Title: Duke Ellington</I>

Author:  Andrea Davis Pinkney

Illustrator:  Brian Pinkney

Date of Publication:  1998

Number of Pages: 30

Genre:  Information Books (Nonfiction)

Recommended Grade Level: 4

Estimated time for read aloud + activity: 1 Hour

Students will explore language in slang forms by writing sentences using slang words from different eras.  They will also answer questions related to the story.

Strand 1: Reading Process

Concept 1: Elements of Literature: Identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the structures and elements of literature.

PO 7:  Identify the intended effect of the techniques (e.g., appeal of characters, believability of characters and plot, use of figurative language) that the author uses to influence readers’ feelings and attitudes.

• Duke Ellington
• Duke Ellington music
• Lists from 1920’s jazz era and modern slang.
• Paper and pencils

• What do you know about Jazz music?  (Prior knowledge)
• Does anyone play an instrument?  (Referencing interests)

• What are ‘pearlies’ and ‘Ivory eighty- eights’?  (Comprehension)
• Why do you think they called him ‘Piano Prince’?  Do we know of any other musicians with royal titles?  (Analysis)
• Can different types of music make you feel different things?  Like what?  (Analysis)
• Many of the musicians have nick names.  If you had a nick name, what would it be? Why?  (Synthesis)

• Why do you think the author uses colors to describe the music? ‘Red hot blips, smooth melodic gold, butterscotch tones, silver notes.  (Analysis)
• Based on this story, how do you think other African American musicians felt about his success?  What about white musicians?  (Evaluation)
• Why do you suppose Duke wanted to celebrate African-American history with a song?  Why didn’t he just have a party?  (Evaluation)
• According to this story, how do we know that Duke’s music was appreciated by African American people?  (Comprehension)
• The slang used in this book is unique to the 1920’s, do we have slang words today?  How are they similar? Different?  (Analysis)
• The author uses a lot of color to describe the music, how would you describe the music you listen to?  (Analysis)

One of my favorite parts to this lesson was playing Ellington’s music and asking the students how it made them feel.  They described the music just as Duke Ellington intended.  The students said it was fun, it made them happy and they could really dance to it.  The students also enjoyed the slang words I compiled for them from the 1920’s jazz era and the modern slang.

My activity was fun and I learned that sometimes you have to give the students a prompt.  They need to know what you are looking for.  Asking them to mix slang from different eras was too overwhelming for the group of special education students I was working with.  Once I gave them an example, they were off and running.  The students loved using the word Bling-Bling with the phrase The Cat’s Meow. 

In the future, I will turn the writing assignment into one where they write about the music they love.  I will ask them to use the colorful words and descriptive phrases to help us understand how the music affects them.  I think this would be a more personal writing assignment.  Having the students write about what they know helps the students take pride in who they are.  They will share their music and their writing and we will see if the rest of the class can understand the writer’s feelings associated with the music.