Topic: Civics and Politics

lesson:
The Roaring 1920s featuring Josephine Baker, George Gershwin, and Harry Pace

Grades: High
Subjects: Social Studies/History

How did the economic and political policies of the 1920s affect American businesspeople, cultural figures, politicians, and activists?

lesson:
The Progressive Era featuring Music from the Labor and Women’s Suffrage Movements

Grades: High
Subjects: Social Studies/History

When was the Progressive Era, how did the Labor and Women’s Suffrage movements achieve many of the goals of Progressivism, and how did music express the experience of the people in those movements?

lesson:
The Rise of Populism and Socialism featuring Oliver Anthony

Grades: High
Subjects: Social Studies/History

What criticism did the Populist and Socialist Party have of the U.S. government and economy at the turn of the century, what solutions did they offer, and how have musicians since made similar critiques?

lesson:
Indigenous Voices in Global Environmental Protection

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Civics, Geography, Social Studies/History

How do Indigenous perspectives contribute to international environmental protection policies?

Student Edition:
Riot or Rebellion? Asbury Park in the Summer of 1970

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History

What factors led up to the Asbury Park Riots in New Jersey in the summer of 1970?

Student Edition:
Black Radio and the Civil Rights Movement

Grades: High
Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History

lesson:
Black Radio and the Civil Rights Movement

Grades: High
Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History

How did Black radio empower Black Americans, aid the Civil Rights Movement, and influence U.S. society?

Student Edition:
Contemporary Latin Artists and Activism

Grades: High
Subjects: Civics, Ethnic Studies, Social Studies/History

Unit Plan:
Latin Music and Culture in U.S. History

Grades: High
Subjects: Ethnic Studies, General Music, Social Studies/History

Through ten lessons, students will explore different people, music, events, and places that helped shape Latin music and culture in the United States.  Students will discover how Latin Music like Salsa, Latin Rock, Tejano, Bossa Nova, Swing, and Chicana Punk reflect the experiences of Latin people living in the...

lesson:
Mountaintop Removal Mining in Appalachia

Grades: Elementary 4-6, High, Middle
Subjects: General Music, Science, STEAM

What is mountaintop removal, how does it affect the environment and people’s health?

Student Edition:
Student Activism and Music During the Civil Rights Movement

Grades: High
Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History

Student Edition:
Music of the Civil Rights Movement

Grades: High
Subjects: Civics, General Music, Social Studies/History

lesson:
Student Activism and Music During the Civil Rights Movement

Grades: High
Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History

How did activism by Black students challenge Jim Crow segregation during the Civil Rights Movement, and what unique role did music play as an organizing tool?

lesson:
Music of the Civil Rights Movement

Grades: High
Subjects: Civics, General Music, Social Studies/History

How did music advance the goals and inform the tactics of the Civil Rights Movement?

lesson:
Identifying and Resisting Jim Crow with Words and Songs

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Civics, ELA, Social Studies/History

How have works of literature and music by Black Americans shared an empowering theme of identifying and resisting Jim Crow?

Student Edition:
Segregation and the Founding of Asbury Park

Grades: High
Subjects: Social Studies/History

lesson:
Part 3: Asbury Park from the 1970s to Today

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Social Studies/History

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

lesson:
Part 2: Riot or Rebellion? Asbury Park in the Summer of 1970

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History

What factors led up to the Asbury Park "Riots" in New Jersey in the summer of 1970?

lesson:
Part 1: Segregation and the Founding of Asbury Park

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History

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

lesson:
Second Wave: Women’s Rights and Music in the 1960s

Grades: High
Subjects: Social Studies/History

What was second-wave feminism, and how did music contribute to the movement?

Trace It Back:
Margo Price

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: General Music

Student Edition:
The United Farm Workers Movement through Music and Poetry

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: ELA, Ethnic Studies, Social Studies/History

lesson:
Dolores Huerta and The United Farm Workers Movement

Grades: Elementary 4-6, Middle
Subjects: Art/Design, Civics, ELA, Social Studies/History

Who is Dolores Huerta, what role did she play in the United Farm Workers movement, and how is she recognized today?

lesson:
The United Farm Workers Movement through Music and Poetry

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Civics, ELA, Ethnic Studies, Social Studies/History

Who is Dolores Huerta, what role did she play in the United Farm Workers movement, and how is she recognized today?

