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Joy2 Learn: Jazz With Wynton Marsalis

For Students 9th - 10th
Take a tour about jazz with jazz musician Wynton Marsalis. Through video segments, you'll learn about the trumpet, the history of jazz and key famous jazz legends.
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Website
PBS

Pbs: The Story of Jazz

For Students 9th - 10th
A supplement to a ten-part film series on jazz, this resource describes the growth and development of jazz music from the gritty streets of New Orleans to the Lincoln Gardens on Chicago's south side, where Louis Armstrong first won fame,...
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: Smithsonian Jazz

For Students 9th - 10th
Smithsonian Jazz is home to several online exhibits, an interactive "Duke Ellington class," recordings, publications, oral histories, and similar resources.
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Article
PBS

Pbs: Black and Blue: Jazz in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Ralph Ellison was a musician who later became a writer. His book Invisible Man is written like a jazz composition. In this lesson, students will interpret key themes and concepts in Invisible Man that are also found in jazz music.
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Other

International Association for Jazz Education: Homepage

For Students 9th - 10th
Perhaps the country's foremost organization dedicated to jazz education. The site is quite user friendly and has huge, well organized list of weblinks.
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Website
PBS

Pbs: Jazz Timeline

For Students 9th - 10th
With this timeline, learn about how the history of slavery, Jim Crow laws and other forms of racial oppression impacted the rise of jazz in America. Also highlights the achievements of women, including Viola Smith in this world of music....
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Website
Other

Jazz at Lincoln Center: Jazz for Young People Curriculum

For Students 9th - 10th
This jazz resource provides many lessons which include audio, video, slideshows and quizzes.
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Website
Library of Congress

Loc: Jazz Singers: Online Exhibition

For Students 9th - 10th
Library of Congress online exhibition of Jazz singers provides a short bio and photos of each of these influential artists offering perspectives of the art of vocal jazz from the 1920s to present.
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Activity
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: Smithsonian Jazz: Duke's Music Class

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn about jazz from the master, Duke Ellington. Three activities explore his role as jazz composer, orchestra leader, and pianist.
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Website
PBS

Pbs: Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns

For Students 9th - 10th
The companion website for a documentary film about jazz is home to a storehouse of resources and unique features about the historical, cultural, and artistic significance of jazz. With a timeline of key events in the history of jazz,...
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Article
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: Jazz and the African American Literary Tradition

For Students 9th - 10th
Article explores the influence of jazz on African American literature from the early history of jazz, noted jazz artists, the black-white tensions within jazz, to its literary influence after World War II.
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Unit Plan
Other

Jazz Improvisation Primer

For Students 9th - 10th
An info-packed lesson on jazz improvisation and jazz history. Very useful for musicians aspiring to play in the jazz idiom.
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Article
Read Works

Read Works: Passages:"new Orleans and the History of Jazz "By Loren Schoenberg

For Students 11th - 12th Standards
[Free Registration/Login Required] This article "New Orleans and the History of Jazz "by LorenSchoenberg focuses on the beginnings of New Orleans and its history of Jazz. A comprehension question set follows the passage. 11-12.3 Text...
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs: Defining Jazz Music

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this lesson, students will develop a definition of jazz. Through biographies and interviews of jazz musicians, students will learn what jazz music is about.
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Article
PBS

Pbs: Jazz: Teddy Wilson

For Students 9th - 10th
Part of the larger site, Jazz by PBS and Ken Burns, this page highlights the life of Teddy Wilson, one of the first black musicians to play with prominently white artists. Biographical information is from the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz.
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs: Jazz Music and the Crisis Over School Desegregation

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Working in cooperative groups, your students will learn how jazz musicians expressed the Civil Rights era in their music. This lesson focuses on the Civil Rights movement in Little Rock, Arkansas. Also, they will learn to about the...
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs: Transcending Poetry, Jazz, Rap & Hip Hop

For Teachers 9th - 10th
The objectives in this lesson will have learners describing the characteristics of poetry, jazz, rap and hip hop music. Students will also analyze how poetry, jazz, hip hop and poetry reflect the culture of the time.
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs: Jazz Is About Freedom

For Teachers 9th - 10th
One of the objectives in this lesson plan focus on how jazz contributed to the political awareness of the American public concerning lynching. Using Billie Holiday's anti-lynching song Strange Fruit, students will learn about lynching...
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs: Jazz Is About Collaboration: Jim Crow Laws: Segregation

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Engage your students in discussion about segregation and the Jim Crow laws with this in-depth lesson plan. Using jazz music, you will contrast the ways in which America's most significant contribution to the arts depended on...
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Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Neh: Edsit Ement: Jazz and Ww Ii: A Rally to Resistance, a Catalyst for Victory

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Lesson plan that teaches the roles that jazz music and jazz musicians played in the war effort and that demonstrates the effect that the war had on jazz in America.
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Handout
Other

Old Time Jazz Online

For Students 9th - 10th
Choose and listen to jazz music from the 1800s to today. Listen to artists such as Buck Johnson, Kid Ory, Woody Herman, Ella Fitzgerald, and many more.
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Website
Other

Visual Jazz Publications

For Students 9th - 10th
This company produces educational materials to help you succeed in jazz improvisation and sight reading. Of note on their site is "The Art of Improvisation," a free download that guides you through the improvisational process.
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Graphic
National Geographic

National Geographic: Geostories: The Geography of Jazz

For Students 5th - 9th
Explore this Geostory as it traces the roots of jazz from its humble beginnings in the southern United States to becoming one of the most widely recognized musical styles in the world.
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Lesson Plan
Alabama Learning Exchange

Alex: A Brief History of Jazz!

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A lesson plan that helps learners explore the roots of jazz music and some of the important jazz musicians in history.

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