lesson:

Gospel Music and the Birth of Soul

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

How did Gospel influence American popular music?

lesson:

The Gospel Origins of “Chain of Fools”

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: ELA, General Music
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Maps, Musical Analysis

Essential Question: How did Aretha Franklin’s foundation in Gospel music influence her recording of “Chain of Fools,” helping to establish a Soul sound and bringing black culture into mainstream America?

lesson:

Learning Rhythm through Gospel

Grades: Elementary
Subjects: General Music
Activities: Performance

How can Gospel music help students identify the musical concepts of beat, meter, backbeat, subdivision, and syncopation?

lesson:

Soul Music and the New Femininity

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

How did Aretha Franklin represent a new female voice in 1960s popular music?

lesson:

The Musical Roots of Doo Wop

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

How did Doo Wop develop as a musical genre?

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:

“Hound Dog” and 1950 Race Relations

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: General Music
Activities: Maps, Musical Analysis

How does the story of “Hound Dog” demonstrate music culture’s racial mixing as it differed from mainstream American life in the 1950s?

lesson:

Blues, Poetry, and the Harlem Renaissance

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: ELA
Activities: Gallery Walk, Textual Analysis

How does Langston Hughes’ Blues-inspired poetry exemplify the ideals of the Harlem Renaissance?

lesson:

Math With The Grateful Dead

Grades: Elementary
Subjects: Math
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Equations and Calculations, Visual Art, Visual Design

How can math be used to better understand the Grateful Dead’s success?