A GREAT NATION DESERVES GREAT ART

Welcome to the world of jazz.

The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to present NEA Jazz in the Schools, a free multimedia curriculum that explores jazz as an indigenous American art form and a means to understand American history. The curriculum is produced by the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center and is supported by a grant from the Verizon Foundation.

An exceptional resource for high school teachers of history, social studies, and music, NEA Jazz in the Schools introduces students to all periods and styles of jazz -- and to the musicians (Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and many others, including NEA Jazz Masters) who have made a mark on the music and on American culture at large.

NEA Jazz in the Schools meets national curriculum standards in five subject areas: U.S. history, social studies, arts education/music, civics and government, and geography. Students will learn how jazz serves as both a cultural mirror of American society and a critical influence upon American history. They will experience American history through jazz.

The curriculum features a teacher guide with five flexible units that include suggested steps for teaching each lesson, cross-curricular activities, biographies of major artists, discussion questions, student activities, and assessment methods. Each unit also contains an introductory video and photo slide show for each lesson, and nearly 100 audio clips that cover the breadth of jazz. A color-coded timeline integrates milestones in jazz with other cultural, technological, historical, and geographic events, giving students a visual sense of how these important themes integrate with one another.

In addition to the online curriculum at www.neajazzintheschools.org, qualified instructors can order a toolkit that has a DVD of the introductory videos for each of the five lessons, a two CD set of all the audio clips, the timeline as a poster, and a bound copy of the teacher guide.

What happens in your classroom is just as important as what happens on the stage. At the NEA, we strive to provide dedicated teachers like you with the best tools possible to create a transformative learning experience.

Visit www.neajazzintheschools.org to find the online version of the curriculum, more information about the NEA Jazz in the Schools program, and our partners.

We guarantee that your email address will not leave our system nor will it be used for any other purpose. The only exception is the occasion when the National Endowment for the Arts, creators of NEA Jazz in the Schools, would be interested in contacting teachers who have used the curriculum for the purposes of program enhancement. Should that occasion arise, VPW will email you in advance of the NEA, notifying you of the agency's interest. Although the NEA would be deeply grateful for your response, the agency also understands that teachers are not obligated to respond to their query.