El... Posted August 3, 2023 Share Posted August 3, 2023 Last year we did a home-made course on American Music History, simultaneously with American history and American literature. I built it around this book, plus YouTube videos and documentaries: Songs of America: Patriotism, Protest, and the Music That Made a Nation https://a.co/d/1hMf86f I mention it because of the thread on that controversial song, "In a Small Town." It was a pleasure to be able to hear DD15 put that contemporary song in a historical context and analyze it. Shades of "Okie from Muskogee," no? DD read the book a chapter at a time, loosely aligned to her American history texts, and watched/listened to all the songs the text mentioned on YouTube. At the end, she chose three songs to learn on her guitar, wrote a short history talk on each one, made a slide show, and performed them for a small audience of relatives. The book includes a few songs that raise hackles, but I think they were important to discuss. The overall tone of the book was positive and hopeful about US culture, not jaded, complacent or triumphant. If anybody wants my resource lists, I will share. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbutton Posted August 4, 2023 Share Posted August 4, 2023 My son loved that book. I'm glad you were able to make a course out of it and have such good discussions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebot Posted August 4, 2023 Share Posted August 4, 2023 @El... I would love your resource list. We are doing US History and lit this year and I think my son would love this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El... Posted August 4, 2023 Author Share Posted August 4, 2023 28 minutes ago, rebot said: @El... I would love your resource list. We are doing US History and lit this year and I think my son would love this. I'll get it posted tonight. Gotta cut and paste some. 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Keeper Posted August 4, 2023 Share Posted August 4, 2023 Looking forward to that list! Your course sounds wonderful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El... Posted August 4, 2023 Author Share Posted August 4, 2023 Ok! Here's a link to the youtube list I made. Obviously some videos have or will have come down over time, so it's not complete anymore. Be aware: if you go looking for a few of these songs on the internet, i.e. Dixie, you can find some weird stuff really quickly. And, here's a PDF of the course description I wrote for myself. It has a complete song list, in case youtube dumps a lot of my choices. It has the documentaries listed, too. The kid was learning acoustic guitar and was able to play and sing. Also, please be advised that not all of these songs and documentaries would be appropriate for every kid. Mine watched the music video "F*** the Police" and discussed it with me. Your mileage may vary. 😛 Can you tell I overthought this? American Music History.pdf 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted August 4, 2023 Share Posted August 4, 2023 That looks wonderful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebot Posted August 5, 2023 Share Posted August 5, 2023 This looks amazing. Thank you. I asked my son if he would be interested in this as a class and he is more excited for this than he is for any of his other classes. I'm going to order the book tonight so I can try to get the chapters lined up with the history book we are using. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El... Posted August 5, 2023 Author Share Posted August 5, 2023 Aw, wonderful! I hope he enjoys it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nursekersh Posted September 30, 2023 Share Posted September 30, 2023 Yes!!! I bought this book for my dad but just sat down to look at it and immediately I thought, “I’ve got to teach this as a homeschool history class!” Googled it and found this!! I’m all about not recreating the wheel! Would love anything you’ve put together! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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