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Lesson plan In this lesson, students will be introduced to jazz music and great jazz musicians. On This PageLesson plan information|
School level | | Curriculum areas | | • | Fine Arts/Music | | • | Social Studies |
| Class time | | Software required | | • | Microsoft Encarta Reference | | • | Microsoft Internet Explorer | | • | Microsoft Office Publisher |
| Materials needed | | • | Student directions (Web access) |
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Teacher guideGoals| • | Students learn about the life of a jazz musician. | | • | Students learn the about contributions that various jazz musicians have made to American culture and history. |
Objectives| • | Students use the Internet to research the life of one jazz musician and his or her affect on American culture. | | • | Students write a one-page newsletter about their musician using Microsoft Office Publisher. |
Lesson procedureIntroduction[Play a couple of jazz selections.] Do you know what type of music this is? When you listen to music, how do you determine what kind of music it is? For example, How do you know Hip Hop is Hip Hop and not jazz? The kind of music a country or culture creates tells us a lot about that country and its history. Indian music isn’t the same as Mexican music, for example. What country or culture does jazz come from? In this activity we’re going to learn about the history of jazz and what effects it has had on our culture here in the United States. Jazz is a kind of music that began in African American communities in the southern United States around the beginning of the 20th century. It was a new style of music that brought together music traditions from West Africa and Europe. Some of the West African musical influences it uses give it its unique sound: improvising, “swinging,” using blue notes, and combining different rhythms. From its start at the turn of the century, jazz has taken many different forms. You have probably heard of New Orleans or Dixieland Jazz. There is also Afro-Cuban jazz, Brazilian Jazz, Free Jazz, and many other kinds of jazz. Ragtime was the first form of jazz. Right after the Civil War, when the slaves were emancipated, there were few jobs fro African-Americans. Many black musicians wrote and performed their own music to make money. That’s how Ragtime was born. One of the greatest Ragtime composers was Scott Joplin. New Orleans was an early center of jazz. African-American jazz musicians played music in clubs and for funeral parades. Jelly Roll Morton was one of the most famous composers and performers of New Orleans jazz. Has anybody heard of Sir Duke? Sir Duke is Duke Ellington, one of the greatest swing jazz composers. In the 1930s Swing Jazz became popular and many famous jazz musicians, like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Sophie Tucker, and Lil Armstrong (Louis Armstrong’s wife), were the leaders of big bands or orchestras who played in dance clubs. The International Sweethearts of Rhythm and the Hip Chicks were two of the most famous all-women jazz bands in the 1940s. In the last half of the 20th century there were many kinds of jazz, cool jazz, hard jazz, and free jazz, and many great jazz composers and performers, for example, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Marianne McPartland, and Carla Bley. Can you name any others? In this activity, you will each research one jazz musician and the contribution he or she has made to American culture, and then you will create a newsletter to teach others what you have learned. Main activity| • | Software: Microsoft Encarta, Microsoft Internet Explorer. | | • | What to do Research a jazz musician and create a newsletter about that musician 1. | Open Internet Explorer and visit the PBS Kids-Jazz Kids Web site. | 2. | Click Timeline and read about the history of jazz. Make sure you understand how music and culture interact. How did racial segregation and economics affect the development of jazz, for example? Name one way in which jazz affected American culture. | 3. | To find a list of jazz musicians you can use for the Microsoft Publisher newsletter you will create, click Jazz Greats. | 4. | Select one of the musicians for your newsletter. | 5. | Read about the musician, and answer the following questions in your newsletter: | • | What is the name of the musician you selected? | | • | When and where was he or she born? | | • | What was his or her childhood like? | | • | What instrument did he or she play? | | • | What are three additional facts you learned about your musician? |
| 6. | Create a one-page newsletter about your musician using one of the templates in Microsoft Publisher, and include the information from the questions in Step 4. Add a photo of your musician and any other pictures you want from different Web sources. Note: When including a photo in your newsletter, make sure you cite the source.
| 7. | Us Encarta to, look for additional information to include in your newsletter. Answer the following questions, for example: | • | What contribution did your musician make to North American culture? | | • | What kind of jazz did you musician play and/or compose? |
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ConclusionAssess your students based on whether the information in their newsletter is: | • | Complete | | • | Accurate | | • | Well-designed |
Materials needed  Student directions (29 KB Microsoft Word file). Save these student directions to your classroom computers.
Lesson extension activities| • | Use the same lesson procedure when you introduce other types of music. As students create additional newsletters, they may compile all of their newsletters for a complete book of musicians. | | • | Have students add audio clips of their musician’s music to their reports. |
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