Lady Sings the Blues
Procedures for teachers is divided into two sections:
Prep -- Preparing for the lesson
Steps -- Conducting the lesson
Extensions
Prep
Media Components:
Music:
"Respect: A Century of Women in Music" (Rhino): This boxed set presents a chronological array of music sung by women throughout the twentieth century in popular and jazz genres: early blues, jazz standards, Country & Western, Motown, rock. Of particular interest to this lesson series are: Ethel Waters, MA Rainey, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, and Janis Joplin. A booklet with pictures and narrative is included.
Films: (optional)
- THE COLOR PURPLE
- LADY SINGS THE BLUES
Web Sites:
Bookmark the following sites:
The Department of History, College of Staten Island/CUNY
http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history
This Web site on Alice Walker's THE COLOR PURPLE is geared toward high
school students and has links to slave narratives, Alice Walker biographies,
African-American women writers.
PBS: JAZZ
http://www.pbs.org/jazz/
This site is an excellent source for jazz greats bios, audio and video clips,
and it has a seperate section on women in jazz. It also has an excellent
resource list for other jazz websites.
BluesNet
http://www.redhotjazz.com/bessie.html
This blues music site includes a great introduction to Bessie Smith including an
interesting bio of the singer's life, times, and lyrics.
Encyclopedia Britannica
http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article?eu=382840&query=blues&ct=
This is a good starting point for further research on the blues. It gives a
general overview of the genre and more specific bios of individual artists.
Spotlight: Biography
HTTP://educate.si.edu/spotlight/blues.html
This Web site gives good background information about blues, with links to
other blues sites.
Reflections of Bessie Smith
http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/386/bsmith.html
A paper from a course on the History of Women in Music out of California State University. Presents nformation on the life and music of Bessie Smith.
The Blue Flame Cafe
http://www.blueflamecafe.com/default.htm
"An interactive biographical encyclopedia of the great blues singers." Has links to pages on Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, and more.
Materials:
- Copies of THE COLOR PURPLE by Alice Walker
- Computer with Internet access
- Tapes or CD's of the music listed above
- Tape or CD player for whole class, group, or individual listening (headphones)
- Films, as above; VCR and monitor (films optional)
Computer Resources:
While many configurations will work, we recommend:
- Modem: 28.8 Kbps or faster
- Browser: Browser: Netscape Navigator 3.0 or above or Internet Explorer 3.0 or above
- Macintosh computer: System 7.0 or above and at least 16 MBs of RAM.
- IBM-compatible computer: 386 or higher processor with at least 16 MBs of RAM,
running Windows 3.1. Or, a 486/66 or Pentium with at least 16 MBs of RAM, running
Windows 95 or 98
For more information, visit
What You Need to Get Connected in wNetSchool's Internet Primer.
Prep for Teachers:
- Read THE COLOR PURPLE and bookmark the segments referring to Shug and the
jazz singer's life.
- Listen to "Respect: A Century of Women's Music" and browse through its
accompanying booklet for background information.
- View the two films above, focusing on the soundtrack and scenes about the jazz life.
Identify clips you might want to show in class.
- Review bookmarked Web sites.
- Print out copies of handouts located in the Organizers for Students section.
Background Information for Teachers:
Alice Walker's THE COLOR PURPLE has many themes. This lesson series will focus
on the character of Shug, a blues singer. Shug's character represents the culture of
women's blues music: her life and her music tell of struggle and triumph. The struggles
include those with abusive men, poverty, racism, and addiction. Triumph is found in the
strong bond shared by women friends, such as the friendship between Shug and Celie in
the novel. THE COLOR PURPLE takes the reader into the cafes and night spots of jazz,
portraying the authentic voices of the women, glamorous and tragic, who sang the blues.
THE COLOR PURPLE presents the English teacher with opportunities to teach the
rhythm and pathos of blues lyrics. Additionally, it gives the social studies teacher
opportunities to teach the relationship between music and culture, and the music teacher
opportunities for integrating the history of American music with both literature and
history.
| NOTE: The success of this lesson series depends on the extent to which students become
familiar with blues music. Don't be surprised if your students are not well acquainted
with this genre. Play music as they enter class, during class, at the close of class. Invite
students to bring in their parents' music, if their parents are blues fans. Play more recent
blues artists, such as Eric Clapton. Make connections between blues music and rap.
Optional Mini-Project: Compare a rap song with a blues song on a common topic.
Consider rhythm, word choice, topic, setting, emotional content, images, use of
repetition. |
Steps
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Learning Activities:
Reading the Novel
Have students read THE COLOR PURPLE. This can be done in approximately one to
two weeks of assigned, at-home reading. Hand out the Chapter Keeper sheets located in
Organizers for Students for students to use while
reading. The following are some suggestions for in-class discussion and examination.
These are recommended for whole class instruction, except where otherwise indicated:
Structure: What is the effect of the violence that is presented on the opening page?
Why would Alice Walker choose to begin her novel this way? What expectations
are established? Consider the epistolary form in terms of the point of view. What
kinds of information can letters to God reveal to the reader? What can it not
reveal?
Jazz Connection: How is a "letter to God" similar to a song lyric? What song
lyrics that you know are "letters to God"? Note: This question may be answered
in groups, rather than as a whole class.
