Students get a swinging lesson in history

Students at Forest Road Elementary School were treated to their third visit from a local jazz quartet that uses the genre’s rhythms and melodies to teach children about math, history, art and music as District 30’s Arts in Education program wrapped up on May 11.

“This was the first year of the program, and I have to be honest, it’s going to be a tough one to top,” said Erin Malone, principal of Forest Road. “This year the introduction of jazz into our curriculum has worked really well.”

The program was designed to strengthen connections between the themes and skills students learn in their art and music classes with those that are taught in their classroom.

“What we really did was co-curriculum work,” Malone said. “We worked with the elements of the genre as kind of a guideline for the programs content. We examined the history of the period, and looked at what effects music had on the world it was in, and what effects the world and time had on the music. This way, students can really see how music is a product of the era it is created in, and we can learn a lot from that time period by looking at its music.”

Concepts from jazz music were used in many areas of classroom instruction, Malone said. Rhythms and counting were used to reinforce math skills, for example, and students examined the historical factors that surrounded the Harlem Renaissance.

Jazz also found its way into the music and art classrooms. In music classes, students studied the musical elements of the genre, and in art class, children worked on projects that depicted the scenes found in songs, or the artists themselves. The district’s librarians scoured biographies of the genre’s greats, and used those stories to teach students about the men and women that made an impact on the genre.

“There are so many different concepts from the genre that are really useful in the classroom,” Malone said. “We teach the children about the spontaneity and the improvisation in jazz, skills they can use to think creatively and outside of the box. We also used jazz to teach them the concept of teamwork. The musicians have to communicate with each other on stage, often without speaking, so it can be a great tool to teach communication and how to work as part of a group.”

Four members of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra visited Forest Road, Clear Stream Avenue Elementary School and Shaw Avenue Elementary School three times this year. Each time, the quartet used jazz standards and solos to teach students about a different piece of the genre’s historical significance.

The first series of performances, held in October and November, taught about the importance of jazz and democracy, and how the genre was used to impact the politics of the day. The quartet then returned in January and February to show students the impact the music had on the civil rights era, explaining to students how the music was used to inspire and tell the story of those fighting for equality. The final assembly, held this month throughout the district, showed students the effect jazz had on the Harlem Renaissance.

“This music was very important to the people of that time,” said Jake Goldbas, the group’s drummer and the emcee of the performance. “Different rhythms and melodies were used to express all kinds of different emotions and feelings, from sadness to celebration, often all in the same song.”