Curated OER
Empress of the Blues
For this informational comprehension worksheet, students read the passage of Empress of the Blues and answer 5 multiple choice comprehension and 5 multiple choice vocabulary questions.
Curated OER
Harlem Renaissance Research Project
Students complete a group research project on the Harlem Renaissance. In this Harlem instructional activity, students pick from a list of topics all related to the Harlem renaissance. They create a PowerPoint presentation, topic outline,...
Curated OER
National Park Service: Archive: New Orleans Jazz: Music!
Dozens of audio clips of New Orleans-style jazz music from different time periods: 1920s and 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, and the year 2000.
PBS
Pbs: Culture Shock: The Devil's Music: 1920s Jazz
The story of how jazz swept through America and the world and how it "left delight and controversy in its wake."
Stanford University
Riverwalk Jazz: Speakeasies, Flappers, and Red Hot Jazz: Music of Prohibition
Script of a radio broadcast about Prohibition and Jazz Age America comments on black market bootlegging, jazz music, speakeasies, flappers, and women`s suffrage.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: American Culture in the 1920s
The First World War had a crippling effect on any notions of positivity in the artists, writers, and intellectuals of that time and they became known as the Lost Generation. This page discusses this group of people, the emergence of jazz...
OpenStax
Open Stax: The Jazz Age: Redefining the Nation 1919 1929: A New Generation
Looks at the new morality that emerged in the 1920s. It changed the role of women and the perception of African Americans, the latter facilitated by the Harlem Renaissance and its impact on the music and dance of the Jazz Age. Also...
Siteseen
Siteseen: American Historama: The Jazz Age
A comprehensive overview with many interesting facts and information on the Jazz Age, a period in U.S. history associated with exuberance and the introduction of jazz music.
PBS
Pbs: Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns: Jazz in Time: Roaring Twenties
Essay considers the impact of jazz on American society in the 1920s.
PBS
Pbs Teachers: Learning Through the Duke
Describe the life of Duke Ellington and his contributions to the field of jazz, write an original poem using a variety of popular vocabulary from the 1920's and respond to Ellington's composition "Mood Indigo" by creating a painting.
PBS
Pbs: Cole Porter: You're the Top
A high school lesson plan designed to delve deeper into the life of Cole Porter and the meaning in his music.
Digital History
Digital History: Formation of Modern American Mass Culture
A mass culture developed in America in the 1920s due to several factors. Read about the influence of radio, movies, and spectator sports in the adoption of common speech. Find out about the creativity of the time in literature and music.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: The Roaring Twenties
This activity involves comparing turn of the century music with the music from the Jazz Age. Students will listen to musical selections and analyze how the change in the music reflects the change in cultural attitudes. They will also...
Digital History
Digital History: Avant Garde
Synopsis of the huge cultural shifts that occurred in America in the 1920s in art, music, literature, and among intelligentsia.
Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press.
New Georgia Encyclopedia: Fletcher Henderson 1897 1952
Uncover biographical facts about African American jazz musician, Fletcher Henderson, who formed the first big band orchestra in the early 1920s.
Library of Congress
Loc: The Gershwin Legacy: George and Ira Gershwin
With their famous music and lyrics, the Library of Congress presents an in depth exhibit of primary source materials from the Gershwin brothers.