Grades: 	High (9–12)
Subjects: 	Visual Arts, Music, History–Social Science
Time Required:	3–5-Part Lesson
	Four 50-minute class periods plus independent work
Author: 	J. Paul Getty Museum Education Staff

Lesson Overview
Students will learn about the jazz singer Billie Holiday and the sociohistorical context in which she performed. They will learn how discriminatory statutes (called Jim Crow laws) affected daily life. They will also analyze how movement is created in photographs and the effect of a photographer’s point of view on composition. Finally, students will photograph a musician, paying attention to what can be communicated through point of view.  

Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:
•	understand how access to music has changed over time. 
•	research the significance of Billie Holiday and her music in American history.
•	describe how Jim Crow laws affected daily life.
•	analyze movement and point of view in photographs. 
•	consider point of view while photographing a musician in the middle of performing. 

Featured Getty Artwork
Billie Holiday by Lisette Model
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=253628

Materials
•	Reproduction of Billie Holiday by Lisette Model
•	Background Information and Questions for Teaching about the photograph 
•	Internet access or CD player
•	CD or audio samples of Billie Holiday’s music (see PBS Jazz Biographies: Billie Holiday at www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_holiday_billie.htm)
•	Images of contemporary popular musicians from magazines or downloaded from the Internet (from students)
•	Digital cameras 

Lesson Steps

Billie Holiday: The Singer, the Legend

1.	As students enter the classroom, have a reproduction of the mid-twentieth-century photograph Billie Holiday by Lisette Model displayed, and play excerpts of Billie Holiday’s music on a CD or via audio samples available on PBS Jazz Biographies: Billie Holiday (www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_holiday_billie.htm). Have students take the time to look closely at the photograph. Ask students for their initial observations about the photograph of Holiday and her music. 

2.	Prompt discussion about the photograph with the following questions:
•	What do you notice about this woman? 
•	Look closely at the woman’s clothing and hairstyle. Also look at the microphone. When do you think the photograph was taken? (The full A-line skirt, hair roll pulled to the side, and outdated microphone make the photograph look like it was taken several decades ago.)
•	How would you describe the woman’s facial expression? (faraway look, introspective, unaware of the camera, etc.)
•	What other details do you notice about this woman? 

3.	Allow students time to conduct independent research about Holiday and have them write a one-page article about her as if they were interviewing her for Harper’s Bazaar, the magazine that Model worked for as a commercial photographer. Tell them that their articles must reflect research from at least three reliable sources. Tell students to read articles about their favorite musicians to get ideas for structure and content. You may wish to help students with research by printing out information from the following websites:
•	PBS American Masters: Billie Holiday
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/billie-holiday/about-the-singer/68/ 
•	PBS Jazz Biographies: Billie Holiday
	http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_holiday_billie.htm 
•	Library of Congress: American Memory: Today in History: April 7
	http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/apr07.html 

4.	Ask students to share what they learned about Holiday and write their responses on the board. Inform students that her songs were aimed at a black audience, but her light, rhythmic vocals, improvisation, and drama drew praise from white audiences. She was one of the first black singers to be featured with a white orchestra (Artie Shaw in 1938). Moreover, she performed during the time of Jim Crow laws, which mandated racial segregation. Due to these laws, this African-American performer would often sing to white audiences in clubs that refused to serve African-American patrons. She would be cheered on by white audiences after a performance, and then have to exit through the kitchen or back door. Ask students to share how they would feel if they performed in front of an audience that did not allow people of their same race to attend. 

5.	Point out that access to music has been limited to certain people since antiquity. Refer to relevant steps in the “Medieval Music for a Holiday” section in the Beginning-Level Lesson and the “Music in Antiquity” section of the Intermediate-Level Lesson.

