William Grant Still: "Afro-American Symphony"

Cross-Disciplinary Lesson Plans: 2-3

Lesson 1.

Mathematics and Music: Patterns, Relations, and Functions

Objective
Students learn the basic twelve Bar Blues lesson and learn the relationship between the chords and their function in the music.

Materials
Music Lessons - Twelve Bar Blues

Lesson 2. Language Arts and Music

Identify and interpret vocabulary (words, phrases, or expressions) critical to the meaning of the text.

Objectives
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the vocabulary involved in the biography by completing the crosswords worksheet.

Materials
William Grant Still Word List K-3
William Grant Still Young Reader biography
Biography Crossword Worksheet | Answer Key
Optional "Afro-American Symphony" CD for listening

1. Go through the word list discuss what the meaning is for each word. You may want to have the class break up into small groups and find the definition in the library and bring it back to the class.
2. Read the Young Reader Biography to the class. You may want to play the "Afro-American Symphony" in the background.
3. Together, fill in the crossword puzzle—or have the class do it cooperatively.

Lesson 3. Language Arts and Music

Identify and interpret vocabulary (words, phrases, or expressions) critical to the meaning of the text.

Objectives
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the vocabulary involved in the biography by researching the definitions.

Materials
William Grant Still Word List K-3
William Grant Still Young Reader biography

1. Have the students look up the word list for William Grant Still. (Overnight Assignment)
2. Read the biography to the students and have them take notes on your reading. You may also want to give a copy of the biography to you students to use for self-reading.
3. Have them rewrite their word list with definitions in light of the biography. They will need to interpret their vocabulary words according to the text.

Lesson 4. Science and Music: The Victrola

Identify the positive and / or Negative impact of technology on human activity. (6th)

Objectives
The students will learn about the Victrola and how the invention of this recording device changed how music was perceived. Specifically, the students will discuss how the introduction of a victrola and opera cylinders influenced young William Grant Still's life.

Materials
Teacher access to Internet if needed
The History of the Victrola Web Page
Great Moments in Multimedia History Web Page
William Grant Still Biography

1. Teacher reads the information on the Victrola and shows the students pictures of a Victrola. You may be able to have a person in the community bring a Victrola in for the class to see.
2. Discuss with the class:
1. The effect of the Victrola on William Grant Still and his musical life.
2. The effect the invention of the Victrola had on popular music.

Extensions:

1. Have the students draw a Victrola.
2. Have the students create a paper "Victrola".
3. Have them create a small play about what it would be like to first listen to recorded music.
4. Have the students practice recording their own music with tape recorders.

Lesson 5. Timelines and Music

Citizenship and American Heritage:
Demonstrate knowledge of and ability to think about the relationship among events by:

• Identifying sequence of events in history. (Students could be asked to examine a time line to locate needed information, or they could be asked to place historical development on a time line.)

Objective
Students will be able to create a timeline that combines ten events from American History and five events from William Grant Still's life.

Materials
Internet Access
"Still Going On" Celebrating the life and times of William Grant Still (*Specifically the Chronology of Cultural Connections)
The History Channel (*Search by timeline for 1900-1999)
Classics for Kids® Timeline
Timeline Pages

1. The teacher selects events, which integrate the class' other areas of study, and the class plots them on a given timeline.
2. Student groups may be given the timeline events on separate pieces of paper with the assignment to create a timeline that places the events in order. This activity can also be done as a group.
3. Timelines can then be shared with the class at large. Timelines could also be displayed in the room or hallway of the school.

Lesson 6. American History and Music

Citizenship and American Heritage: Identify and use sources of information about a given topic in the history of Ohio and the United States.

Objective
Students will research the underground railroad in Ohio.

Materials
Internet Access
National Geographic
The Underground Railroad of Erie County, Ohio
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
Follow the Drinking Gourd, by Jeanette Winter

1. Teacher teaches the song "Follow the Drinking Gourd"
2. Teacher reads the book Follow the Drinking Gourd. Have the students sing along with the song when it occurs in the story.
3. The class explores the websites on the Underground Railroad together: National Geographic, The Underground Railroad of Erie County, Ohio, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center

This ties into the study with William Grant Still because his grandmother was a slave. She told him stories about her childhood as a slave and how she and the other slaves were treated.

Extensions for presenting the information:

• Act out a drama the students write based on the research found on the Internet.
• Write a song based on the information found on the Internet.
• Create a series of drawings or paintings that depict various aspects of life as a slave, life on the underground railway, and life as a "free" slave.

Lesson 7. Citizenship and Music

Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities:

• Differentiate between statements of fact and opinion found in information about public issues and policies.
• Identify and assess the possibilities of group decision-making, cooperative activity, and personal involvement in the community.
• Identify the elements of rules relating to fair play.

Objective
Students will listen to the taped interview with William Grant Still's daughter. Students will discuss the effect the critics had on WG Still's career.

Materials
Judith Still's interview on William Grant Still
Biography of William Grant Still

Excerpt from Biography of William Grant Still

Troubled Island, Still's ballet based on the life of Haitian liberator Jean Jacques Dessalines, was produced by the New York City Center Opera Company in 1949 (yet another Still first). Still began the opera in 1937 and news of its creation interested VIPs like Leopold Stokowski and Eleanor Roosevelt. When it was finally debuted, the audience in attendance loved it; but the critics found a way to cast negativity on the opera. "A conspiracy developed," Judith Still says. "Howard Taubmann (a critic and friend of Still) came to my father and said 'Billy, because I'm your friend I think that I should tell you this - the critics have had a meeting to decide what to do about your opera. They think the colored boy has gone far enough and they have voted to pan your opera.' And that was it. In those days, critics had that kind of influence."

Troubled Island did not get another performance and Still's reputation suffered. Though he continued to write classical music, mostly in the smaller chamber setting, he found it almost impossible to get any of his works performed. To make ends meet Still wrote for radio, television and film. Radio's popular Deep River Hour, films such as Stormy Weather and Lost Horizon and numerous television programs including Perry Mason and Gunsmoke are just a few of his credits.

Still encountered a good deal of racism in these endeavors as well, but it didn't bother him as much as one might think. "My parents had many, many friends - in fact the neighbors used to complain that the Still's friends parked up the street," Judith Still says. "I guess my father didn't have too hard a time putting up with it all because he was always off in a cloud. He was a dreamer. He was always just wrapped up in writing music and didn't concentrate on what people said about him."

1. Discuss: How could one group of people have such a great effect on a nation's opinion? Can you think of any other time when the critics or the media have affected public opinion?

2. Extension Ideas:

1. The Music Critic
1. Have the class vote on their favorite music.
2. Divide the students into two groups. They are now to be music critics. Half of the class is to write a positive review of the music. The other half is to write a negative review.
3. Discuss how a good music critic listens to the music and gives both positive and negative insights into the music. However, the music critic does decide if he or she likes or dislikes the music.
2. Criticism
1. What is criticism? Are we ever critical? When is criticism good and when can it be hurtful? Role-play situations where students may choose to display helpful criticism or hurtful criticism.

Lesson 8. Language Arts and Music

Constructing Meaning with Nonfiction Selections: Demonstrate an understanding of text by retelling the information, in writing, in own words

Objective
Students will write a biography on William Grant Still based on the information they have learned from the Biography and other lessons.

Materials
Biography of William Grant Still
Still Going On: Celebrating the Life and Times of William Grant Still, a project of The Digital Scriptorium, Special Collections Library, Duke University, September 1995

1. Students should write a retelling of the biography using their own words as a writing prompt.

William Grant Still Links