Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

This one's admittedly for fans of musical productions, but music and theater teachers will likely find a good deal of useful information and guidance here. The content includes sections on how musicals are written, staged, and produced, as well as a section on show rights and recordings. Bring your own makeup.

tag(s): acting (19), composers (14), dance (31)

Musician Woody Guthrie drew, wrote, sang, journaled, and painted. He was a man who used notebooks and the written word to record his musings on life. This site has a lesson in which students create make their own journals in the manner of Woody's notebook treasures.

tag(s): writers workshop (31)

Music teachers who need to make percussion loops for electronic or computer-based music will find this free online "sound machine" an interesting approach. Novices will likely find the interface confusing, but those who know what they want can quickly create percussion loops using a variety of instrument sounds.

tag(s): sound (72)

Music, history, and social studies teachers may enjoy using this one. It's a collection of song recordings from the roughly 1900-1935. The titles are available several different ways, including a streaming "radio station" that plays the songs continuously. Add a little atmosphere to your Roaring Twenties unit with this one.

tag(s): 1920s (15)

Support music education at home and school with the many free resources shared in the Kids Edition of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra's website. Visit the educators' portion of the website to find digital teaching activities and music playlists featuring music from around the world. Each playlist includes an engaging downloadable activity packet loaded with fascinating information about the featured topic's countries, musicians, and musical instruments. Explore and learn about the orchestra instruments in the lesson, including downloads that teach about instrument families and an orchestra seating chart. Additional downloads include a crossword puzzle, word search, and drawing activity. Be sure to explore the complete educators' portion of the site to find many lessons correlated to science, social studies, and language arts concepts.

tag(s): countries (73), musical instruments (52), rhythm (21), worksheets (69)

The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz offers Lesson Plans for grades 5-11 and a wealth of information. Click on the Jazz Resources and you'll discover a rich collection of biographies, background information, musicology, and other jazz-related information. The content includes some really in-depth analysis of different jazz musical styles. Both music and social studies teachers will find plenty of material here.

tag(s): africa (148), african american (115), blues (22), harlem (9), jazz (16)

Band directors and high school music teachers will find everything for the marching band at this site. The concentration is on band competitions, but there's also a resources site offering products and services from uniforms to music arrangers and more. If your band competes, there's lots of up to date information here.

tag(s): competitions (10)

Designed to both inspire and teach, the Smithsonian's Jazz site offers several online instructional modules that do a nice job of introducing the history and structural elements of jazz. Students can learn about particular composers and performers, and how their work built on the experiences of other jazz musicians.

tag(s): africa (148), african american (115), harlem (9), jazz (16)

Music draws powerful connections. This is a wonderful, wholly unlikely collection containing dozens of lesson plans that use music and popular songs as touchstones for exploring other events and disciplines. Created by teachers at workshops hosted by Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the topics range from the Reformation to literary themes, and much more. Many of these lessons require real research and serious thought. Teachers in all disciplines can find something here.

tag(s): lyrics (15), songs (46)

Arts education is frequently one of the first casualties of tight budgets. This national site for music educators offers standards for music education as well as links to music education resources. Advocates for the importance of the arts in education will find help here.
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tag(s): music theory (46)

This site from the University of Pittsburgh traces the life and songwriting career of Pittsburgh native Stephen Foster. Foster's music is seen by many as helping to define American culture during this period. This site offers interesting research material, as well as more detailed content for the advanced student.

tag(s): biographies (94)

Through the study of paintings, books, photography, and poetry, students will learn about the history of Black dance. With an emphasis on the evolution of Black dance from the African period through the Harlem Renaissance and beyond, this unit emphasizes research as a tool for meaningful choreography. The culminating activity is a video production that chronicles a living history through movement.

tag(s): africa (148), african american (115), dance (31)

Explore the influence of the Harlem Renaissance on the work of three visual artists who show us a "visual Blues of the African American people."

tag(s): blues (22), harlem (9)

This unit brings the blues to life as students experience the blues as both creators and observers of visual blues art.

tag(s): blues (22)

Introduce your students to the blues as a means of understanding Afro-American culture, emphasizing improvisation. Students learn by playing and singing the music, and finish by writing and singing their own piece of the blues.

tag(s): blues (22)

Introduce your students to the blues as a means of understanding Afro-American culture, emphasizing improvisation. Students learn by playing and singing the music, and finish by writing and singing their own piece of the blues.

tag(s): blues (22)

Use the style and humor of the blues to trace the development of the blues and its parallel, the African-American experience, from the seventeenth century to the present.

tag(s): blues (22)

Use activities that center around poetry, art, and music related to migration, slavery in the U.S., and African-American culture to help students learn about the blues aesthetic.

tag(s): blues (22), migration (45), poetry (193), slavery (79)

Use the study and creation of blues lyrics, art, poetry, and fiction to immerse students in the blues philosophy.

tag(s): blues (22), poetry (193)