Trace It Back:

ChocQuibTown

Grades: All Ages, Elementary, High, Middle
Subjects: General Music, Geography, Physical Education, Social Emotional Learning
Activities: Musical Analysis, Performance

lesson:

The Impact of the Electric Guitar

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, 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 Birth of the Microphone

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

How did the development of microphones in the 20th century change the way people make and listen to music?

lesson:

Funk Asserts Itself

Grades: High
Subjects: Social Studies/History
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

How did 1970s Funk respond to African-American life in the decade following the Civil Rights movement?

lesson:

Loudspeakers, PA Systems, and the “Wall of Sound”

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, STEAM
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Design and Build, Station Activities

What is a PA system, how does it work, and how were the Grateful Dead pioneers in live sound technology?

lesson:

The Who’s Generation

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History
Activities: Role Playing, Textual Analysis, Think-Pair-Share, Visual Analysis

How did the Who represent “My Generation” in mid-1960s England?

lesson:

Learning Rhythm through Gospel

Grades: Elementary, Middle
Subjects: General Music
Activities: Performance

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

lesson:

The Roots of Country Rock

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

How did Country Music influence Rock and Roll and the musicians who made it?

lesson:

The Historical Roots of Hip Hop

Grades: High
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Maps, Timeline, Visual Analysis

What are the historical roots of Hip Hop?

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?

lesson:

The Reclamation of the American Cowboy

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Social Studies/History
Activities: Document-Based Questions, Musical Analysis, Station Activities, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

How has the image and history of the American cowboy been reclaimed in the 21st Century?

lesson:

Part 3: Asbury Park from the 1970s to Today

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Social Studies/History
Activities: Document-Based Questions, Role Playing, Station Activities, Textual Analysis

What social issues continue to confront Asbury Park today, and how are activists tackling them?

lesson:

Part 1: Segregation and the Founding of Asbury Park

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History
Activities: Creative Writing, Document-Based Questions

What does the founding and early history of Asbury Park reveal about practices of segregation in the Northern United States?

lesson:

The Banjo, Slavery, and the Abolition Debate

Grades: AP/Honors/101
Subjects: Social Studies/History
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Document-Based Questions, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

What is the relationship between the banjo and slavery, and how did music making by enslaved people influence the abolition debate during the 18th and early 19th century?

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:

DAMN.: The Art and Importance of Storytelling

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Art/Design, ELA, Social Studies/History
Activities: Gallery Walk, Musical Analysis, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

How do Kendrick Lamar’s album DAMN. and the work of photojournalist Gordon Parks tell stories that bring attention to social issues?

lesson:

The Mathematics Behind Sound

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Math
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Equations and Calculations

What are the mathematical variables that give a sound its particular quality, and how can these variables be measured, visualized, and calculated?

lesson:

Glam: The Return of the Teenager

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

How was Glam Rock part of a new teenage culture in the 1970s?

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 Science of Sound

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Science, STEAM
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Design and Build, Station Activities

What is sound, and how are its characteristics explained scientifically?

lesson:

The Juke Joint: Where Oral Literature Comes Alive

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: ELA
Activities: Creative Writing, Personal Reflection, Textual Analysis

What role do Blues lyrics and juke joints play in Black American literature and life?

lesson:

Musical Ratios

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Math
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Equations and Calculations, Interactive Tech Tools, Musical Analysis

What role do ratios play in the Western musical concepts of rhythm and harmony?

lesson:

Kanye and Katrina: Environmental Racism in New Orleans

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Social Studies/History
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Interview, Maps

What was Hurricane Katrina, and how did Black Americans articulate the frustrations they felt in its aftermath?

lesson:

Signature Style in Art and Album Covers

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Art/Design, General Music
Activities: Design and Build, Gallery Walk, Musical Analysis, Playlists and Podcasts, Visual Analysis, Visual Art, Visual Design

How have visual artists worked with musicians without compromising their style?

lesson:

100 Years of Dance

Grades: Elementary, Middle
Subjects: General Music
Activities: Performance, Station Activities

Why might people dance, and how have dance trends changed in America since the 1920s?

lesson:

The Rise of the Electric Guitar

Grades: High
Subjects: General Music, Social Studies/History
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Four Corners, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis, Visual Design

What factors led to the rise of the electric guitar as the dominant symbol of Rock and Roll?

lesson:

Math with The Beatles

Grades: Elementary
Subjects: Math, STEAM
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Design and Build, Equations and Calculations, Maps, Think-Pair-Share, Timeline, Visual Design

