Voices Across Time: Teaching American History Through Song

FAIN: ES-50447-12

University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA 15260-6133)
Deane L. Root (Project Director: March 2012 to November 2014)

A five-week institute for twenty-five school teachers linking American popular songs to significant periods and events in American history.

"Voices Across Time: Teaching American History Through Song" is a five-week summer institute for 25 school teachers to explore topics in American history through the lens of iconic songs. Participants will utilize popular songs as primary source documents to enrich discussions of American history, while field trips and authentic performances will offer a uniquely engaging evocation of an historical context. Aided by the perspectives of historians, musicologists, and teaching performers, participants will develop innovative strategies to integrate music into their teaching of American social studies and language arts. This proposal is for a fifth Institute; previous Institutes were held in 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2011.