Topic: Literature

lesson:
Lydia Mendoza: Tejano Life and Music on the Mexico/Texas Border

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

How does Lydia Mendoza’s Tejano music connect to the history of Texas and the influence Mexico has had on that state?

lesson:
The Juke Joint: Where Oral Literature Comes Alive

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: ELA

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

lesson:
The Crossroads as a Literary Symbol

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: ELA

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

lesson:
Writing Personal Narratives and The Harlem Renaissance

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

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

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?

Trace It Back:
Alice Bag

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High, Middle

Student Edition:
What is Cultural Appropriation?

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

Student Edition:
What is Cultural Identity?

Grades: All Ages
Subjects: Art/Design, ELA, Social Emotional Learning, Social Studies/History

Student Edition:
The Music Behind the Red Power Movement

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

Student Edition:
Indigenous Music: From Wounded Knee to The Billboard Charts

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

Trace It Back:
Mitski

Grades: AP/Honors/101, Elementary K-3, High, Middle

Student Edition:
The Indigenous Roots of Rock and Roll

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

Trace It Back:
Kate Bush

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High, Middle

lesson:
DAMN.: The Art and Importance of Storytelling

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

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

lesson:
Beat Culture and the Grateful Dead

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: ELA

How did beat writers like Jack Kerouac influence the Grateful Dead’s music?

lesson:
Blues, Poetry, and the Harlem Renaissance

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: ELA

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

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

Grades: High
Subjects: Art/Design, ELA, Social Emotional Learning

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

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:
New Perspectives on The Great Gatsby’s Daisy Buchanan

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: ELA

Does Lana Del Rey’s “Young and Beautiful” help humanize Daisy Buchanan of The Great Gatsby?

lesson:
Debating Dylan’s Nobel Prize

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: ELA

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

lesson:
Negotiating Native Identity through Art, Poetry and Music

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

How have Native American musicians, poets, and visual artists negotiated their identity, and what role does physical space play in these negotiations?

lesson:
Heroes and Mortals in “Something Just Like This”

Grades: All Ages, AP/Honors/101, Elementary 4-6, High, Middle
Subjects: ELA

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

lesson:
“Blowin’ in the Wind” as a Rallying Cry

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: ELA, General Music

How does the song “Blowin’ in the Wind” use poetic devices to communicate an open-ended yet powerful message about the human condition, without ever losing its historical specificity?

lesson:
Singer-Songwriters and the Environmental Movement

Grades: High
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History

How did the singer-songwriters of the 1960s and 70s address the concerns of the environmental movement?

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 Rise of Black Pride

Grades: High
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History

How did Social Soul reflect a new vision of African-American identity in the late 1960s and early 1970s?

lesson:
Dylan as Poet

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: ELA

How did Bob Dylan merge poetry with popular music?

lesson:
Divergent Paths in the 1990s: Gangsta Rap and Conscious Hip Hop

Grades: High
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History

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

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

lesson:
The Rise of the “Girl Groups”

Grades: High
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History

Were the Girl Groups of the early 1960s voices of female empowerment or reflections of traditional female roles?