Teaching American History through the Arts
Teaching American History through the Arts motivates and challenges students to better understand American history by singing and analyzing music and lyrics from the past. The songs incorporated into the program are primarily folk songs which were sung by people of various ethnic backgrounds in different parts of the country. Studying and singing songs as primary source material increases students’ depth of understanding of history, enhancing their abilities to empathize and connect with the thoughts and emotions of people who participated in and contributed to events and trends throughout America’s past. Understanding the past is central to students' abilities to understand themselves and the world around them.
Music-Friendly FCAT Lessons
In an effort to contribute to the standard of achievement in the literacy of our students, the activities on these pages have been devised for use in your music classes. These documents provide opportunities to incorporate reading and higher level thinking skills into your music lessons.
The activities can supplement your music lessons by functioning as a resource for individual or group reading and discussion. Each article has a hand out which can be reproduced and distributed to your students. A teacher’s guide is also included with an answer key. You will find a copy of Bloom’s Taxonomy with Anderson’s revised Taxonomy to guide the discussions and facilitate the use of higher level thinking skills.
We believe that we have compiled articles that are timely, relevant, and interesting for our intermediate elementary and secondary school students. We hope that you enjoy working with these articles in your music classrooms.