11th graders explore the music of the decade in order to better understand the complexity of the time period....
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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,...
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Gullah Contributions to South Carolina History
Students research the Gullah people and their impact on South Carolina. In this South Carolina history lesson, students study, locate, and color the region of Africa the Gullah people came from. Students listen to Gullah music and watch...
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...
Curated OER
African American Poetry: Family and Traditions
Students 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
Passing Down Family History Through Oral Tradition: Corridos
Students create and perform Corridos which are oral tradition ballads. In this Passing Down Family History Through Oral Tradition lesson, students interview family members using a predetermined list of questions. In addition, students...
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