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
Country: Brazil
Students use the internet to explore the culture, history, language and animals of Brazil. They read first hand accounts of students growing up in the South American country.
Curated OER
Music in Nature
Students research the Incan civilization. In this Incan civilization lesson, students study the geography of the Andes mountains and play an Andean siku. Students discuss how the sounds of nature influenced their musical piece.
Curated OER
The Great Migration
Students explore how migration to Harlem created a new life for African Americans. In this cross curricular lesson, students illustrate maps showing the migration, paint murals representing African American life in the South and...
Curated OER
Harlem Renaissance
Learners investigate the African American culture in the 1920's and the Harlem Renaissance. They read and analyze poems written by poets of the Harlem Renaissance, listen to jazz music and identify the characteristics of the music, and...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Life Before the Civil War
American life before the Civil War was very different from American life today. To show this difference in a full spectrum, learners compare two communities that illustrate the differences between Northern and Southern life. Throughout...
Library of Congress
The Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance brought forth many American art forms including jazz, and the writings of Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. Using a carefully curated set of documents from the Library of Congress, pupils see the cultural...
PBS
Breaking the Code: Actions and Songs of Protest
Ezell Blair, Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil changed history. Their sit-in at the lunch counter of the Woolworths in Greensboro, North Carolina on February 1, 1960 became a model for the nonviolent protests that...
Dick Blick Art Materials
Percussive Pods
Combine the study of art, music, and history with an activity that asks kids to craft rattles out of slabs of clay.
Curated OER
American Culture in a Musical Setting
Students discover the significance of similarities and contrasts of three separate cultures of the United States through music. They take out maps and trace the expedition of the Spanish along the coasts of Mexico and North and South...
Curated OER
A Bird's Eye View of the Caribbean: Art, Folklore, and Music
Students examine the Caribbean in terms of its music, art, and folklore. As a class, they listen to a folktale and discuss the difference between telling a story and reading a story. In groups, they write their own folktale and share...
Curated OER
Romare Bearden's The Dove - A Meeting of Vision and Sound
Students explore African american culture of the late 1950's and 60's through various primary sources including literature, music, art and others. They then prepare and conduct a mock interview and present with the class.
Curated OER
"Jazz is About Freedom": Billie Holiday's Anti-lynching Song Strange Fruit
Working in small teams, learners analyze a variety of primary source materials related to lynching (news articles, letters written to or written by prominent Americans, pamphlets, broadsides, etc.) in order to assess the effectiveness of...
Curated OER
Conjunto Music from South Texas
Students listen to conjunto music and identify the instrumentation. After discussing the the history of South Texas, they examine lyrics of several songs and interpret them. As extensions, students can learn to partner dance to the...
Curated OER
Remember the Bridge: Poems of a People
Fifth graders explore poems of African Americans. They research a famous African American, write a report, create a timeline of events in African American history, create a map of the New World, and research Molly Walsh. After...
Curated OER
Little Train of Caipira
Students listen to the "Berry Pickers' Song" on the piano twice. They practice the song several times to become familiar enough to recognize it in the piece. They listen to the CD and recognize the tune by raising their hand and tell...
Curated OER
"Open Mic" - Giving Creative Expression To The Connection Between The Japanese American Internment, September 11, And Our Rights Today
Students explore the similarities of the Japanese-American experience in WWII and Arab-American experience in post-September 11 US policy. They create presentations on their reflections and express themselves through poetry, dance,...
Curated OER
Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross, Moanin,' Payin' Your Dues
Students examine the musical styles of call and response and the blues while delving into the difficult lives of many jazz musicians. Travelling in the South was challenging for black musicians during this time and the difficulties are...
Curated OER
Revolutionary Money
Examine paper money from the American revolution! Historians study the paper bills and discuss the history of money. How has money changed over the times? Activities are included.
Curated OER
Puerto Rico: The 51st State?
Students research the history of Puerto Rico, its culture, and geography. For this Puerto Rico lesson, students find Puerto Rico on a map and find specific regions or cities. Students discuss Puerto Rico's statehood and listen to salsa...
Curated OER
Catch the Gullah Beat: Rhythm and Percussion
Students explore the Gullah culture. In this social studies lesson, students construct and play instruments similar to those of the Gullah people.
Honors College at Scholar Commons
From Start to Strike: A Lesson Plan for the Whole Theatre Experience
Introduce young thespians to all aspects of the theater. A syllabus for a one-semester drama course provides lessons that take learners from the history of drama to the many facets of play production.
Curated OER
Breaking the Code: Actions and Songs of Protest
Students listen to and discuss the purpose of protest music. They analyze an editorial cartoon related to Jim Crow and read questions from the literacy tests given to African-Americans. They work together to write a song about the...
Curated OER
The Life and Work of Jacob Lawrence
Black History Month provides a time to talk about the accomplishments of African Americans like Jacob Lawrence.