Language: Consider the dialect. What words surprise us? (This would be the time
to address the sexual content and sexual language of the book. Why would Celie
speak with such words, rather than with more formal words?) Consider the
grammar and how it differs from Standard English in terms of word order, verb
tense, agreement.
Jazz Connection: Consider the grammatical style of jazz lyrics. Compare it to
Celie's language. How would the music change if "Ain't Misbehavin'" became
"I'm Not Misbehaving." "Translate" a blues lyric into standard English. What
happens to the rhythm? the imagery? the meaning? the feeling?
Teachable moment: Literature with authentic language gives us the
chance to present the difference between non-standard and "incorrect" English.
How is Celie's language expressive of her character? How would our
understanding of her change if her grammar were standardized? Why isn't it? What
does this tell us about the author's knowledge of standard and dialectical English?
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Characterization: THE COLOR PURPLE is the story of Celie's development of
her sense of self, with the help of Shug as her mentor. Consider what she learns
and how she changes from episode to episode. How is she strengthened,
especially under Shug's guidance?
Jazz Connection: Many blues lyrics have as their theme the assertion of
independence: "Ain't Nobody's Bizness," "God Bless the Child."
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The Character of Shug
Hand out the Characterization sheets located in Organizers for Students. Have students brainstorm the character of Shug, telling everything they know
about her: what she looks like, walks like, speaks like, what she says, her relationships to
other characters, her voice, physical gestures, etc. This activity is best done in small
groups, with each group having a secretary and a reporter. Responses are then collected as
a whole class and listed on the board. This is a good opportunity to explain the literary
technique of characterization: How does the author convey what she wants us to
understand about Shug? (Authors reveal characterization by what the characters
themselves say, by what they do, and by what other characters say about them.)
Students should record the entire list of responses in their literature notebook, for
reference later on when they do their writing task.
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The Blues
Have the class listen to the blues cuts on the "Respect" CD. These include Ethel Waters,
MA Rainey, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and Janis Joplin.
Hand out the Internet Research sheets found in the Organizers for Students [link to
Organizers for Students]. Instruct the students to conduct research for a report on the
Internet. Assign teams of students to the following topics:
Split students into groups and assign topics:
- Blues Basics
- Blues History
- Blues Lyrics
- Blues Structure (rhythm and patterns)
- Blues Language
- Blues Instrumentation
Before students conduct their research, give them the following questions and guidelines
to follow while exploring their topic further:
- What do we mean by blues music?
- What kinds of blues music are there?
- Enjoy the language of the blues: jot down titles of songs, song lyrics, names of famous
- blues venues, names of famous blues singers. Note what makes them interesting to
- you.
- How is blues music connected to racism and poverty?
- How is blues music connected to sexuality and relationships between men and
- women?
Students then share information with the class (informal oral reports by the groups).
Reports should be approximately one page long, and can be in any of the following
formats:
- Informal: One page of written notes summarizing the student's research
- Formal: One well-developed paragraph that answers a particular question formulated by the student(s)
- Oral presentation
| Note: The purpose of this research is
simply for students to get their feet wet in the blues genre. It is likely that they know
nothing about this type of music, and may never even have heard authentic blues before.
What they are doing on the Internet is finding out that there is a world of blues out there,
and that it is a part of American cultural history that connects to the novel that they are
reading in class. Students who are more musically sophisticated may be interested in the
chord structure and instrumentation of the genre.
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Bessie and Billie
Play their music ("Respect" CD) for the class.
Do the Internet research using bookmarked sites to answer the following questions:
- How were the lives of Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday similar to the lives of the women in THE COLOR PURPLE?
- How are the lyrics sung by Smith and Holiday similar to the lives of the women in THE COLOR PURPLE?
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Culminating Activity:
Hand out the Planning the Writing Task sheets located in
Organizers for Students. Instruct the students to write an essay which compares the life and music
of either Bessie Smith or Billie Holiday with the character of Shug in THE COLOR
PURPLE. Your essay should refer to the following:
- Early life
- Career in music
- Relationships: love and friendship
- The Blues: Referring to one or more songs, show how the real blues singer reflects the life of Shug, the fictitious one. Include the full lyric and the source (where you found it)
- For the title of your essay, use a phrase from the song lyrics
- Include a bibliography
Give students the opportunity to re-visit the Internet to continue their research for their essays.
Extensions:
Cross-Curricular Extensions:
Social Studies
The focus of this lesson can be shifted to emphasize music and cultural history in a social studies class. How do blues lyrics portray everyday life for women of the 20's, 30's, and 40's in terms of urban life, rural life, Jim Crow laws, economic privation, and relations between men and women.
Music
In a music class, students can consider the poetic value of the blues rhythm: what is the effect of the call and response structure of a blues lyric? What is the effect of the repetition of the first line? How does the language fit into the music?
Community Connections:
- For Black history or women's history month, students can make a display for the public library which celebrates Ladies of the Blues.
- Many schools have special P.A. announcements along with routine announcements that inform the student body about various special themes. Members of the school's intercultural awareness club can do 30-second spots celebrating Ladies of the Blues. These spots should include both music and bio. Local radio stations may be interested in airing these spots.
