Listen to Learn: Using American Music to Teach Language Arts and Social Studies (Grades 5-8)

Listen to Learn, with its companion music CD, offers teachers a dynamic way to use the history of American music to engage their students (grades 5-8) in reading, writing, social studies, geography, music, and multicultural lessons and activities. The book traces the colorful musical traditions of diverse cultures including early Native music, folk, blues, classical, jazz, country, Tejano, salsa, rock, and rap. The CD features authentic music from such American musical greats as Louis Armstrong, Woody Guthrie, Mahalia Jackson, Lead Belly, Lydia Mendoza, and many more. Listen to Learn features a variety of fascinating activities that encourage students to write about their favorite music, investigate songs as poetry, research the lives of famous musicians, explore family musical traditions, research how instruments make sounds, plot record charts, and much more. Designed in a handy, lay-flat format for easy reproduction, Listen to Learn is divided into four major sections.

Teri Tibbett is a teacher and musician living in Juneau, Alaska. Since 1976, she has taught music at all grade levels, both as an itinerant music teacher and through her own school, The Juneau School of Creative Arts.