Curated OER
Swing Your Partner! It's A Virtual Square Dance
Students explore the Wessels Living History Farm website and research how to do a square dance. They read a story, listen to an explanation of barn dances, and participate in various square dances.
Curated OER
The Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance inspired a group of writers, musicians, and artists whose influence is still seen today.
Curated OER
Los Angeles Tourist Brochures
Pupils study the history of Los Angeles and make a tourist brochure for the city.
Curated OER
Los Angeles Tourist Brochures
Students investigate the history of Los Angeles. They conduct Internet research, select a specific topic, and create a tourist brochure that includes information, pictures, and maps.
Curated OER
VH1 Road to Fame: Harry Connick Jr.
Young scholars examine the life of Harry Connick Jr. and keep a journal on how they could be more successful.
Curated OER
George Gershwin
Young scholars explore the life and accomplishments of George Gershwin. They listen to Latin rhythms and practice the rhythmic parts. Students identify Latin instruments George Gershwin added to the orchestra. After practice, they...
Curated OER
Dance Team/ Collaborative Fitness Routines
Students experience the process of creating a "dance team" type routine by following a set procedure.
Curated OER
Meet Louis Prima!
Students discover the difference in major and minor tonality after a brief introduction to Louis Prima. They discuss swing dancing and Louis Prima's role in the "Jungle Book" as the character King Louis. Students listen to the song...
Curated OER
"The Block": Romare Bearden's and Mine
Students study Bearden's style of collage and create their own collage that reflects their neighborhood. They are read "The Block" and poems about neighborhoods and write one about theirs.
Curated OER
Is it Folk Dance?
In this folk dance worksheet, learners determine the characteristics of folk dancing and the dances that would fit that definition. They learn the actual dance concepts behind folk dancing.
Curated OER
Coffee Houses
In this online interactive English language skills worksheet, learners answer 10 fill in the blank questions regarding coffee house vocabulary. Students may check their answers immediately.
Curated OER
Making the Changes
Students investigate the two chords of G/F in the 4/4 meter within the acceptable boundaries. They practice listening and performing the chords using the method of improvisation. Students also recognize the relationship of notes and...
PBS
Pbs: Defining Jazz Music
In this lesson, students will develop a definition of jazz. Through biographies and interviews of jazz musicians, students will learn what jazz music is about.
PBS
Pbs: Jazz Music and the Crisis Over School Desegregation
Working in cooperative groups, your young scholars will learn how jazz musicians expressed the Civil Rights era in their music. This lesson focuses on the Civil Rights movement in Little Rock, Arkansas. Also, they will learn to about the...
PBS
Pbs: Black and Blue: Jazz in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison was a musician who later became a writer. His book Invisible Man is written like a jazz composition. In this lesson, students will interpret key themes and concepts in Invisible Man that are also found in jazz music.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: A Brief History of Jazz!
A lesson plan that helps learners explore the roots of jazz music and some of the important jazz musicians in history.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Jazz and Ww Ii: A Rally to Resistance, a Catalyst for Victory
Lesson plan that teaches the roles that jazz music and jazz musicians played in the war effort and that demonstrates the effect that the war had on jazz in America.
PBS
Pbs: Jazz Is About Collaboration: Jim Crow Laws: Segregation
Engage your students in discussion about segregation and the Jim Crow laws with this in-depth lesson plan. Using jazz music, you will contrast the ways in which America's most significant contribution to the arts depended on...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Learning the Blues
This lesson plan introduces students to the blues. The origin and development of the blues is explored as well as its distinctive structure.
Other
Visual Jazz Publications
This company produces educational materials to help you succeed in jazz improvisation and sight reading. Of note on their site is "The Art of Improvisation," a free download that guides you through the improvisational process.
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Musical Harlem
The Kennedy Center's ArtsEdge offers a great unit for introducing jazz to young scholars. Its use of Harlem as the "glue" which binds together elements such as jazz history and jazz terminology, makes it particularly effective for the...
Other
Jazz Improvisation Primer
An info-packed lesson on jazz improvisation and jazz history. Very useful for musicians aspiring to play in the jazz idiom.
PBS
Pbs: Transcending Poetry, Jazz, Rap & Hip Hop
The objectives in this lesson plan will have students describing the characteristics of poetry, jazz, rap and hip hop music. Students will also analyze how poetry, jazz, hip hop and poetry reflect the culture of the time.
PBS
Pbs: Jazz and Math: The Beat Goes On
This lesson will require students to collect data through listening, counting and timing. They will use ratios, rates, and proportions to report data. They will also demonstrate an understanding of the concepts of rhythm and tempo in music.