Curated OER
Jazz in America
Young scholars learn the basic elements of music and gain an understanding of the elements found in Jazz.
Curated OER
Mariachi:Intermediate Lesson
Students research the history of mariachi music. In this music lesson, students identify mariachi music and investigate it from its origins to the present. They compare it to country music.
Curated OER
Mariachi Mania
Students play the beats of mariachi music. In this mariachi lesson plan, students listen to mariachi music and discuss why music is important.
Curated OER
Tango Bingo
Students research tango music and dancing and research where it comes from. In this tango lesson plan, students research Argentina and South America while learning about the tango and making posters of it.
Curated OER
Tango Stories
Students listen to tango music and research the country it came from. In this music lesson, students find that tango music comes from Argentina. They listen and dance to the music and then write stories.
Curated OER
Escolas de Carnaval
Students create a carnival display displaying the different themes they have studied. In this carnival lesson plan, students display the work they have studied through the samba schools in Brazil. Students also incorporate music in their...
Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program
Dinosaurs Before Dark
Young readers travel back to the time of the dinosaurs in this literature unit based on the story Dinosaurs Before Dark. Intended for use with upper-elementary special education students, this resource provides reading comprehension,...
Curated OER
Social Studies, Music, The Blues, Urbanization, and Technology
Enable students to use the blues to explore urbanization, technology, and their effects on everyday life in the 20th century. Musicians were among the large number of people who, between 1914 and 1945, participated in the Great Migration...
Curated OER
Connecting to Colonial Music
Learners listen to songs from the French and Indian War period. They answer questions about the song and identify any historical terms. They examine the role of music in their own lives.
Curated OER
Rockin’ the World: Rock and Roll and Social Protest in 20th Century America
Students explore protest songs. In this interdisciplinary lesson, students examine issues-based music by summarizing lyrics and revealing inferences, generalizations, conclusions, and points of view found in the songs.
Curated OER
Reading Primary Source Documents: Historical Content
Why do we read primary source documents? What can they give us that other writings cannot? Provide your learners with any of the primary sources attached here (there are seven), and have them complete the graphic organizer (which opens...
Curated OER
"We'd Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover"
Learners examine video clips and Web sites related to relevant productions, study song lyrics, and compare and contrast actual history with Broadway history. They create lyrics for a new song based on a contemporary or historical figure...
Curated OER
Eckstine, Stayhorn, and the Dorseys: Masters of Swing
Students explore the history of swing music. In this music history lesson, students research the Dorsey Brothers, Billy Eckstine, and William Strayhorn to learn about swing music. Students define swing, develop a timeline of events in...
Curated OER
The History of Rock and Roll: Part 1 - Rock and Roll Explodes Music Reflects The Times
Students examine technological advancements in music and broadcast over the decades.
Curated OER
“Home on the Range”
Fourth graders analyze the song "Home on the Range" and identify its meaning and setting. In this timeline and retelling lesson, 4th graders use dictionaries to find definitions of unfamiliar words, create a timeline and retell the...
Curated OER
Keep on Pushing: Popular Music and the Civil Rights Movement
Students explore music that exemplified the Civil Rights Movement. In this music and history instructional activity, students research 1960's protest songs, Motown recorded music, and rap of the 1990's to consider the power of music and...
Curated OER
Black Music: Its Message and Meaning
Students develop an appreciation for modern black music from a historical, political and lyrical perspective. They examine the political and the historical surge of the civil rights movement of the 1960's and how this surge directly or...
Curated OER
Music As Survival: Alma Rose and the Auschwitz Women's Orchestra
Students explore a period of European history in which musicians have used theri musical talents and abilities to survive and rise above extremely difficult situations. The psychological uses of music by the Nazis is examined in this...
Curated OER
Understanding Human Rights Through Music And Poetry
Tenth graders discuss human rights. They brainstorm and listen to and read examples of music and poetry that deal with human rights and oppression. They choose one poem or song to analyze, looking for theme, oppression, and historical...
Curated OER
Historic Heroes
Students recognize traits of heroes as depicted in music, art and literature. In this cross curricular lesson, students evaluate and analyze various works fo art from different cultures that depict heroes.
Curated OER
High School Lesson Plan -- Music
Pupils are introduced to the concept of minimal music. In groups, they identify its characteristics and its relationship to minimal art. Using the internet, they research the various historical time periods in which it was popular. To...
Friends of Fort McHenry
Sensory “Star Spangled Banner”
Music can help us to access memories and events in a meaningful way, and Francis Scott Key used specific words to convey what he had seen and felt when writing what would become America's national anthem. Help your class connect to the...
Curated OER
25 Greatest Protest Songs
Students view and discuss The 25 Greatest Protest Songs video as compiled by VH1. They focus on when and why each of the songs were written, looking for patterns.
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Declaration of Independence
Give budding historians a guided exploration of the Declaration of Independence, historic photos, videos, and more as they deepen their understanding of the American Revolution and the attitude of the colonists leading up to the war.