Jazz ABZ by Wynton Marsalls, illustrated by Paul Rogers is a book that goes through the alphabet with jazz performers. Each page is a poem that describes who the musician was and the kind of stylistic choices they are known for. The text is even written in the kind of form that the musician's music usually follows, like with Count Bassie, they had it in AAB CCD EEF ect. It's really cool. I think the reading level is probably more for late middle school or early high school because some of the vocabulary is more advanced musical terms which the students would need prior knowledge of. There are also mentions of the civil rights movement, so the kids would need prior knowledge of that too. One thing you could do with this book is have students choose one musician out of the book to do further research on and explain to the class or write a paper or do a poster presentation on what some of the references in the poem meant, that way it could further the rest of the class's understanding on the references mean.
No comments:
Post a Comment