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In Tune, In Texas		 IT,IT Civil War and Reconstruction
Oh! Susannah | Stayed on Freedom

Lesson Links

 

 

 Celebrating Texas Chapters 14-15
This unit will address the key events/issues that led to Texas' seceding from the Union, the different perspectives about joining the Confederacy and the conditions for Texans on the home front. A look at reconstruction and the social, political and economic conditions facing Texans after the Civil War are also included. (Community of Learners, CFB-ISD)

Lesson: Struggles of Slavery (Celebrating Texas: Chapter 14)
Song: Oh! Susannah (Stephen C. Foster)
Artist: Ruthie Foster
CD Title: The History of Texas Music Unplugged 2004

TEKS

Social Studies
(7.5). History. The student understands how events and issues shaped the history of Texas during the Civil War and Reconstruction.
(B). analyze the political, economic, and social effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction in Texas.
Language Arts
(7.12). Reading/text structures/literary concepts. The student analyzes the characteristics of various types of texts (genres).
(F). analyze characters, including their traits, motivations, conflicts, points of view, relationships, and changes they undergo (4-8);
(7.15). Writing/purposes. The student writes for a variety of audiences and purposes and in a variety of forms.
(C.) write to inform such as to explain, describe, report, and narrate (4-8);

Materials:

  • Oh! Susannah song and lyrics
  • Oh! Susannah Lyric Analysis (see downloads below)

Procedures:

  1. Review Celebrating Texas pages 296-297 and discuss the nature of slavery in the USA during the mid 19th century.
  2. Listen to Ruthie Foster's version of Oh! Susannah. Explain the Ruthie Foster is a native Texan.
  3. Discuss the mood of the song.
  4. Allow partners to work together to read the lyrics and respond to the lyric analysis sheet.
  5. Assign individual students to write poems or song lyrics celebrating the singer finding Susanna or poems depicting other problems faced by Americans and Texans during the mid 19th century.

Downloads

Oh! Susannah Lyric Analysis (Word)

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Lesson: Slave Spirituals
Song: Stayed on Freedom (or Woke Up This Morning)
Artist: Ruthie Foster
CD Title: The History of Texas Music Unplugged 2004

TEKS

Social Studies
(7.5). History. The student understands how events and issues shaped the history of Texas during the Civil War and Reconstruction.
(B). analyze the political, economic, and social effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction in Texas.
Language Arts
(7.8) Reading/variety of texts.
(B) select varied sources such as plays, anthologies, novels, textbooks, poetry, newspapers, manuals, and electronic texts when reading for information or pleasure
(7.9) Reading/vocabulary development.
(B) draw on experiences to bring meanings to words in context such as interpreting figurative language idioms, multiple-meaning words, and analogies (6-8);

Materials:

  • Woke Up This Morning song and lyrics
  • Slave Spiritual Worksheet
  • This Train and Woke Up This Morning Analysis
  • Explanations of 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution

Procedures:

  1. Review the purpose of "black codes."
  2. Read and discuss the 13, 14th and 15th Amendments and how they relate to the "black codes."
  3. Listen to Woke Up This Morning.
  4. Allow students to work to complete This Train and Woke Up This Morning Analysis.
  5. Work to complete a Slave Spiritual Worksheet for each song.

Extension: Write an original composition that expresses a hidden meaning.

Downloads:

Slave Spiritual Worksheet (Word)
This Train and Woke Up This Morning Analysis (Word)
13th, 14th and 15th Amendments (Word)

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