How can the Beatles’ growth in popularity be demonstrated with math?

lesson:

Calculating Pitch

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Math, STEAM
Activities: Design and Build, Equations and Calculations

How do musical instruments produce different pitches, and what variables allow you to calculate the pitch of an instrument?

lesson:

Cleaning up the Plastic Beach (Elementary School Version)

Grades: Elementary, Middle
Subjects: Science, STEAM
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Design and Build, Personal Reflection

What is plastic, how is it harmful for the environment, and how can it be used more responsibly?

lesson:

Pre-production: Preparing for Your Life Songs Interview

Grades: All Ages, Elementary, High, Middle
Subjects: ELA, General Music, Social Emotional Learning
Activities: Interview, Personal Reflection, Think-Pair-Share

How do you prepare for a successful and insightful interview?

lesson:

Using Data to Analyze an Artist’s Success

Grades: Middle
Subjects: Math
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Equations and Calculations

How can data be analyzed and interpreted to better understand a band's success?

lesson:

The Black Origins of Punk

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: ELA, General Music
Activities: Creative Writing, Station Activities

How did the bands X-Ray Spex, Bad Brains, and Death define Punk on their own terms?

lesson:

The Crossroads as a Literary Symbol

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: ELA
Activities: Creative Writing, Document-Based Questions, Station Activities, Textual Analysis

How have writers, storytellers, and musicians explored the crossroads as a symbol in their work?

lesson:

Designing Album Covers with Color Theory

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Art/Design, CTE, STEAM
Activities: Design and Build, Visual Analysis, Visual Art, Visual Design

What is the science behind color theory, and how is it used in fashion and album cover design?

lesson:

The Evolution of Sound Recording

Grades: All Ages, Elementary, High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, STEAM
Activities: Interactive Tech Tools, Visual Analysis

How did multitrack recording technologies enable musicians to create a form of music that could only be realized in the studio?

lesson:

Writing Personal Narratives and The Harlem Renaissance

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History
Activities: Creative Writing, Personal Reflection, Textual Analysis

How do Langston Hughes, Gladys Bentley, and Louis Armstrong effectively write personal narratives about living during the Harlem Renaissance?

lesson:

Heroes and Mortals in “Something Just Like This”

Grades: All Ages, AP/Honors/101, Elementary, High, Middle
Subjects: ELA
Activities: Textual Analysis, Think-Pair-Share

Who are the gods and superheroes referenced in “Something Just Like This,” and what are the connections between them?

lesson:

The Many Roles of a Music Producer

Grades: High
Subjects: CTE, General Music
Activities: Think-Pair-Share, Visual Analysis

What does a music producer do and in what ways does one hear the sound of a producer’s work in recordings?

lesson:

The Guitar: A Musical Transducer

Grades: Elementary, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, STEAM
Activities: Design and Build, Performance

How can the guitar help us understand the scientific principle of transduction?

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 Beatles Work Towards Success

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Math, Social Studies/History, STEAM
Activities: Equations and Calculations, Maps, Textual Analysis, Timeline, Visual Analysis

How did The Beatles' rigorous work schedule during the years 1960-63 build their strengths as performers, as musicians, and as a band?

Trace It Back:

Betty Davis

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High, Middle

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:

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:

Sampling: The Foundation of Hip Hop

Grades: High
Subjects: CTE, General Music
Activities: Maps, Musical Analysis, Visual Analysis

How is the re-use and re-purposing of existing music at the heart of the Hip Hop recording experience?

lesson:

Creating a Personal Logo

Grades: Elementary
Subjects: Art/Design
Activities: Design and Build, Visual Art, Visual Design

How can a logo help communicate a person or group’s unique personality?

lesson:

The Emergence of Folk Rock

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

What is Folk music? To what extent did Folk Rock sustain the spirit of Folk music?

lesson:

Producing the Sounds of a Changing South

Grades: High
Subjects: General Music, Social Studies/History
Activities: Gallery Walk, Textual Analysis

How did the recordings Sam Phillips produced at Sun Records, including Elvis Presley’s early work, reflect trends of urbanization and integration in the 1950s American South?

