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 | Stereo; tapes and/or CDs (see Resource List
at the end of this guide for suggestions); liner notes; pictures of the featured musicians; notebook.
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I Hear the Rhythm
Set up a listening station devoted to African and African American music. Provide a range of musical genres. Leave covers and liner notes with commentary and lyrics available for students to explore.
Decorate the area around the station with pictures of the featured musicians, taken from the web (see resource list for recommended websites).
Encourage students to listen to the music during independent work time. Leave a notebook at the listening station and ask the students to use it as a group music journal. Ask students to record the music they listened to and their reactions to the music in the journal. Later, refer back to these notes as you discuss the book.
The Rhythms of Africa
Students will listen to African drumming and discuss the roles of music in different cultures.
15 min.
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small group and/or whole class
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CA Music Standard 3.0: Students analyze the role of music in past
and present cultures throughout the world, noting cultural diversity as
it relates to music, musicians, and composers.
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| Stereo; tapes and/or CDs of African drumming.
Good albums include the Drums of Passion series by Babatunde Olatunji (Rykodisc)
and the Africa or Mali to Memphis compilations from the Putumayo label.
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Play a piece of African drumming for the students. Ask them to close their eyes and think about the images the music brings to them.
When the music is finished, ask students to open their eyes and share the images they “saw” in the music. What did they imagine as they heard the drums?
Ask students to brainstorm the different uses of drums in African culture. Prompt them to think about drums as instruments for communication and as the original “telephones,” as well as musical instruments used in songs, dances, and storytelling. Ask students how Africans came to the United States, and how they might have used their drums here. Discuss the connections between African and African American music and culture.
Creating Rhythms
Students explore the concept of rhythm by playing a clapping game and brainstorming a definition of the term.
15 min.
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small group and/or whole class
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CA Music Standard 1.0:
Students read, notate,
listen to, analyze, and
describe music and other
aural information, using the
terminology of music.
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Lead the group in clapping out different rhythms. Clap out the rhythm of one line of a well-known song (such as “Happy Birthday to You”), then ask students to clap the rhythm back to you. Experiment with the clapping rhythm at different tempos, pointing out how the speed changes but the beat stays the same.
Have students take turns playing the leader and experimenting with different kinds of rhythms and tempos. You can vary the activity by asking them to tap their feet and slap their knees as well as clap their hands.
Brainstorm a definition of rhythm based on the exercise. Ask students to compare their definitions of rhythm with a dictionary definition. Talk about how different rhythms can make you think or feel differently. Discuss what it might mean to “see” a rhythm. What would different rhythms look like?
Diving In
20 min.
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large or small group
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Introduce the book to students in a large or small group. The focus of this first reading should be reading for pleasure–encouraging students to enjoy the beauty of the book and the story it tells. In order to foster this enjoyment, try some of the following activities:
 | Discuss the cover, the title, and the illustrations. Look at the structure of the book–how it is set up in two-page spreads made up of paintings, poetry, and timeline. Ask students what story they think the book tells, and how each part of a spread might tell that story differently. List these predictions and ask students to check them after the reading is complete.
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| Read sections aloud to the group, or have students read the book on their own, in pairs, or in small groups.
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| Encourage students to further explore the book actively by taking a “picture walk” through the book, thinking about the story as it is told in the illustrations.
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| Ask students to read the book aloud and experiment with reading in different rhythms or voices.
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Civil Rights Vocabulary
Students learn about the “-ation” word family by examining vocabulary from African American history.
20 min.
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whole class
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CA Reading Standard 1.0: Students select letter patterns and know how to translate them into spoken language by using phonics, syllabification, and word parts.
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Share a list of “-ation” words found in I See the Rhythm with students: emancipation proclamation and segregation (p. 8). Add related words: desegregation, integration, liberation.
Discuss the meanings of each word. How does each differ from the other? What are the time periods associated with each?
Ask students to read the words aloud. Ask: How is the “-ation” ending pronounced? Can you sound out this ending? Is this ending pronounced the same each time?
Have students hunt for additional words in the book (e.g., association and migration, p. 10, and education, p. 21).
Brainstorm other words students might know using this ending (e.g., celebration, illustration, and nation).
ongoing
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whole class
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CA Reading Standard 2.0: Students read and understand grade-level-appropriate material. They draw upon a variety of comprehension strategies as needed (e.g., generating and responding to essential questions, making predictions, comparing information from several sources).
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| butcher or chart paper; magic markers
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Several two-page spreads in the book highlight specific historical events and use important vocabulary to describe people and places. As you read the book with your class, pause to talk about the words associated with each period. People, events, and phrases to highlight in the timeline include:
| Africa: Origins (pp. 4-5) Ibo, Yoruba, and Bantu kingdoms; shackles; the slave trade; the Middle Passage; the differing roles of griots
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| Slavery: Slave Songs (pp. 6-7) Nat Turner; Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad; the Fugitive Slave Act; the Civil War
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| Reconstruction: the Birth of the Blues (pp. 8-9) The Emancipation Proclamation; Jim Crow laws; Fisk College; Ida B. Wells; lynching (for further discussion of lynching, see the note on Billie Holiday in the timeline of A Tribute to Jazz Women, p. 16)
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| The Great Migration: Ragtime and Jazz Beginnings (pp. 10-13) National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Madame C. J. Walker; Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association
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| The Harlem Renaissance: the Sounds of Swing (pp. 14-17) the Great Depression; “race records”; Marian Anderson
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| Civil Rights Movement: Cool Jazz, Gospel, and Rhythm & Blues (pp. 21-25) Brown v. the Board of Education; Rosa Parks; Septima Clarke; Martin Luther King, Jr.; the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; the Civil Rights Act of 1964; Malcolm X
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| Black Power: Black Rock and Funk (pp. 26-29) Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, and the Black Panther party; Vietnam
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Use a roll of butcher paper and markers to create a timeline, marking each period and having students add vocabulary words, people, and events to the appropriate era as you discuss them. As students read the book on their own, have them add other key words they come across.
Keep this timeline up throughout the unit, using it as a reference to discuss the book and adding relevant words as they emerge during your unit of study.
Picture Reading
Students interpret and respond to an illustration, making connections between the themes in the images and the text
30 min.
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small group
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CA Reading Standard 3.0: Students read and respond to a wide variety of significant works of children's literature. They distinguish between the structural features of the text and literary terms or elements (e.g., theme, plot, setting, and characters).
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Have the students look through the book and select one picture to which they will respond.
Ask each student to share his or her response with the group. Ask: How did you pick your picture? What does the picture make you feel? How do the colors affect you? What stories do you see in the pictures?
Have the group read the text on the accompanying pages. Ask students to identify the theme of the text. How does that theme connect to the illustration? How does it connect to the stories they saw in the image?
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