The blues

This week for Black History Month we focused on the time between after the Civil War and before the height of the Civil Rights movement in the mid-20th Century. In researching for this unit, I learned a lot myself that I didn't know very much about, so just in that I felt like this was worthwhile for my own growth and knowledge. We talked to the students about inequality and Rachel read a book called White Socks Only. I made a timeline with a few highlights of Black History so we could try to give the kids some perspective of when these things happened. As we talked about the timeline, we discovered that most of the students in the class were born in 2008, the same year President Obama was elected. Rachel and I had to explain that he was the first black President to ever be elected and that was an important moment in our history. As we taught the lesson I think we both realized that they had never known ANY president other than Barack Obama, and how normal that must seem to them. 

We talked about the blues and how it came about during the time of inequality after the Civil War, approximately around 1900. We also related it to the other songs we learned last week, Follow the Drinking Gourd, and Wade in the Water. We listened to the great BB King sing "Every Day I Got the Blues."

Then we wrote our own blues as a class, based on the the main character from the book White Socks Only. The students had to empathize with her and come up with ideas of why she might feel blue. After walking them through the AAB structure of a blues and finding some rhyming words, we came up with this as a class. (Or at least this is close!)

I am sad. I broke my egg. 
I am sad. I broke my egg.
That slimy egg slid right down my leg. 

Today the students worked on their own blues. Rachel made an awesome worksheet for them to fill out to walk them through the steps of writing a blues. I think we'll be able to perform them next week.