IMPACT ON STUDENT LEARNING: JAZZ HISTORY

3 Lessons
Jazz History Lesson #1
Origination and History
● Objectives
○ UNIT
■ Students will understand and show further appreciation for the history of jazz
■ Students will learn about many black composers during black history month
■ Students will become familiar with varying styles of jazz music
■ Students will have opportunities to play within the styles that they learned
○ LESSON
■ Students will learn about the origins of jazz
■ Students will brainstorm black composers and musicians
■ Students will learn more about the traditions and history behind jazz emergence
● Procedures
○ Students will take the pre test
○ Students will brainstorm composers and musicians for black history month
○ Students will listen to the powerpoint slide
■ Ask them questions as you go along
● Assessment
○ Post Test-long term
○ Assessing if they are listening
■ Eye contact
■ Engaging conversations
 Jazz History Lesson #2
Ragtime and Dixieland
● Objectives
○ UNIT
■ Students will understand and show further appreciation for the history of jazz
■ Students will learn about many black composers during black history month
■ Students will become familiar with varying styles of jazz music
■ Students will have opportunities to play within the styles that they learned
○ LESSON
■ Students will understand the importance of composers, instrumentation, and
characteristics during the Ragtime era
■ Students will understand the importance of composers, instrumentation, and
characteristics during the Dixieland era
● Procedures
○ Students will listen to the powerpoint slide
■ Ask them questions as you go along
■ Students will fill out a worksheet as they learn
○ Students will listen to music audio examples of each jazz style
● Assessment
○ Post Test-long term
○ Assessing if they are listening
■ Eye contact
■ Engaging conversations
○ Worksheet grading
 Jazz History Lesson #3
Swing and Bebop
● Objectives
○ UNIT
■ Students will understand and show further appreciation for the history of jazz
■ Students will learn about many black composers during black history month
■ Students will become familiar with varying styles of jazz music
■ Students will have opportunities to play within the styles that they learned
○ LESSON
■ Students will understand the importance of composers, instrumentation, and
characteristics during the Swing era
■ Students will understand the importance of composers, instrumentation, and
characteristics during the Bebop era
● Procedures
○ Students will listen to the powerpoint slide with additional facts
○ Students will listen to music audio examples of each jazz style
○ Students will fill out a matching worksheet as they are going through the slides
● Assessment
○ Post Test-long term
○ Assessing if they are listening
■ Eye contact
■ Engaging conversations
○ Worksheet grading

*Slideshow for student learning (included in each lesson):

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/191shRX4ngNo8JFMzrezbr17EQiveTaTpJmk3MQloyec/
edit?usp=sharing
 Pre and Post Assessment
Google Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1A6XluknEGcdkay_Y8bsHZPGrj97SFq0JW2zOT2rxafc/edit
Name:
What class are you in?

1) Where was an open space where slaves and free blacks came together throughout the 19th century for African dance and
drumming celebrations?
A. Lexington
B. Congo Square
C. Baton Rouge
D. Washington DC

2) What is NOT a common jazz instrument?

A. Piano
B. Saxophone
C. Oboe
D. Trumpet

3) What is oftentimes referred to as the traditional jazz that was developed in the early 20th century? This style typically has
clarinet in place of saxophones.
A. Ragtime
B. Dixieland
C. Swing/Big Band
D. Bebop

4) What is a style of jazz that is known for its syncopated rhythms and accented accompaniment? It is also something you might
hear being played in a western saloon on the piano?
A. Ragtime
B. Dixieland
C. Swing/Big Band
D. Bebop

5) What is a style of jazz that is typically arranged in sections of woodwinds, brass, and rhythm section? This style is also popular
with Count Basie.
A. Ragtime
B. Dixieland
C. Swing/Big Band
D. Bebop

6) Also known as modern jazz, this style has lots of fast tempos, improvisations, and complex chord progressions.
A. Ragtime
B. Dixieland
C. Swing/Big Band
D. Bebop

7) What famous musician is an African American piano player and Big Band composer?
A. Billie Holiday
B. John Coltrane
C. Duke Ellington
D. Ella Fitzgerald

8) What jazz saxophonist was known for his contributions to bebop?