Student Edition:
A Veteran’s Soundtrack to the Vietnam War

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Social Studies/History

lesson:
A Veteran’s Soundtrack to the Vietnam War

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Social Studies/History

How did popular music amplify the voices and experiences of Americans serving in the United States Armed Forces during the Vietnam War?

Student Edition:
Toby Keith and The Chicks: Songs and Words during the War on Terror

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High, Middle
Subjects: Social Studies/History

Student Edition:
The Music Behind the Red Power Movement

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History

Student Edition:
Music and the Berlin Wall during the Cold War

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History

Trace It Back:
Nina Simone

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High, Middle

Student Edition:
Art, Music, and the AIDS Epidemic

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Art/Design, Social Studies/History

lesson:
Toby Keith & The Chicks: Songs and Words During the War on Terror

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High, Middle
Subjects: Social Studies/History

What were the different reactions to songs and comments by Country musicians about the September 11th terrorist attacks versus the Iraq War?

Student Edition:
Third-Wave Feminism: Women’s Rights and Music in the 1990s

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: General Music, Social Studies/History

Student Edition:
9/11: Country Music Responds

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Social Studies/History

lesson:
The Birth of Hippie Culture in the 1960s

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Social Studies/History

How did the Grateful Dead reflect new ideas about life and society in the 1960’s?

Trace It Back:
Betty Davis

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High, Middle

lesson:
The Reclamation of the American Cowboy

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Social Studies/History

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

Trace It Back:
Chance the Rapper

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High, Middle

lesson:
Women’s Perspectives in Country and Tejano Music

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Social Emotional Learning, Social Studies/History

How did female Country and Tejano artists approach the issues of feminism and Women’s Rights in the 20th and 21st century?

lesson:
Almost Emancipated: Reconstruction

Grades: AP/Honors/101
Subjects: Social Studies/History

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:
Greta Thunberg, Music, and the Climate Crisis

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: General Music, Science, Social Studies/History

How have musicians helped spread climate activist Greta Thunberg’s message?

lesson:
How a Bill Becomes a Law: Legislating the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History

How does a bill become a law in the United States of America?

lesson:
Almost Emancipated: The Civil War and the Port Royal Experiment

Grades: AP/Honors/101
Subjects: Social Studies/History

How does the Union occupation of Port Royal highlight the complex issues behind the Civil War?

Trace It Back:
Beyoncé

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High, Middle

lesson:
Deadheads and Reagan’s America in the 1980s

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Social Studies/History

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

lesson:
Counterculture in the 1960s

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History

How did the counterculture movement of the late 1960s challenge traditional American behaviors and values, and how did the Grateful Dead reflect these changing views of life and society?

lesson:
Confronting the Climate Crisis

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High, Middle
Subjects: Science, STEAM

How can society lower the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere?

lesson:
“Y’all Better Quiet Down”: Black and Latinx LGBTQ+ Pioneers

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Social Studies/History

How did Black and Latinx people in the LGBTQ+ community take initiative in the Stonewall Inn rebellions, Gay Liberation Movement, and in the preservation of LGBTQ+ history?

lesson:
The Science and Civics of the Flint Water Crisis

Grades: Elementary 4-6, Middle
Subjects: Civics, Science, Social Studies/History, STEAM

What is the Flint water crisis, and why did it occur?

lesson:
The Journey to Marriage Equality in the United States

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History

How did same-sex marriage become legal in the United States?

lesson:
Art, Music, and the AIDS Epidemic

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Art/Design, Social Emotional Learning, Social Studies/History

How did the LGTBQ+ community creatively respond to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and 1990s, and protest government inaction in addressing the epidemic?

lesson:
“Seneca Falls, Selma, Stonewall”: The Stonewall Riots in the Fight for Equality

