Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra feature stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write a 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: Musical Future of New Orleans Uncertain, 12/19/05
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec05/nolamusic_12-19.html

Initiating Questions:

1. What is jazz?

2. How did jazz develop in the United States?

3. What comes to mind when you think about New Orleans?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. Why is it hard for Michael White to return to New Orleans?

As Michael White returned to New Orleans to see what remained of his home, the jazz musician had to wear a mask because of the mold that grew after Hurricane Katrina flooded the city.

In his piano room, he had stored records, photos, sheet music and a vintage collection of clarinets -- effectively, a museum of New Orleans music -- now destroyed by water.

But like many other New Orleans musicians, White has moved away from the region that helped build and feed his love of music.

2. How did the history of New Orleans influence American music?

Founded by French colonialists, early New Orleans brought together many ethnic and cultural groups. Slaves from Africa and the Caribbean brought aspects of their cultures to New Orleans, while the French, and later Spanish, influences added to the city's diversity.

Later, when the United States bought Louisiana in 1803, many American blacks streamed into New Orleans, adding to the city's already eclectic mix of cultures.

As early as the 18th century, African drum and dance performances occurred each Sunday near a downtown market known as Congo Square.

Brass bands, all the rage in America by the 1890s, were spiced up in New Orleans, and soon ragtime piano and improvised, upbeat brass bands became popular.

In the early 20th century, New Orleans birthed such musical innovators as Jelly Roll Morton, the Creole Orchestra and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. King Oliver and his protégé Louis Armstrong brought a significant influence to the music scene.

3. What is the "second line"?

But perhaps no event better typifies the passion and emotion of New Orleans music than the traditional jazz funeral.

In the early 1900s, organizations called mutual aid and benevolent societies were common among many ethnic groups in urban areas. Many of these organizations had a uniquely expressive approach to funerals.

On the way from the church to the cemetery, a marching band played dirges and hymns, but after the burial service, a raucous dancing celebration ensued, and the brass band let loose. Usually a "second line" procession followed with exuberant dancing.

These spiritual transformations from death to rebirth personified the determined, hopeful spirit of New Orleans and its music.

Before the storm, music pervaded life in New Orleans. At any dance, parade, fish fry or church festival, you could count on the presence of a standard New Orleans jazz band -- a cornet, clarinet and trombone.

4. Who is Bill Taylor and what does he want to do?

Bill Taylor, who heads the Tipitina's Foundation, which offers aid to musicians displaced by Katrina, says it's hard to convince people to come back.

"What can we do to help give you some hope right now?" he said. "If we don't stand up and say, 'we're here, we're not going anywhere, then who would."

5. Who is Ray Nagin and what does he say about how New Orleans has changed since Hurricane Katrina?

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin also wants the musicians back.

"We have transitioned from the rhythm and sounds of New Orleans being military helicopters, and, you know, Humvee vehicles, to now. The music is back. And when the music is back, New Orleans is alive," he said at a scaled-down version of the city's annual Voodoo Festival, a mix of rock and traditional New Orleans music.

6. What is Habitat for Humanity and how does it plan to help homeless musicians?

Meanwhile, singer Harry Connick Jr. and saxophone player Branford Marsalis are working with Habitat for Humanity, an organization dedicated to building houses for low-income families, to create a "village" for New Orleans musicians who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina.

The New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity says it hasn't decided on a location yet, but $2 million dollars has been raised.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. What do you think New Orleans will be like 10 years from now? Will everyone who left come back?

2. Does a city need to be famous for something to attract residents or visitors? What is the connection between life in a city and the way a city is marketed to tourists?

3. What are the cities near you famous for?

Write a 300-500 word essay on any of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra (extra@newshour.org). Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.