Lesson Plans and Classroom Activities

Below is a list of lesson plans generated by teachers who have attended our NEH Summer Institute for Teachers, Voices Across Time. Select the title to view the lesson. Downloadable PDFs are available from the lesson plan page.

Era

Lesson Title

Song Title

Topics

1760

New England’s Annoyances

“New England’s Annoyances”

colony, hardship, Pilgrims, settlers

1760

Murder Ballads

“The Cruel Ship’s Carpenter”

“Pretty Polly”

“The Willow Tree”

“Tom Dooley”

“Frankie and Johnnie”

“Zeb Tourney’s Girl”

Romeo, Juliet, death, love, ballad

1760-1820

The Liberty Song

“The Liberty Song”

“Free America”

“You Simple Bostonians”

“The Burrowing Yankees”

Boston, patriotism, protest, Revolution, war

1800-1860

Beyond the Gold Rush

“Seeing for the Elephant”

“The Old Settler’s Song”

“he’s the Man for Me”

California, settlers, west

1800-1860

Patting Juba

“Patting Juba”

dance, slaves, games

1800-1860

Slave Code Songs

“Follow the Drinking Gourd”

“O Canaan”

“Walk in the Water”

“Steal Away”

slaves, escape, free, Underground Railroad

1800-1860

de Tocqueville or Jackson’s America

“Oh, Shenandoah”

Manifest Destiny, west, rural, urban, expansion

1800-1860

Presidential Election of 1824

“Little Know Ye Who’s Coming”

“Hunters of Kentucky”

Manifest Destiny, west, rural, urban, expansion, candidate

1800-1860

Hard Times Come Again No More

“Hard Times Come Again No More”

Manifest Destiny, west, rural, urban, expansion, economy, political cartoons

1860-1876

Hard Crackers Come Again No More

“Hard Crackers Come Again No More”

“Army Grub”

“Goober Peas”

Civil War, soldiers, hardship,, war

1860-1876

Origin of Taps

“Taps”

“Lights Out”

Civil War, soldiers, bugle, war

1860-1876

Dream Deferred

“Dream Montage”

“Blow Your Trumpet Gabriel”

African Americans, civil rights, racism, Reconstruction

1870-1900

Historical Disasters/Chicago Fire

“Billow of Fire”

“Lost and Saved”

“passing through the Fire”

urban, myth, hardship

1870-1900

Gilded Age and Liberty

“Future America”

“New American Anthem”

expansion, economy, politics, political cartoons

1870-1900

Songs of the Western Frontier

“Oh California”

“The Old Chisholm Trail”

“Home on the Range”

“I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”

west, expansion, California

1870-1900

Coming to America

“Thousands are Sailing to Amerikay”

“Ikh Hob Dikh Lib, Amerika (I Love You America)”

“Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor”

immigration, technology, Ellis Island

1870-1900

No Irish Need Apply

“No Irish Need Apply”

immigration, discrimination

1870-1900

The Bowery

“The Bowery”

urban, hardship, tenement

1870-1900

Thousands are Coming to Amerikay

“Thousands are Sailing to Amerikay”

“El Deportado”

immigration, discrimination

1870-1900

Songs that Tell the Story of the Railroad

“Drill Ye Tarriers Drill”

labor, economy, transportation, expansion

1870-1900

John Henry Blues

“John Henry Blues”

labor, economy, transportation, technology

1870-1900

Cowboy Songs and Ballads

“The Old Chisholm Trail”

“Whoopie Ti Yi Yo, Git Along Little Dogie”

“The Cowboy’s Lament”

“Little Joe the Wrangler”

“The Yellow Rose of Texas”

“The Red River Valley”

west, expansion, hardship, love

1870-1900

Social Issues of the Industrialized United States

“Babies in the Mill”

“Lowell Factory Girls”

“Keep Women in Their Sphere”

“Freedom’s Anthem”

“Go It While You’re Young”

“The Wife’s Lament”

“I Don’t Want Your Millions Mister”

“And Now Assemble”

labor, economy, hardship, urban, suffrage, temperance, Progressivism, industry

1890-1930

African American Art

“Black and Blue”

“Brown”

musical, racism, discrimination

1890-1930

America After WWI

“How Ya Gonna Keep Them Down on the Farm”

“The Charleston Rag”

“She’s Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage”

soldiers, dance, African Americans, Jazz Age

1890-1930

Understanding Legends in History

“Heebie Jeebies”

“To Be In Love”

Jazz Age, myth, technology, dance

1890-1930

Putting a Face on the Organization of Labor

“Sweet By and By”

“Joe Hill”

“The Preacher and the Slave”

labor, industry, hardship

1890-1930

The Eight Hour Day

“Eight Hour Day”

labor, industry, hardship

1890-1930

The Homestead Strike v1

“The Homestead Strike”

labor, industry, hardship

1890-1930

The Homestead Strike v2

“The Homestead Strike”

labor, industry, hardship

1890-1930 Kaulana Na Pua (Famous are the Flowers) “Kaulana Na Pua” expansion, isolation, Manifest Destiny, economy, political cartoons

