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:
Seventies Soul: The Soundtrack of Turbulent Times
Grades:
High
Subjects:
General Music, Social Studies/History
Activities:
Gallery Walk, Musical Analysis, Textual Analysis, Think-Pair-Share
How did changes in the Soul music of the early 1970s reflect broader shifts in American society during that time?
lesson:
Music and Political Movements
Grades:
High
Subjects:
Civics, ELA, Social Studies/History
Activities:
Textual Analysis, Think-Pair-Share
How did Sixties Soul help give voice to the Civil Rights movement?
lesson:
Dolores Huerta and The United Farm Workers Movement
Grades:
Elementary, Middle
Subjects:
Art, Civics, ELA, Social Studies/History
Activities:
Creative Writing, Musical Analysis, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis
Who is Dolores Huerta, what role did she play in the United Farm Workers movement, and how is she recognized today?
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 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:
Muddy Waters, the New Kid in Town
Grades:
Elementary
Subjects:
Social Emotional Learning, Social Studies/History
Activities:
Creative Writing, 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:
Almost Emancipated: Reconstruction
Grades:
AP/Honors/101
Subjects:
Social Studies/History
Activities:
Document-Based Questions, Textual Analysis
What is the significance of Reconstruction and what does it reveal about the freedom that the post-Civil War constitutional amendments secured for African Americans?
lesson:
Artists Protest McCarthyism
Grades:
High
Subjects:
Civics, Social Studies/History
Activities:
Role Playing, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis
How were musicians and artists affected by McCarthyism in 1950s America?
lesson:
The United Farm Workers Movement through Music and Poetry
Grades:
High, Middle
Subjects:
Civics, ELA, Social Studies/History
Activities:
Creative Writing, Personal Reflection, Role Playing, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis, Visual Design
Who is Dolores Huerta, what role did she play in the United Farm Workers movement, and how is she recognized today?
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:
Rhythm as a Representation of People and Place
How does “the beat” of popular music reflect the histories of multiethnic populations and places?
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:
A Veteran’s Soundtrack to the Vietnam War
Grades:
AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects:
Social Studies/History
Activities:
Textual Analysis, Think-Pair-Share, Visual Analysis
How did popular music amplify the voices and experiences of Americans serving in the United States Armed Forces during the Vietnam War?
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:
Drawing to Music
Grades:
High, Middle
Subjects:
Art
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:
Almost Emancipated: The Civil War and the Port Royal Experiment
Grades:
AP/Honors/101
Subjects:
Social Studies/History
Activities:
Document-Based Questions, Gallery Walk, Maps
How does the Union occupation of Port Royal highlight the complex issues behind the Civil War?
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:
Loudspeakers, PA Systems, and the “Wall of Sound”
Grades:
Elementary, 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:
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:
Designing an Electric Guitar with Shapes
Grades:
Elementary
Subjects:
Art, Math, STEAM
Activities:
Design and Build
How can shapes be used to design an electric guitar?
lesson:
Celebrating Community with Art and Poetry (Elementary School Version)
Grades:
Elementary
Subjects:
Art, Social Emotional Learning
Activities:
Personal Reflection, Visual Art
What different types of communities exist, and how do the people in our communities impact us?
lesson:
Dan Penn
Grades:
High, Middle
Subjects:
General Music
Activities:
Musical Analysis, Textual Analysis
How did black artists and white songwriters and musicians interact in the Soul era, and what contributed to that interaction?
lesson:
Confronting the Climate Crisis
Grades:
AP/Honors/101, High, Middle
Subjects:
Science, STEAM
Activities:
Charts and Graphs, Interactive Tech Tools, Role Playing, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis
How can society lower the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere?
lesson:
Divergent Paths in the 1990s: Gangsta Rap and Conscious Hip Hop
Grades:
High
Subjects:
ELA, Social Studies/History
Activities:
Role Playing, Textual Analysis
How did Gangsta Rap and Conscious Hip Hop respond to the social and political conditions of the 1990s?
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:
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:
Punk as Reaction
Grades:
High, Middle
Subjects:
Art, 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:
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?