A. Charlie Parker
B. John Coltrane
C. Sonny Rollins
D. Count Basie
 The pre and post assessment for my jazz history unit consisted of the same 8 questions
related to the jazz era from the 1890’s to the 1940’s. The topics that were introduced include
genres like ragtime, dixieland, swing, and bebop.

Reflections and modifications

As I began teaching the jazz history unit, I became aware that my delivery of the material
to the students had to have some modifications. I presented my first lesson in the form of a
Google Slide, which the students followed along with as I taught. After going through several
classes and playing review games, I noticed that many of the students did not retain the
information. I began to wonder and brainstorm ways in which I could make the lessons more
engaging and fun. I began to add videos and music into the slides and I also created worksheets
for the students to follow along with and fill out to keep them more engaged (view links below)
● https://docs.google.com/document/d/196nOU9XhlT5Ymunt2OiS9d_V-4ab8BQKWmTsGr5I0aU/edit?usp=sharing
● https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n-B8t9WkxU2XOXnvyE2k9D3nGhTlvJ-cw91iHOVm2hM/edit?usp=sharing
These worksheets also, in time, evolved and were modified as I taught as well. I wanted
to provide multiple ways for them to interact so I created both fill in the blank and matching
worksheets. I also created several Kahoot games to help them review the material as we went
through the lessons.
I additionally modified my own teaching depending on the class intellectual capacity. For
some of my special needs students, I went over the material in great emphasis and highlighted
beforehand the important information they needed to find in the google slides. I noticed that with
my sixth graders, they also needed a lot more guidance than the rest. I had to turn to this
approach as well as pointing to the answer for them. I tried my best to not spoon feed them but
there were times I could not tell if they were generally confused or just pushing my buttons, not
wanting to do the work themselves.

Student Learning: The students took the pre assessment before starting each of the three lessons
and after taking the post assessment again, there was great improvement and evidence for
learning.
● Pre-Assessment
○ Mean average score: 3.9/8
○ Median: 4 correct answers
● Post-Assessment
○ Mean average score: 6/8
○ Median: 6 correct answers
○ % of students that improved amongst all grade levels: 76%
 Summary
Overall, the students made good improvement from their pretest to their post test. There
was an overall improvement by 76% of students and most improved their scores by 2 or more
questions. On the chart below, the green shows those that improved, the purple shows those that
stayed the same, and the red indicates students who showed no improvement. The chart to the
right also shows their averages from the pretest. It appears that one of my 7th grade classes did
not do as well as the others. I believe the reason for this was because as we were doing a Kahoot
review game, I failed to tell them to study those specific questions for the test coming next class;
all of my other students were informed of the test. They were also my first group of students that
I gave the lesson to and I had completely been sidetracked from informing them of the test.
The students also gave me a lot of feedback as far as their enjoyment and learning
process. The majority of students said that they really enjoyed learning about jazz and that they
had fun learning it. There were some students who struggled to retain the information so they
thought perhaps there could be a better way to accommodate that, which I thought was very
helpful for future teachings.

Below are some methods of assessment and ongoing instruction. I used these to reflect
and see how I could modify my lessons as we learned. Specifically for one of my worksheets, I
tried to meet the needs of certain individual students by putting the slide number next to the
matches on the left so that they knew to find the answer to that match on the corresponding slide.
 In addition to the worksheets, I played several Kahoot games with the classes to help
them review the material and have fun doing it. There were some pros and cons to this. The pros
being that it was a fun way to review but the cons were that it got the students off track for the
rest of class. They became talkative and misbehaved. One modification I did to fix this however,
was to put the Kahoot game at the end of class. This seemed to help a lot.

Student A (fill in blank) Student B (Matching)

 If I had done this lesson differently, I would have tried to come up with more creative
ways in which to present the material. This would hopefully make the material easier to
remember for them and also a little more enjoyable. I also would have tried to review the
material more often, since many students thought it was quite difficult to remember the
information. Most students found their learning process to be quite enjoyable and thought it was
“good to learn something different than they usually do in band class.” I think overall, this lesson
was very successful and the students had fun learning about jazz and even how it ties into their
other classes.