Curated OER
Jazz Talk
Students analyze the origins of jazz music by examining work songs, spirituals, blues, and gospel songs as well as works of poetry from African American artists. They create their own poems from either the narrative, dramatic, or lyric...
CHPCS
The United States in the 1920s: The New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance
Music, writing, and activism all tell the story of history! The resource uses these elements and more in a presentation to discuss the Jazz Age and Harlem Renaissance. Your class views biographies, discusses important events, and...
Syracuse University
Harlem Renaissance
The music and literature of the Harlem Renaissance defined American culture, including its poetry. Using a poem from the period, individuals explore its musical qualities and how it is reflective of the period. Then, they use what they...
Curated OER
Say It Loud!: A Celebration Of Black Music in America - Louis Armstrong
Students listen to selections of New Orleans street band music. They explore the culture of New Orleans in the 1920's, and perform a closer examination of Armstrong's music.
Curated OER
Learning Through the Duke
Students examine the contributions of Duke Ellington to the field of jazz. They create an original poem using popular vocabulary from the 1920s, listen to the book, "Duke Ellington," and paint a picture while listening to music by Duke...
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
The Harlem Renaissance
A reading of Walter Dean Myers' "Harlem" sets the stage for studying the literature, art, and music of the Harlem Renaissance. The lesson begins with a review of the social, political, and economic conditions of the 1920s and 1930s that...
Curated OER
Harlem Renaissance
Students 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...
Curated OER
The Sound and Feel of the 1920s
Eleventh graders comprehend the 1920's. They analyze examples of art from 1920's to build an comprehension of the times. They are asked if art reflect or transcend the time in which it was created? Students discuss the common element...
Curated OER
The Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance inspired a group of writers, musicians, and artists whose influence is still seen today.
Curated OER
Harlem Renaissance Research Project
Students complete a group research project on the Harlem Renaissance. In this Harlem instructional activity, students pick from a list of topics all related to the Harlem renaissance. They create a PowerPoint presentation, topic outline,...
PBS
Pbs: Culture Shock: The Devil's Music: 1920s Jazz
The story of how jazz swept through America and the world and how it "left delight and controversy in its wake."
Stanford University
Riverwalk Jazz: Speakeasies, Flappers, and Red Hot Jazz: Music of Prohibition
Script of a radio broadcast about Prohibition and Jazz Age America comments on black market bootlegging, jazz music, speakeasies, flappers, and women`s suffrage.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: American Culture in the 1920s
The First World War had a crippling effect on any notions of positivity in the artists, writers, and intellectuals of that time and they became known as the Lost Generation. This page discusses this group of people, the emergence of jazz...
OpenStax
Open Stax: The Jazz Age: Redefining the Nation 1919 1929: A New Generation
Looks at the new morality that emerged in the 1920s. It changed the role of women and the perception of African Americans, the latter facilitated by the Harlem Renaissance and its impact on the music and dance of the Jazz Age. Also...
Siteseen
Siteseen: American Historama: The Jazz Age
A comprehensive overview with many interesting facts and information on the Jazz Age, a period in U.S. history associated with exuberance and the introduction of jazz music.
PBS
Pbs: Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns: Jazz in Time: Roaring Twenties
Essay considers the impact of jazz on American society in the 1920s.
PBS
Pbs: Cole Porter: You're the Top
A high school lesson plan designed to delve deeper into the life of Cole Porter and the meaning in his music.
Digital History
Digital History: Formation of Modern American Mass Culture
A mass culture developed in America in the 1920s due to several factors. Read about the influence of radio, movies, and spectator sports in the adoption of common speech. Find out about the creativity of the time in literature and music.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: The Roaring Twenties
This activity involves comparing turn of the century music with the music from the Jazz Age. Students will listen to musical selections and analyze how the change in the music reflects the change in cultural attitudes. They will also...
Digital History
Digital History: Avant Garde
Synopsis of the huge cultural shifts that occurred in America in the 1920s in art, music, literature, and among intelligentsia.