Topic: Media Studies

lesson:
Motown Records: Detroit’s Sound of Success

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

How did Detroit’s cultural and economic history influence the sound and success of Motown Records?

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...

Unit Plan:
Life Songs: Telling Your Story Through Music

Grades: All Ages, Elementary K-3, High, Middle
Subjects: Art/Design, Social Emotional Learning

Life Songs is an intergenerational media project organized into a four lesson unit plan. The unit concludes with students presenting their Life Songs Interview - a recorded interview led by the student with an adult who shares how music shaped their life. For classrooms without the ability to create and...

lesson:
Post-production: Editing and Finalizing Your Life Songs Interview

Grades: All Ages, Elementary 4-6, Elementary K-3, High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, Social Emotional Learning

How do you use editing to create a final media product?

lesson:
Pre-production: Preparing for Your Life Songs Interview

Grades: All Ages, Elementary 4-6, Elementary K-3, High, Middle
Subjects: ELA, General Music, Social Emotional Learning

How do you prepare for a successful and insightful interview?

lesson:
Creating a Personal Logo

Grades: Elementary 4-6, Elementary K-3
Subjects: Art/Design

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

lesson:
Signature Style in Art and Album Covers

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Art/Design, General Music

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

Student Edition:
What is Cultural Appropriation?

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Civics, ELA, Social Emotional Learning, 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:
Music as a Window to the Past

Grades: All Ages
Subjects: ELA, General Music, Social Studies/History

lesson:
Business with the Grateful Dead

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music

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

lesson:
The Teamwork Behind the Beatles (Elementary Version)

Grades: Elementary 4-6
Subjects: CTE, Social Emotional Learning

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:
Feeling the Vibrations

Grades: Elementary 4-6, Elementary K-3, Middle
Subjects: Science, Social Emotional Learning, STEAM

How did the Grateful Dead make their concerts more accessible to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) community?

lesson:
The Original “Going Viral”

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

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

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:
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:
9/11: Country Music Responds

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

How did Country musicians’ responses to the September 11th terrorist attacks speak to the feelings of some Americans after the tragedy?

lesson:
Hometown Documentaries

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High, Middle
Subjects: Art/Design, CTE, General Music, Social Studies/History, STEAM

How can music help tell the story of your hometown?

lesson:
The Cassette Tape Offers New Possibilities

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

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

lesson:
Sound Waves, Analog Synthesis and Popular Culture

Grades: All Ages, AP/Honors/101, Elementary 4-6, High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, STEAM

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

lesson:
Recording and Producing the Voice

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, STEAM

How have singers responded as advances in studio recording techniques have enabled increased technological “perfection”?

lesson:
How Records and Radio Shaped American Culture

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, STEAM

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

lesson:
The Many Roles of a Music Producer

Grades: High
Subjects: CTE, General Music

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

lesson:
The Beatles, a New Kind of Star

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

How did The Beatles establish a new paradigm for the image of "the star," and how did that image support their global success?

lesson:
From the Stage to the Studio

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

What caused The Beatles to cease touring in 1966 and how did the innovative music they then created during their subsequent immersion in the recording studio both reflect and influence the world at that time?

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 History of Music Videos

Grades: High
Subjects: Art/Design, CTE, General Music, Science, Social Studies/History

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:
“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:
Multitracking in the Countercultural 1960s

Grades: High
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, STEAM

How did The Beatles’ use of cutting edge recording technology and studio techniques both reflect and shape the counterculture of the 1960s?

lesson:
The Evolution of Sound Recording

Grades: All Ages, High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, STEAM

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

lesson:
The Birth of the Microphone

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, STEAM

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

lesson:
Radio Before Rock and Roll

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Social Studies/History

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

lesson:
Rhythm and Blues Hit the Airwaves

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

How did Dewey Phillips and Hunter Hancock help bring Rhythm and Blues music to mixed race audiences?

lesson:
Beatlemania

Grades: High
Subjects: Social Studies/History

What were the factors that contributed to the rise of Beatlemania?

lesson:
Rock and Roll Goes to the Movies

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Social Studies/History

How did movies help to introduce Rock and Roll culture to mainstream audiences in the 1950s?

lesson:
Dancing the Twist on Television

Grades: High
Subjects: Social Studies/History

How did teen dance shows and the Twist influence American culture?

lesson:
Mainstream Metal, Parental Advisories, and Censorship

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

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