This site is designed for use by teachers of Social Studies, Music, and Language Arts from elementary school through senior high school. At the heart of Teaching American History through the Arts is a vast array of songs that may be listened to, read, examined, and sung to enhance students' understanding of and interest in American History.
Finding Songs
The songs are organized according to their relevance to the M-DCPS adopted American History textbooks for grades 5, 8, and 11. Click on the Textbooks link on the left menu and choose the appropriate textbook for your class. You will find the Table of Contents from the book with links to a page for each chapter. These pages include the lessons from the book, as well as sub-headings in the chapter. If there is a song available at this site that will enhance a particular lesson, you will find a link for it. Available for each song are an audio recording (mp3 format), historical notes, lyrics, and lesson ideas. Visit How to Use the Songs for general suggestions on using these songs in your classroom.
If the textbook you use in your classroom is not listed at this site, select the one closest to your grade level. Generally, the headings and topics are similar from book to book, and you should be able to find an appropriate song.
Alternately, you may click on The Songs link on the left menu and choose from an alphabetical list of songs.
Audio Recordings
The songs are recorded in mp3 format and are available throught the M-DCPS Podcast Network. It is quite likely that you can listen to the songs online or download them to your computer and play them without installing any additional software. To test your computer, left click the following link to listen from the server or right click to download the mp3 to your computer: The Lovely Ohio.
M-DCPS recommends that you subscribe to the Teaching American History through the Arts Podcast, which requires that you have iTunes on your computer. By subscibing to the Podcast, iTunes will automatically check for new songs and download them to your computer. Visit the M-DCPS Podcast Network for more information and help.