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History

What were the Stonewall Riots, and what role did they play in ongoing struggles for LGBTQ+ equality in the United States?

lesson:
Third Wave: Women’s Rights and Music in the 1990s

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Civics, General Music, Social Studies/History

What was Third Wave Feminism, why did it occur, and how did musicians address some of the movement’s demands?

lesson:
Debating the Apollo 11 Moon Landing

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Social Studies/History

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

lesson:
#BlackLivesMatter: Music in a Movement

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Social Studies/History

How have musicians responded to the Black Lives Matter movement?

lesson:
Musical Reactions to the Vietnam War

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Social Studies/History

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

lesson:
Music and the Berlin Wall during the Cold War

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History

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

lesson:
Kanye and Katrina: Environmental Racism in New Orleans

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Social Studies/History

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

lesson:
“Alright” and the History of Black Protest Songs

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Social Emotional Learning, Social Studies/History

How have Black artists throughout the 20th century used music to speak about racial injustice in America?

lesson:
Cleaning up the Plastic Beach (Middle School/High School Version)

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Art/Design, Science, Social Studies/History, STEAM

How is plastic made, how does it affect our marine environments, and how can plastic waste be eliminated?

lesson:
Celebrating Community with Art and Poetry (Elementary School Version)

Grades: Elementary 4-6
Subjects: Art/Design, Social Emotional Learning

What different types of communities exist, and how do the people in our communities impact us?

lesson:
“Glory” and the Continuing Civil Rights Movement

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History

How does Common and John Legend's “Glory” signal Civil Rights movements of the past and the present?

lesson:
Who is “Us” in P!nk’s “What About Us”?

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

Who is the ‘us’ in P!nk’s song “What About Us?”

lesson:
The Music and Poetry Behind the Red Power Movement

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History

What was the Red Power movement, and what role did Folk and Country music play within it?

lesson:
Debating Cultural Appropriation

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: ELA, Social Emotional Learning, Social Studies/History

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

lesson:
The Indigenous Roots of Rock and Roll

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History

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:
Indigenous Music from Wounded Knee to the Billboard Charts

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High, Middle
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History

In what ways did the music of Native Americans mark them as outsiders from the developing narratives of “American-ness” in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and how did the federal government attempt to use music as a tool to force assimilation?

lesson:
The Ethics of Sampling

Grades: High
Subjects: General Music

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

lesson:
The Beatles and Teen Culture

Grades: High
Subjects: Social Studies/History

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

lesson:
The Beatles and American Segregation

Grades: All Ages, Elementary 4-6, High, Middle
Subjects: Social Studies/History

How did the Beatles take a stand against segregation while touring America? And what did it mean for popular music culture?

lesson:
“Hound Dog” and 1950 Race Relations

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: General Music

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

lesson:
Artists Protest McCarthyism

Grades: High
Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History

How were musicians and artists affected by McCarthyism in 1950s America?

lesson:
Music and Political Movements

Grades: High
Subjects: Civics, ELA, Social Studies/History

How did Sixties Soul help give voice to the Civil Rights movement?

lesson:
The Memphis Sound and Racial Integration

Grades: High
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History

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:
Soul Music and the New Femininity

Grades: High
Subjects: ELA, General Music, Social Studies/History

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

lesson:
Seventies Soul: The Soundtrack of Turbulent Times

Grades: High
Subjects: General Music, Social Studies/History

How did changes in the Soul music of the early 1970s reflect broader shifts in American society during that time?

lesson:
The Impact of 1960s Antiwar Music

Grades: High
Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History

How did antiwar protest music provide a voice for those opposed to the Vietnam War?

lesson:
Liverpool: The Birthplace of the Beatles

Grades: High
Subjects: Social Studies/History

How did growing up in post-WWII Liverpool influence the Beatles?

lesson:
Protest as Event

Grades: High
Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History

Since the 1960s, how have artists used musical events to promote change?

lesson:
Punk as Reaction

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Art/Design, Social Studies/History

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