Provide a metaview, lifting students into a wider view of the concept. Use another medium (not reading or writing) to connect students' personal knowing to the concept (i.e. visual arts, music, movement, metaphor, etc.) Involve learners in reflective production that blends the emotional and the cognitive.
Linking of forms
Objective: To connect the students' poems and the form of the poems to traditional blues form.
Activity:
1) Play a recording of a traditional Bessie Smith blues song. Discuss the situations which created her "blues." Note the poetic form of the song's opening 12 bars. Inform the students that the blues form (AAB) is most often associated with the blues, though many do not follow this form. Many blues are characterized by a repeated statement concerning an emotion or event.
2) Show "The History of Jazz" filmstrip (Pathways to Music).
3) Discuss why the blues is a uniquely American style of music.
4) Play other blues pieces that do and do not demonstrate the traditional blues form.
5) Relate the development of jazz music in this country to world events occurring during this time (World Wars I and II, the Depression, etc.).
