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Stephen Foster and the Election of 1856. 
Equipment & Supplies
  • Supplies and Equipment:
  • Computer with internet connection and speakers
  • Projector to show images (alternative: paper copy or transparency of images)
  • Dictionaries (one for each pair of students)
  • Map of the United States
  • Rhyming dictionaries (one for each pair of students)
Procedures

Steps:
 
 DAY 1
 
  1. Write "Stephen Foster, 1826-1864" on the board and project -- see image:  Stephen Collins Foster, late 1850s.   Tell students that for the next two classes they will be learning about this important Pennsylvanian. Ask students what they may already know about Foster. Discuss how he wrote many popular songs that are still widely known today. Students may be familiar with "Camptown Races," "Oh! Susanna," "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair," "My Old Kentucky Home" or "Old Folks at Home."
 
  1. Play the audio file of  "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair," by Stephen Foster, 1854.  Discuss how this recording was made recently and is just one version of the song. Stephen Foster wrote songs in a time before radio or recording devices were invented, but we know how the tunes sounded because of the sheet music that survives.

  1. Preview the following vocabulary words. Write them on the board and briefly discuss their meanings.
 
  •  composer: a person who writes music
  •  professional: doing a job that requires special skills and earning a living by it
  •  abolition: making slavery illegal
  •  secede: to withdraw, specifically what states in the South did prior to the Civil War
  •  Democrats/Republicans: two political parties in the United States (There is no need to describe specifics of their platforms or positions; students simply need to recognize these words as labels of political parties.)  
 
  1. Group students into pairs. Distribute  Student Handout 1-Stephen Foster Biography  and  Student Worksheet 1-Timeline  Tell students that they will read the biography with their partner to learn facts about Stephen Foster’s life. Before reading, students should look at Student Worksheet 1-Timeline Tell students that after reading the handout they will work with their partner to complete the timeline (blank white boxes only) with important events from both Stephen Foster’s life and United States history. They should preview the worksheet to see what dates they should pay attention to while reading.
 
  1. Direct students to read  Student Handout 1-Stephen Foster Biography  and complete  Student Worksheet 1-Timeline  When everyone finishes, discuss the answers to  Student Worksheet 1  together. Refer to  Teacher’s Guide to Student Worksheet 1-Timeline  for possible answers. Correct any misunderstandings students may have.
 
  1. Distribute  Student Worksheet 2-Foster’s Songwriting  Have students work again in pairs, using  Student Handout 1-Stephen Foster Biography and  Student Worksheet 1-Timeline  to answer the questions. When they finish, discuss their answers. Refer to  Teacher’s Guide to Student Worksheet 2-Foster’s Songwriting  for answers to the multiple choice questions and possible student explanations. Alternatively, this worksheet could be assigned as homework.
 
 DAY 2
 
  1. Review what students learned about Stephen Foster from the previous lesson. Write facts on the board as students volunteer them.
 
  1. Tell students that today’s lesson will focus on Stephen Foster’s involvement with the election of 1856. Project painting of Stephen Foster painted the same year, See the image ofStephen Collins Foster, by Thomas Hicks, 1856 . If not already discussed at the start of the lesson, review facts about the presidential election and Foster’s involvement in it:
 
  •  Republicans wanted to end slavery.
  •  Democrats wanted to let the legality of slavery up to each state
  •  If a Republican won the presidency, the South threatened to secede
  •  James Buchanan was the Democratic candidate. (At this time, display  the image of James Buchanan, portrait by George Peter Alexander Healy, 1859
  •  Stephen Foster was a Democrat, like his father
  •  Stephen Foster’s sister was married to Buchanan’s brother
 
Elementary students may oversimplify the political parties’ positions on slavery. Students may suggest that since Republicans wanted to end slavery, Democrats were in favor of it. Make it clear that Democrats held a more nuanced view of slavery. They wanted to let its legality up to each state. Buchanan did not want to expand slavery to northern states that had already outlawed it, but he was in favor of letting new states and territories decide if they were slave or free.
 
  1. Group students into pairs. Distribute Student Handout 2- "The White House Chair " and  Student Worksheet 3-Understanding the Lyrics. Play the audio of the "The White House Chair""The White House Chair," by Stephen Foster Instruct students to follow along with the words as it is sung. Have students complete the worksheet using dictionaries and the United States map when appropriate.
 
  1. After students finish, discuss their answers to the questions and the conclusions they drew about the song’s connection to the election of 1856. Refer to   Teacher’s Guide to Student Worksheet 3-Understanding the Lyrics for possible answers.
 
 DAY 3
 

  1. Tell students that today’s activity will require them to use knowledge they learned from the previous lessons. Ask students to name facts about Stephen Foster and the election of 1856. As students share, write them on the board. Students may refer to the handouts to help them remember details.
 
  1. Group students into pairs. Distribute rhyming dictionaries and copies of  Student Worksheet 4-Compose a Ballad.  Write the word "ballad" on the board along with this definition: "a song with lyrics that tell a story; it usually has stanzas of four lines with a rhyme on the second and fourth lines." Have students copy this onto their worksheets. Tell students that Stephen Foster often wrote songs in this music form. Discuss examples from Foster’s work, such as "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" or "Oh! Susanna."
 
  1. Tell students that in this lesson, they will write a simple ballad about Stephen Foster’s life. Using the familiar tune of "Yankee Doodle," model how students might set facts about Foster to music:
 
Stephen Foster was a man
Who knew how to write songs well,
He was a professional
since he composed songs to sell.
           
As a class, read the lyrics aloud. Then try to sing it together a few times until the novel lyrics fit the familiar tune.
 
  1. Tell students that they should work with their partner and compose lyrics to a familiar tune. Encourage them to use Foster’s own songs (if students are sufficiently familiar with them) such as "Camptown Races"  "My Old Kentucky Home," by Stephen Foster and/or "Oh! Susanna." by Stephen Foster. For biographical information and facts about the election of 1856, students should refer to facts written on the board and their handouts. If students need help finding rhyming words for their stanzas, they should use the rhyming dictionaries.
 
  1. After students have worked for about 10-15 minutes, have students perform their songs for each other. Encourage the audience to be good listeners. What facts about Foster and/or the election of 1856 can the audience identify?
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