Meeting The Blues - A TeachersFirst Web Resource

Meeting "The Blues"

"The Blues" is a uniquely American artistic style. These lessons use music, art, and literature in various combinations to help students at several different levels appreciate the cultural origins and artistic significance of the blues.

The Blue Flame Cafe - Grades 6-12 - This site provides short bios and other information, primarily about contemporary blues and blues/pop artists and their music. While there is no discussion of cultural issues, the site can serve as an example of the extent to which the blues style has migrated into much of the music of the past 30 years.

The Blue Highway - Grades 9-12 - Here's a comprehensive site offering history and examples of Blues motifs in music and culture. There are dozens of available resources and lots of examples to choose from.

The Blues Impulse - An Era and the Ambiguity of Adolescence by Sequella H. Coleman, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute - Social Studies, English and Reading, Grades 6-8 - Help students learn about the Harlem Renaissance and about themselves through this investigation of the blues.

The Blues Impulse in Drama: Lessons on Racial Pain by Paul E. Turtola, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute - Drama (interdisciplinary), Grades 8-12 - Study the drama of racial tension, prejudice and pain in To Kill A Mockingbird, The Death of Bessie Smith and Blues for Mr. Charlie.

Building Character: Remaining Resilient, Resourceful, and Responsible in the Face of Adversity by Kelley N. Robinson, Flake,Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute - Social Studies, Grade 4 - Introduce your students to The Blues culture and "instill in them a sense of appreciation for struggle."

Creating Blues: An Interdisciplinary Study by Medria Blue, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute Language Arts, Music, Art and Writing, Grades 6-8 - Use the study and creation of blues lyrics, art, poetry, and fiction to immerse students in the blues philosophy.

Finding the Rhythm of Blues in Children’s Poetry, Art, and Music by Jennifer Blue, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute - Integrated Language Arts, Social Studies, Music, Visual Arts, Grades 1-4 - 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.

It's a Girl Thang - Grades 7-12 - This privately developed site concentrates on legendary female blues singers and performers. There are dozens of profiles, each with information on the performer's career. This is a nice resource for students interested in researching a particular bludes singer or performer.

A Guide Through the Culture of the Blues, by Sloan E. Williams III, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute - Music and American History, Grades 7-12 - 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.

How to Blues by Patricia M. Bissell, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute - Music, Grades 4-8 - 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.

Sing Two Stanzas and Rebel in the Morning: The Role of Black Religious Music in the Struggle for Freedom by Marcella Monk Flake, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute - History and Music, Grades 4-12 - This unit, originally written for seventh grade gifted students, looks at slave songs as communication and music of the civil rights movement in the context of Ivan Van Sertima’s research regarding pre-slavery Africa and Africans.

They Lived in Music - Blues Women Sing Their Song by Charlene Andrade, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute - History, Music and Theatre, Grades 7-12 - Use performance of a theatrical production to teach students about the history of the blues.

Visual Blues- On the Move: Visual Art Syntheses of the Blues Impulse by Martha Savage, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute - Visual Arts, Grades 6-12 - This unit brings the blues to life as students experience the blues as both creators and observers of visual blues art.

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