lesson:

Muddy Waters, the New Kid in Town

Grades: Elementary
Subjects: Social Emotional Learning, Social Studies/History
Activities: Maps, Personal Reflection

How did Muddy Waters’ music change after he moved to Chicago, and what does that say about the relationship between place and self-expression?

lesson:

The Blues and the Great Migration

Grades: High
Subjects: Social Studies/History, STEAM
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Document-Based Questions, Maps, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

How did the Great Migration spread Southern culture, helping to give the Blues a central place in American popular music?

lesson:

The Influence of Rhythm and Blues

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: General Music, Social Studies/History
Activities: Musical Analysis, Textual Analysis

What did R&B bring to early Rock and Roll, and how was early Rock and Roll different?

lesson:

The American Blues in Britain

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: General Music
Activities: Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

In what ways did American Blues affect English musicians in the early 1960s?

lesson:

The Impact of the Electric Guitar

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, STEAM
Activities: Gallery Walk, Interactive Tech Tools, Visual Analysis

How did the electrification, amplification and design of the guitar facilitate its emergence as a dominant instrument of popular music?

lesson:

The Blues: The Sound of Rural Poverty

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Social Studies/History
Activities: Maps, Station Activities, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis, Visual Design

How do the Country Blues reflect the challenges of sharecropping, racial injustice, and rural poverty in early 20th-century African-American life?

lesson:

How to Study Rock and Roll

Grades: All Ages, AP/Honors/101, Elementary, High, Middle
Subjects: ELA, General Music, Social Studies/History
Activities: Textual Analysis, Timeline, Visual Analysis

How can teachers help students analyze and understand Rock and Roll?

lesson:

The Memphis Sound and Racial Integration

Grades: High
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History
Activities: Gallery Walk, Maps, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

How has Memphis music culture provided one example of art’s capacity to challenge the racial boundaries that have so often structured American life?

lesson:

The Birth of the Electric Guitar

Grades: All Ages, AP/Honors/101, Elementary, High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, Social Studies/History, STEAM
Activities: Musical Analysis, Textual Analysis, Think-Pair-Share

How did the electric guitar transform Blues music from the 1940s forward?

lesson:

Chuck Berry

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: General Music
Activities: Station Activities, Visual Design

Why is Chuck Berry often considered the most important of the early Rock and Rollers?