Enduring Understanding 2: The arts reflect and document cultural trends and historical events, and help explain how new directions in the arts have emerged.

Zora Neale Hurston is most often remembered as a gifted novelist with a knack for capturing the essence of the lives of rural Southerners, especially in Florida. She was also, however, a folklorist who helped the Federal Writers’ Project document the lives and traditions of African-Americans during the Great Depression. Hurston’s work has been instrumental in writing the history of African-American individuals and communities. In this lesson students will listen to a track lining song that was collected by Zora Neale Hurston to write brief journal responses to the audio recording.

Type: Lesson Plan

American shape note singing is a tradition that goes back to the New England singing schools of the 18th century. It is an easy method for learning written music and was intended to replace lining out - the call and response form of singing in which a leader chants each line of a hymn to the congregation before it sings them.

In this lesson students will listen to and analyze a recording of "Florida Storm," a shape note song from The Colored Sacred Harp to discuss the meaning of the song.

Type: Lesson Plan