MEET FLORENCE PRICE, MUSICAL PIONEER
A Virtual Learning unit with pianist Lara Downes
This virtual learning unit for grades 3-9 introduces students to the groundbreaking life and work of composer Florence Price, who made history in 1933 as the first Black woman ever to have her music performed by a major American symphony orchestra.
Lara Downes is the world’s leading interpreter of Price’s piano music, and has recently released the world premiere recordings of Price’s piano works, which had been lost for decades before the chance discovery of her manuscripts in an abandoned house in St. Anne, IL in 2009.
This multimedia module teaches concepts including segregation and civil rights, The Great Migration, the Chicago Black Renaissance, Women's Rights, and other historical strands, while introducing students to the work of leading Black visual artists Henry Ossawa Tanner, Jacob Lawrence, and Charles White. The video includes discussion prompts, activities and reflections, and supplementary materials offer suggested assignments for teachers to build outwards from this experience. The unit addresses multiple ELA Common Core Standards for grades 3-9.
This project was made possible by the support of the Sphinx MPower Artist Grant.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3-5.1.C Ask questions to check understanding of information presented, stay on topic, and link their comments to the remarks of others.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3-5.1.D Explain their own ideas and understanding in light of the discussion.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3-5.2 Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3-5.3 Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3-5.4 Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4.2 Paraphrase portions of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4-5.3 Identify the reasons and evidence a speaker provides to support particular points.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.5.4 Report on a topic or text or present an opinion, sequencing ideas logically and using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.7 Conduct short research projects that use several sources to build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.8 Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; summarize or paraphrase information in notes and finished work, and provide a list of sources.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.6-8.1 Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9.1 Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content.