Classroom Activities
It's a Long Way from Home
In It's a Long Way from Home, Louis, a recent migrant from Mississippi, explores Chicago's famous 1920s South Side jazz scene, the Stroll. Through integrated history and language arts lessons, this unit builds reading, writing, research, presentation, and group-discussion skills while teaching students about the Great Migration and Chicago's vital role in the history of jazz music.
Lesson 1: Reader's Theater
Through a reader’s theater performance of It's a Long Way from
Home, students will make personal connections with history and
gain an understanding of what life was like for teenagers on Chicago’s
South Side during the Jazz Age.
Lesson 2: Migration Stories
Students will learn about the Great Migration and make connections
to their own family’s migration experiences through an oral-history
project.
Lesson 3: All That Jazz
Students will learn about Chicago's role in the development of jazz
and the primary sources that inspired It's a Long Way from Home by
exploring the interactive history map.
Lesson 4: Historical Heads
This lesson uses the "historical head" conceptual framework
derived from the work of James Percoco to explore the thoughts and
feelings of the characters in It's a Long Way from Home.
Lesson 5: Conversation in the Round
Through group discussion, students will be challenged to compare the
history of jazz and Chicago's black-and-tan nightclubs to today's music
and culture. They will formulate and support their own opinions, both
verbally and in writing.