Jazz+Lesson

[|Prezi on Jazz lesson]

__Big Idea:__

Change

__Essential Question:__

How does change affect a society?

__Objectives:__

Students will understand:

1) How to interpret pieces of literature such as poems.

2) How to analyze themes in a piece of literature and a time period.

Students will do:

1) Create a short piece for the school newspaper together as a class.

2) Compare Jazz in the 1920s to music today.

Students will know:

1) How to collaborate during a group exercise.

2) Examine the introduction of Jazz during the 1920s.

Common Core Standards:

Grade Level:

11th grade English

Suggested Time:

3 Class Periods

Aim:

How has music changed our society in the 1920’s as well as today?

Do Now: (Pre-assessment to the 1920s and Jazz)

Take out your notebook.

Answer these three questions in your notebook:

1) How are artists different from you and me?

2) What are artists’ jobs in our society?

3) What places, people, and words do you think of when you hear Jazz?

4) What do you know of the 1920s?

Procedure:

Day 1) Students will complete the Do Now and I will go over their answers with them. I will explain that, “Artists are creative, sensitive, and emotional. Artists’ jobs in society are to entertain, represent a time period’s culture, and to speak out against issues in society. Some things associated with Jazz are Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Chicago, Harlem, and New Orleans, loud, fast paced, impact morals, and dance with flappers”. Then I will hand out a poem by Langston Hughes that depicts the era of Jazz in the 1920s. While they are reading I have a clip of Langston Hughes reading it while Jazz is in the background. []


 * The Weary Blues**


 * Langston Hughes**


 * (1923)**

1 Droning a drowsysyncopated tune,

2 Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,

3 I heard a Negro play.

4 Down on Lenox Avenue the other night

5 By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light

6 He did a lazy sway ....

7 He did a lazy sway ....

8 To the tune o' those Weary Blues.

9 With his ebony hands on each ivory key

10 He made that poor piano moan with melody.

11 O Blues!

12 Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool

13 He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.

14 Sweet Blues!

15 Coming from a black man's soul.

16 O Blues!

17 In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone

18 I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan--

19 "Ain't got nobody in all this world,

20 Ain't got nobody but ma self.

21 I's gwine to quit ma frownin'

22 And put ma troubles on the shelf."

23 Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.

24 He played a few chords then he sang some more--

25 "I got the Weary Blues

26 And I can't be satisfied.

27 Got the Weary Blues

28 And can't be satisfied--

29 I ain't happy no mo'

30 And I wish that I had died."

31 And far into the night he crooned that tune.

32 The stars went out and so did the moon.

33 The singer stopped playing and went to bed

34 While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.

35 He slept like a rock or a man that's dead.

We will read the poem together and interpret it. I will ask:
 * Theme or plot of the poem


 * Identity and situation of the speaker(s)


 * Denotations/connotations of significant words


 * Hyperbole, understatement, ambiguity


 * Imagery and symbolism


 * Figures of speech (similes, metaphors, puns, personifications)


 * Metrics and rhyme


 * Line breaks and stanza form

Formative Assessment:

I will ask them for homework to listen to their favorite rock, hip hop, or blues songs.

Day 2

The class would be split into groups with 4 students in each. I will pick out the groups and differentiate the students. I will hand all of the students’ lyrics to Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong’s song, “St Louis Blues” and let them watch a video to see how the 1920’s music was portrayed. Then I will play the song, “Deju Vu” by Beyonce so they can hear the lyrics and see the music of today. I will not pay the song in its entirety, but enough so they get the idea.

[]

[]

I will ask them to answer by filling out the chart, “Some music critics have argued that one can hear jazz in more contemporary (and popular) styles of music, such as rock, blues, and hip-hop. Then I will let them know that tomorrow we will be going over the chart as a class and working on collaborating the class wiki afterward.


 * Deja Vu lyrics**


 * Songwriters:** Jr. Webb;Rodney Jerkins;Kelly Price;Shawn Carter;Makeba Riddick;Delisha Thomas;Beyonce Giselle Knowles;Kellie Nicole Price

Baby, seem like everywhere I go I see you

From your eyes I smile, it's like I breathe you

Helplessly I reminisce, don't want to

Compare nobody to you

Boy, I try to catch myself but I'm outta control

Your sexiness is so appealing, I can't let it go, baby

Know that I can't get over you, 'cause everything I see is you

And I don't want no substitute, baby, I swear it's deja vu

Know that I can't get over you, 'cause everything I see is you

And I don't want no substitute, baby, I swear it's deja vu

Baby, I can't go anywhere without thinking that you're there

Seems like you're everywhere, it's true, gotta be having deja vu

'Cause in my mind I want you here, get on the next plane, I don't care

I'm missing you, that I'm having deja vu

Boy, I try to catch myself but I'm outta control

Your sexiness is so appealing, I can't let it go

Know that I can't get over you, 'cause everything I see is you

And I don't want no substitute, baby, I swear it's deja vu

Know that I can't get over you, 'cause everything I see is you

And I don't want no substitute, baby, I swear it's deja vu

Know that I can't get over you, 'cause everything I see is you

And I don't want no substitute, baby, I swear it's deja vu

Know that I can't get over you, 'cause everything I see is you

And I don't want no substitute, baby, I swear it's deja vu


 * || Questions: || Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong “St. Louis Blues”: ||  || Beyonce “Deju Vu”: ||
 * Who is the song’s audience?

Example: Race

Gender

Social Status

Location ||  ||   ||   ||
 * What is the purpose?

Example: Theme

Message

Moral ||  ||   ||   ||
 * What kind of sounds/ words do you hear?

Example: Instruments

Pace

Rhythm

Repetition ||  ||   ||   ||   ||

Formative Assessment:

I will have the students go onto our class wiki page and I will ask them to write how Jazz from the 1920s changed music today and how jazz impacted artists’ music today.

Day 3:

In class we will go over the chart and then go back to our wiki page and collaborate as a class all the ideas we put on our page into a short introduction to Jazz music of the 1920’s and send it to the school newspaper to be published.

As an exit card they will answer on a piece of paper: How important is music to our society and why?