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:

Latin Music in Postwar New York City

Grades: High
Subjects: Social Studies/History
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Maps, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

How did the growth of New York City’s Latino population in the 1940s and 50s help to increase the popularity of Latin music and dance in American culture?

lesson:

Folk Music, Rock and Roll Attitude

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

How did Bob Dylan’s early experiences with Folk and Rock and Roll music influence his songwriting?

lesson:

The Rise of Disco

Grades: High
Subjects: Art/Design, General Music, Social Studies/History
Activities: Musical Analysis, Role Playing, Station Activities, Visual Analysis, Visual Design

How did Disco relate to the sentiments and social movements of the 1970s?

lesson:

Punk as Reaction

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Art/Design, Social Studies/History
Activities: Role Playing, Station Activities, Visual Analysis, Visual Design

How was Punk Rock a reaction both to the commercialization of Rock and Roll and to the social climate in late 1970s Britain?

lesson:

Business with the Grateful Dead

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Creative Writing, Role Playing, Station Activities, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

How did the Grateful Dead’s business practices create a dedicated fan culture and ensure the financial success of the group?

lesson:

Introducing New Wave

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

What did Punk Rock provide that opened the door for New Wave acts? And what are some among the defining attributes of New Wave?

lesson:

Mining and Union Songs in the Early 20th Century

Grades: AP/Honors/101
Subjects: Social Studies/History
Activities: Document-Based Questions, Gallery Walk, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

How do Nimrod Workman’s songs and stories about his life as a coal miner illustrate the struggles of working class people during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era?

lesson:

Debating Cultural Appropriation

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: ELA, Social Emotional Learning, Social Studies/History
Activities: Station Activities, Structured Academic Controversy, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

What is cultural appropriation, how does it affect Native American communities, and should it be regulated by law?

lesson:

Radio Before Rock and Roll

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Social Studies/History
Activities: Interview, Station Activities, Textual Analysis

How did radio influence American life in the years before the birth of Rock and Roll?

lesson:

The Original “Going Viral”

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Social Emotional Learning, Social Studies/History
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Personal Reflection, Visual Analysis

Could a musical group “go viral” before the internet?

lesson:

The History of Music Videos

Grades: High
Subjects: Art/Design, CTE, General Music, Science, Social Studies/History
Activities: Interactive Tech Tools, Visual Analysis

How has the relation between sound and image shifted through the history of recorded music, and how did the rise of MTV bring that relationship to a culmination of sorts?

lesson:

Bo Diddley: The Grandfather of Hip Hop?

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

How were Bo Diddley’s recordings an anomaly in relation to 1950s Pop music, and how is his rhythm-driven sound and self-presentation a precursor to Hip Hop style?

lesson:

The Teamwork Behind the Beatles

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

How did the input of manager Brian Epstein and record producer George Martin help The Beatles develop and refine skills that aided the band in presenting their music and personalities to a mass audience?

lesson:

How Records and Radio Shaped American Culture

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

How did changes in the technology of record manufacturing effect popular music, radio, and the people who consumed both?

Trace It Back:

Beyoncé

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High, Middle

lesson:

Musical Reactions to the Vietnam War

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Social Studies/History
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Gallery Walk, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

How were American’s divisive opinions over the Vietnam War articulated by musicians in the 1960s and early 1970s?

lesson:

Car Culture in Postwar America

Grades: High
Subjects: Social Studies/History
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

How did car culture intersect with and inspire Rock and Roll?

lesson:

Debating Dylan’s Nobel Prize

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: ELA
Activities: Structured Academic Controversy, Textual Analysis

What are the arguments for and against Bob Dylan receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature?

lesson:

Mainstream Metal, Parental Advisories, and Censorship

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: ELA, General Music, Social Studies/History
Activities: Role Playing, Structured Academic Controversy, Textual Analysis, Think-Pair-Share

How was Heavy Metal involved in the 1980s controversy surrounding the creation of parental advisories for “offensive” music?

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:

Ritchie Valens

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: General Music
Activities: Musical Analysis, Role Playing

How did Ritchie Valens meld traditional Mexican music and Rock and Roll?

lesson:

Italian-American Vocalists Before Rock and Roll

Grades: High
Subjects: Social Studies/History
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Gallery Walk, Musical Analysis, Station Activities, Visual Analysis

How did the careers of Italian American vocalists in the first half of the 20th century reflect the experiences of Italian American immigrants and attitudes toward them in the wider American culture?

lesson:

Music and the Berlin Wall during the Cold War

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History
Activities: Gallery Walk, Maps, Personal Reflection, Role Playing, Textual Analysis

What was the Berlin Wall and how did music respond to what it symbolized?

lesson:

Designing a Band Logo

Grades: Elementary, High, Middle
Subjects: Art/Design, CTE
Activities: Design and Build, Gallery Walk, Visual Analysis, Visual Design

What is a logo, what are the elements of effective logo design, and how have musicians and bands used logos to brand themselves?

lesson:

Debating the Apollo 11 Moon Landing

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Social Studies/History
Activities: Structured Academic Controversy, Textual Analysis

What was NASA’s Apollo program and why was it controversial?