1890-1930

We Have Remembered the Maine

“We Have Remembered the Maine”

“Buffalo Soldiers”

expansion, isolation, Manifest Destiny, economy, political cartoons, war

1890-1930

The Stars and Stripes Forever

“The Stars and Stripes Forever”

“You’re a Grand Old Flag”

patriotism, expansion, isolation, Manifest Destiny, economy, political cartoons

1890-1930

Labor Unions – Flint

“There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonite”

“Women’s Auxiliary Song”

labor, industry, hardship, economy

1890-1930

Labor Unions – Homestead

“The Homestead Strike”

labor, industry, hardship, economy

1890-1930

Labor Unions – Lawrence

“My Children are Seven in Number”

“Bread and Roses”

labor, industry, hardship, economy

1890-1930

The Lusitania in Music

“When the Lusitania Went Down”

foreign policy, patriotism, isolation, hardship, war

1890-1930

The Great Gatsby and the Roaring Twenties

“Suddenly I Saw”

“Tiny Dancer”

“Sheik of Araby”

“The Love Nest”

“Three O’Clock in the Morning”

“The Rosary”

Jazz Age, soundtracks, popular culture

1890-1930

Iconography of Circuses

“Hannibal Hope and the Circus Parade”

“A Trip to the Circus”

“The Passing of the Circus Parade”

Water For Elephants, symbolism, empathy

1890-1930

Iconography of Hoboes

“Beans, Bacon, and Gravy”

“Big Rock Candy Mountain”

“Train Narration”

“A Long Way to Travel”

Water For Elephants, symbolism, empathy

1890-1930

Iconography of Trains

“Iron Horse”

“Calling Trains”

“Train Blues”

“A Long Way to Travel”

Water For Elephants, symbolism, empathy

1890-1930

Steel Unit

“Raggedy”

“The Trouble Down at Homestead”

“Father Was Killed by the Pinkerton Man”

“Twenty Inch Mill”

“Steel Mill Blues”

“Pittsburgh Town”

“Youngstown”

“Allentown”

labor, industry, hardship, economy

1929-1045

Conflicting Images of Migrant Labor

“Big Rock Candy Mountain”

“Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)”

“Hobo’s Lullaby”

labor, industry, hardship, economy

1929-1945

Isolationism v Internationalism

“Sinking of the Reuben James”

expansion, isolation, foreign policy

1929-1945

Migrant Melodies

“Seven Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat”

labor, hardship, economy

1929-1945

US Entry into WWII

“What Are We Waitin’ On?”

“Ballad of October 16”

“Citizen CIO”

foreign policy, patriotism, protest

1929-1945

God Bless the Child

“God Bless the Child”

Jazz Age, hardship

African Americans

1929-1945

Holocaust Prevention

“Butterfly”

“Birdsong”

“Yes. That’s the way things are”

“Man Proposes, God Disposes”

“The Garden”

“The Old House”

hardship, empathy

1929-1945

Tom Joad

“Tom Joad”

“The Ghost of Tom Joad”

hardship, labor, economy

1929-1945

New York World’s Fair

“Dawn of the New Day”

“I.G.Y.”

technology

1945-1970

Brave New World

“A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall”

“Lord Randall”

hardship, technology, ballad

1945-1970

Rebellion in the 1950s

“Summertime Blues”

economy, labor, dance

1945-1970

Ballad of the Green Berets

“Ballad of the Green Berets”

“War”

soldiers, war, patriotism, protest

1945-1970

Evolution of Civil Rights

“Strange Fruit”

“Freedom Road”

“We Shall Overcome”

“People Get Ready”

civil rights, African Americans

1945-1970

The Kennedy Assassination: The Loss of Innocence in America

“He Was a Friend of Mine”

politics, hardship

1945-1970

Songs of Protest

“War”

“God Bless the USA”

soldiers, war, patriotism

1968-present

The Evolving Image of American Womanhood

“I am Woman”

“Pretty Face”

“At Seventeen”

suffrage, equal rights, gender, equality

1968-present 

Freedom of Speech

“Freedom of Speech”

politics, patriotism, protest

1968-present

Songs of Loss: Springsteen and 9/11

“You’re Missing”

“Empty Sky”

hardship, patriotism

1968-present

Trees Like Me Weren’t Meant to Live

“A Day in the Life of a Tree”

“Ye Noble Big Pine Tree”

economy, ecology, empathy

1968-present

A Boy Named Sue

“A Boy Named Sue”

ballad

1968-present

Life After the Assassination of MLK

“Inner City Blues”

politics, hardship, civil rights, African Americans

1968-present

Lift Every Voice and Sing

“Lift Every Voice and Sing”

“Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen”

politics, hardship, civil rights, African Americans

1968-present

Testimony

“Testimony”

equal rights, gender, equality

1968-present

Panics, Depressions, and Hard Times

“Hard Times: Great Depressions v Great Recession”

economy, politics, hardship

1968-present

Social Justice Issues

“Black and White”

“Everyday People”

“We Shall Be Free”

equality, politics, civil rights, African Americans

 

Copyright 2011-2013 Center for American Music, University of Pittsburgh Library System