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  • Michelle Bowzer May 28, 2014 at 3:24pm

    The "March through Georgia" would be an interesting for my students to do and a neat connection to music and the social studies curriculum.  

    I could see myself using two versions of the same song (one from the north and one the south).  I think that students could get a lot out of looking at the messages being presented in both.  

    I'm not sure that I would use the Cakewalk with my students but I did like some of the applications that were suggested to make it less mockery of a specific group of people.  I will have to think about how I could incorporate this in an mindful way.  I think it would also depend on my class community.

    I think that the spirituals would be a great way to help students to understand this important part of the a slave experience.  I also think that it would be a nice way to tie in the underground railroad.   

  • Susan Joling May 28, 2014 at 3:23pm

    My teaching partners and I are starting off with Mini Society next year. We will be connecting things like our Constitution with writing a class constitution. I will definitely kick off the currency piece having students analyze money from Revolutionary times. I think it will add depth to student understanding of colonization as well as to the idea of exchanging currency.

    I will absolutely teach the Liberty and Jefferson reel for the Revolutionary Era and Marching Through Georgia for the Civil War. Marching Through Georgia refers to how Union General Sherman marched his troops  through Georgia to sack the port of Savannah in 1864.

    I was fascinated by the whole cakewalk dance thing.The cakewalk dance was done by blacks to exaggerate movements of slave owners to make fun of them. One slave said what they were actually doing was "aping their betters." Plantation owners would invite cakewalkers to their balls because they thought they were trying to emulate their "betters." The best dancers would win an elaborately decorated cake. The suggestion is to teach the historical aspect as just stated and then have students practice the exaggerated walk using characters in the current read aloud or literature group reads. Another suggestion is to use the idea of exaggerated movements with vocabulary words.

    I am glad to know about the NARA website and the sound recording analysis worksheet. I will definitely use the two different versions of Battle Cry of Freedom.



  • Jake Peterson May 28, 2014 at 1:52pm
    I really enjoyed the dances they were both whole group and partnerized at the same time. There were engaging and could be fun for all ages.
    The proprganda that was distributed in many aspects was quite disturbing, especially the slavery ads. The words used in the ads I found were very offensive and should have not been allowed.
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