Lesson Plan 2: "We'd Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover"
Overview
Since the advent of book musicals such as "Show Boat" and "Oklahoma!", many Broadway shows have touched upon relevant social and historical issues. In this lesson, students will investigate how Broadway musicals can reflect the times in which they were created, as well as how musicals bring historical figures, periods, and episodes to the stage. Students will examine video clips and Web sites related to relevant productions, study song lyrics, and compare and contrast actual history with Broadway history. By becoming "historical detectives," they will determine how accurately Broadway portrays different historical figures, time periods, or incidents. As a culminating activity, students will compose and perform a sample song based on a contemporary or historical person or incident, utilizing their research and understanding from the lesson.
This lesson can be used as a pre- or postviewing activity for the PBS series BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL, or as an independent lesson for the social studies or theater classroom. A basic knowledge of the conventions of musical theater (or movie musicals) and 20th-century American history is required.
Time Allotment: Three or four 45-minute class periods (the Culminating Activity will involve additional class and/or homework time).
Grade Level: 9-11
Subject Matter: Social studies/history, theater
Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to:
- Describe how some Broadway musicals reflect the times in which they were created;
- Describe how some Broadway musicals use historical figures, events, and time periods as their source material;
- Compare and contrast American history to the Broadway musicals and songs based on that history;
- Create lyrics for a new song based on a contemporary or historical figure, issue, or time period;
- Present and/or perform their original songs to the rest of the class.
From the National Standards for History, available online at http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs/standards.
Historical Thinking Standard 2: The student thinks chronologically; therefore, the student is able to draw upon visual, literary, and musical sources, including: a) photographs, paintings, cartoons, and drawings; b) novels, poetry, and plays; and c) folk, popular, and classical music, to clarify, illustrate, or elaborate upon information presented in the historical narrative.
Historical Thinking Standard 4: The student conducts historical research; therefore, the student obtains historical data from a variety of sources, including: library and museum collections, historic sites, historic photos, journals, diaries, eyewitness accounts, newspapers, and the like; documentary films, oral testimony from living witnesses, censuses, tax records, city directories, statistical compilations, and economic indicators.
From the National Standards for Theater Education for Grades 9-12, available online at http://www.byu.edu/tma/arts-ed/.
Content Standard 5: Researching by evaluating and synthesizing cultural and historical information to support artistic choices.
Content Standard 7: Analyzing, critiquing, and constructing meanings from informal and formal theater, film, television, and electronic media productions.
Content Standard 8: Understanding context by analyzing the role of theater, film, television, and electronic media in the past and the present.
Materials:
Media Components
Video:
BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL: Episode 3: I Got Plenty O' Nuttin' (1929-1942) and Episode 5: Tradition (1957-1979)
For the class:
Computers with Internet access and sound
TV
VCR
Chalkboard or whiteboard
For each student:
Mystery Song Detective's Information Sheet
Prep for Teachers:
Prior to teaching this lesson, bookmark the Web sites used in it on each computer in your classroom, or upload all links to an online bookmarking utility such as Portaportal. Download the Windows Media plug-in to each computer in your classroom. Preview all of the Web sites and video clips used in the lesson to make certain that they are appropriate for your students. CUE the tape of BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL: Episode 3: I Got Plenty O' Nuttin' to where you see black-and-white footage of a man wearing a sandwich board that reads, "Unemployed, will take any work," and you hear a piano playing. Cue the tape of BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL: Episode 5: Tradition to where you see the words "Let the Sunshine In" onscreen and you hear the opening strains of "The Age of Aquarius." Make a copy of the Mystery Song Detective's Information Sheet for each student in your classroom.
When using media, provide students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, a specific task to complete and/or information to identify during or after viewing of video segments, Web sites, or other multimedia elements.
About the Author:
Christopher W. Czajka is an educational consultant for BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL Online. He was the educational consultant for the hands-on history series COLONIAL HOUSE, as well as an educational consultant and historical consultant for FRONTIER HOUSE. Prior to his work in public television, he worked in Broadway theater on the renovated 42nd Street. He is also the associate director of the National Teacher Training Institute (NTTI), an initiative that teaches educators across the country strategies for integrating public television programming into their curricula. To learn more about using media in your classroom, visit the National Teacher Training Institute online at http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/ntti.
© 2004 Educational Broadcasting Corporation. All Rights Reserved.