Trace It Back:

Billie Eilish

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High, Middle

Trace It Back:

Prince

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High, Middle

lesson:

The Beatles and Teen Culture

Grades: High
Subjects: Social Studies/History
Activities: Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

How did the Beatles’ image as a “rock band” affect young people in America?

lesson:

Ritchie Valens (Elementary School Version)

Grades: Elementary
Subjects: General Music, Social Studies/History
Activities: Musical Analysis, Personal Reflection, Textual Analysis

How did Ritchie Valens meld traditional Mexican music and Rock and Roll?

lesson:

Deadheads and Reagan’s America in the 1980s

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Social Studies/History
Activities: Document-Based Questions, Maps, Textual Analysis

Who are the Deadheads and how did their lifestyle contrast with the conservative values promoted by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s?

lesson:

The Indigenous Roots of Rock and Roll

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History
Activities: Document-Based Questions, Interactive Tech Tools, Role Playing, Station Activities, Textual Analysis

What does Link Wray’s biography say about how Native Americans lived in the first half of the 20th century, and what role did Wray’s upbringing have on his music?

lesson:

“Twist and Shout” and Post-War Britain

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

What role did cover songs like “Twist and Shout” play early in the Beatles's career, and how did their experiences growing up in post-WWII Liverpool and performing in Hamburg nightclubs help them to develop as a professional musical ensemble?

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?

lesson:

World War II and the Shrinking of the Ensemble

Grades: High
Subjects: Social Studies/History
Activities: Charts and Graphs, Role Playing, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

How did wartime restrictions and other factors cause popular music ensembles to shrink in size during the 1940s, helping to set the stage for the small “combos” of Rock and Roll?

lesson:

The Cassette Tape Offers New Possibilities

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, Science, Social Studies/History, STEAM
Activities: Role Playing, Visual Analysis

How did the cassette tape change the audience’s experience by allowing the listener to record, compile and disseminate music?

lesson:

The Roots of Heavy Metal

Grades: High
Subjects: ELA, General Music
Activities: Musical Analysis, Role Playing, Station Activities, Textual Analysis, Think-Pair-Share

What are the musical and cultural roots of Heavy Metal?

lesson:

The Musical Roots of the Surf Sound (Elementary Version)

Grades: Elementary
Subjects: Art/Design, Social Studies/History
Activities: Musical Analysis, Station Activities, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis, Visual Art

How does the “Surf Sound” in Rock and Roll reflect early surf culture, and what are the roots of this genre of music?

lesson:

The Ethics of Sampling

Grades: High
Subjects: General Music
Activities: Interactive Tech Tools, Structured Academic Controversy, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

What makes a work of art “original,” and how does the use of “sampling” technology in Hip Hop challenge perceptions of “originality”?

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:

Drawing to Music

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Art/Design
Activities: Playlists and Podcasts, Visual Analysis, Visual Art, Visual Design

How might visual artists use music as a tool for inspiration, and how might sound be reflected through art?

lesson:

The Latin Rhythms of “Despacito”

Grades: Elementary, Middle
Subjects: General Music
Activities: Musical Analysis

What Latin American genres inspired Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s hit song “Despacito”?

lesson:

Rock and Roll and the American Dream

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

What is the American Dream and how did Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash personify its ideals?

lesson:

Considering the Future of Rock and Roll

Grades: High
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History
Activities: Role Playing, Textual Analysis

How is Rock and Roll's power, at least in part, a result of its being born on the margins of society?

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 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:

Sound Waves, Analog Synthesis and Popular Culture

Grades: All Ages, AP/Honors/101, Elementary, High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, STEAM
Activities: Interactive Tech Tools, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

How did synthesizers allow musicians to create new sounds and how did those sounds reflect American culture throughout the 20th century?

lesson:

Swing Down: Afrofuturism & Flight in the Black Imagination

Grades: High
Subjects: Art/Design, ELA, General Music
Activities: Document-Based Questions, Maps, Musical Analysis, Playlists and Podcasts, Visual Analysis, Visual Art

What is Afrofuturism and what are some of the cultural traditions and historical events that inspired and reinforced it?