History, Style, and Jazz Concepts Using Arts Integration
Introduction to Jazz History
10th Grade • English & Music, Jazz
Lesson Overview: This lesson plan integrates jazz music education with English language arts. The curriculum spans multiple sessions exploring various jazz subgenres, instrumentation, and historical significance, with particular emphasis on the contributions of Black and Latino musicians. Throughout the lessons, students engage in writing exercises that analyze jazz's structures and its impact while developing argumentative and explanatory writing skills aligned with Illinois state standards. The arts-integrated approach incorporates live performances, video resources, and collaborative activities designed to accommodate varied learning styles, ultimately guiding students to articulate connections between jazz's democratic expressions and American discourse.
Learning Objectives:
Students Will:
Write informative/explanatory texts.
Examine and convey complex ideas, concepts.
Introduce a topic.
Organize complex ideas, concepts.
Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts.
Lesson Process: The lesson plan guides students through progressive exploration of jazz from foundational history to specific stylistic elements like swing, Latin jazz, and hip-hop arts integration. The lesson follows a consistent structure featuring do-now activities, teaching artist demonstrations, reinforcement writing activities, and collaborative discussions that encourage students to develop their own critical perspectives. The curriculum deliberately targets both English Language Arts and National Arts Standards through multimodal learning experiences including graphic organizers, think-pair-share activities, and call-and-response techniques. Assessment practices include performance-based evaluations, writing prompts, and dialogic feedback, all designed within educational frameworks like MTSS and Universal Design for Learning to ensure accessibility for all learners.
Time Required:
Introduction Lesson: 50 Minutes
Materials List:
Resource video: What is Jazz?
Resource video: Roy McGrath
Resource video: Miles Davis
Assessment : The lesson uses Assessment: Using a variety of methods, including graphic organizers, discussions, quizzes, and presentations, to evaluate student learning. The students are assessed and evaluated on specific Jazz subgenres and themes, connecting each to broader historical and cultural contexts. These subgenres include:
Swing, Blues, and Big Band Jazz
Latin Jazz and Salsa
Hip Hop, Electric Jazz, and Funk
Instrumentation in Jazz
Lesson
Activities & Instructions
The Activities & Instructions section provides a structured sequence of learning experiences, guiding educators through engaging, interactive lessons.
Lesson Activities
Classroom Teacher Activities
Do Now (5 Minutes)
Introduction of Lesson (5 Minutes)
Think-Pair-Share on Jazz History (15 Minutes)
Teaching Artist Activities
Do Now: Performance of Jazz Solo
Listen to the Teaching Artist’s Jazz solo and describe any or some of your reactions to the music
Jazz History Introduction (10 Minutes)
Introduction to themes, trends, motifs, and history
Discourse on how Jazz music can influence, persuade, and impact the world
Connect Jazz to the historical moment and Black history
Jazz History Video(s) (10 Minutes)
Q&A, Discussion, Closing Remarks (5 Minutes)
NATIONAL CORE ARTS STANDARDS
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Anchor Standard 7
Perceive and analyze artistic work.Anchor Standard 8
Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.Anchor Standard 9
Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work.
Key Themes & Ideas
Arts Integration for Enhanced Learning: The core concept is integrating arts (specifically music) into the English curriculum. The lesson plans demonstrate how jazz music can be a tool for teaching persuasive writing, critical thinking, and cultural awareness. The lesson leverages a collaborative approach between the content teacher and a teaching artist. The plans emphasize the importance of arts integration in transforming the learning experience.
Focus on Persuasive Writing & Argumentation: A central objective across all lesson plans is to develop students' persuasive writing skills. Students are expected to introduce, develop, and substantiate argumentative claims in writing regarding the purpose, effectiveness, and impact of Jazz music within history. The lesson plans aim to teach students to identify implicit and explicit claims within jazz music, history, and movements, and use this understanding to craft persuasive arguments in their writing.
Historical Relevance: The lesson plans consciously connect jazz music to black history and the African American experience. The lessons intend to inform understanding of Jazz music’s impact in the American discourse.
Accessibility and Inclusion: The lesson plans prioritize accessibility, catering to varied learning styles and abilities. The plan acknowledges the heterogeneous nature of the student population, including "struggling to gifted, and visual / auditory learners to kinesthetic" individuals and ELL (English Language Learners). Strategies like graphic organizers, Think Alouds, cold calls, sentence starters, and writing prompts are used to support all learners. Universal Design for Learning principles, and accessibility checklists are included.
Collaborative Teaching Model: The collaborative model is clearly defined in the lesson plans. The classroom teacher) and teaching artist have distinct but complementary roles. The teaching artist typically introduces the jazz concepts and performs, while the classroom teacher reinforces the concepts and facilitates writing activities.
Structured Lesson Design: Each lesson follows a similar structure, including:
Bell Work: Engaging students with a musical performance and a reflective question.
Vocabulary/Techniques: Introducing key terms and concepts related to jazz.
Guided Practice: Facilitating discussion and writing prompts to explore the themes.
Modeling: The teaching artist models the concepts and connections to broader arts and historical contexts.
Alignment with Standards: The lesson is aligned with both Illinois State Standards and National Arts Standards. The educator specifically cites standards related to writing informative/explanatory texts, developing topics with relevant details, and analyzing artistic work. The standards incorporated provide institutional practices that comply with state/national standards.
Success Criteria:
The success of this jazz-focused arts integration lesson is measured by students' ability to produce well-structured argumentative and informative writing that demonstrates sophisticated understanding of jazz's historical development, stylistic elements, and historical significance.
Assessment tools include graphic organizers, writing prompts, class discussions, and performance-based evaluations that track students' growing capacity to analyze musical structures while connecting them to broader social, community, and historical contexts and their own experiences.
Impact is evident when students can independently identify and articulate connections between jazz's democratic principles—such as individual expression within collective harmony—and contemporary issues of American discourse and community development. Beyond academic metrics, the lesson's success manifests in students' increased arts appreciation, expanded vocabulary for discussing artistic expression, and enhanced ability to recognize how local communities have used creative forms to shape and respond to community—skills that transfer well beyond the specific content of the unit.
Overall Significance
This lesson plan’s significance lies in its seamless integration of arts education and academic literacy, offering students an immersive exploration of jazz as both a cultural phenomenon and a model for effective communication. By positioning jazz as "America's Classical Black Art form," the curriculum validates and elevates African American cultural contributions while providing students—particularly those from underrepresented communities—with mirrors to their own experiences and windows into artistic traditions that have shaped American identity. The pedagogical approach embodies jazz's own characteristics of structure, improvisation, and collaborative voice, creating a learning environment where students simultaneously develop technical skills in writing and deeper understanding of how artistic expression can address social realities. Beyond content knowledge, this arts-integrated model demonstrates how curricula can be designed to be culturally responsive, academically rigorous, and accessible across diverse learning modalities, ultimately preparing students to recognize patterns of expression that transcend individual disciplines.
– REACH –
Thank you to our Educators, Artists, and Collaborators.
School: Art In Motion
Teacher: Paul Grossman
Teaching Artist: Roy McGrath
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Resource 1: link