6.	Inform students that the female photographer Lisette Model made this photograph of Holiday. Have students focus on the composition of the image by asking them the following: 
•	Where was the photographer in relation to the subject when she took this picture? (below the singer)
•	Why might the photographer choose this point of view? What do you think she is trying to communicate? (The singer was likely on a stage, and the photographer was in the audience. The low angle makes the singer appear slightly larger than life.) 
•	How would the depiction of the singer be different if the photograph were taken at a wide angle or head-on? (If taken head-on, the composition may not be as dynamic; if taken at a wide angle, the singer might look smaller in relation to the background, and therefore, viewers may not focus on her, etc.) 
•	How do lines create movement by leading your eye through the composition? (The lines of the microphone, skirt, tent stripes, and fold of the tent all lead the viewer’s eye toward the singer’s face.)
•	Based on what you know about Holiday and her music, which qualities do you think the photographer captured? (She looks larger than life, which is fitting because she is considered one of the greatest jazz singers of all time. She sang with depth of feeling and a range of emotions, and the faraway look in her eyes may reveal that she is lost in the music.)

Analyzing Photographs: Composition and Context

1.	Instruct students to bring in images of contemporary musicians from magazines or downloaded from the Internet. Have students work in teams of four to analyze the composition of the images. Prompt them to discuss the following:
•	What effect does the photographer’s vantage point have on the composition? 
•	What do you notice first? What do you notice next? How is movement created in the composition?
•	Do you feel that the photographer captured an aspect of the musician’s personality?

2.	Share information about Model’s jazz project from the Background Information about Billie Holiday. Ask students to speculate about why the project was never funded. What was taking place in U.S. history during the 1950s? In what ways did politics and social issues in the 1950s prevent an artist from communicating with a particular audience? In what ways does this happen today?

Capturing Musical Moments

1.	Have students take photographs of a musician in the middle of performing. Allow students to use their own digital cameras or cell phones with embedded cameras, or permit them to check out digital cameras belonging to the school. Students could take photographs at a community event, street performance, live concert (if permitted), music program at school, friend’s band practice, or the home of a friend or family member who plays a musical instrument. Encourage each student to move around the subject and crouch below or stand above the subject to vary the point of view. Also tell them to consider what elements of the background they would want to include in the frame. Challenge them to try to capture the subject in a moment when the musician is fully immersed in the playing of music, when he or she is oblivious to being photographed.

2.	Tell students to write a reflection about the process of shooting photographs of the musician. Which viewpoint provided the most interesting composition? How were they able to gain access to the musician and shoot his or her photograph? Did they need special permission? How did they hear of the musician? How would they feel if they were not permitted by law to shoot photographs of the musician, either because of their own skin color or that of the musician?

3.	Instruct each student to choose one photograph that best captures an aspect of the musician’s personality, and print it out in the computer lab. Or, if funding is available, print students’ work at a local photo lab. Display students’ work in a class exhibit that can only be accessed by certain students at specific times of the day. You may wish to allow only students with brown eyes to view it one day and those who are wearing the color blue to see it another day. After the run of the exhibition, discuss how students felt about not being able to see the exhibition or being able to view it when their peers could not.

Assessment
Assess students based on their participation in class discussion, including their analysis of movement and point of view in photographs. Assess students’ reports on Holiday based on whether they reflect research from at least three reliable sources. Assess students’ photographs based on evidence of attention to point of view and movement as indicated in their written reflections, as well as whether their written intentions are visible in their works of art.

Extensions
1.	Have students research how the Jim Crow laws affected other individuals, and allow them to write another article for Harper’s Bazaar, in which they write a profile about a specific individual’s experience. 

2.	Teach a unit on the impact of photography in the civil rights movement with the EDSITEment lesson “Picturing Freedom: Selma-to-Montgomery March, 1965” (http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=809).

Standards Addressed

Common Core Standards for English Language Arts

Grades 9–12

READING 
Key Ideas and Details 
1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. 

WRITING 
Production and Distribution of Writing 
4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. 

Research to Build and Present Knowledge 
7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation. 
8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism. 
9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

SPEAKING AND LISTENING 
Comprehension and Collaboration 
1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
2. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

Visual Arts Content Standards for California Public Schools 

Grades 9–12 (Proficient)
1.0 Artistic Perception
1.4 Analyze and describe how the composition of a work of art is affected by the use of a particular principle of design.

2.0 Creative Expression
2.1 Solve a visual arts problem that involves the effective use of the elements of art and the principles of design.

3.0 Historical and Cultural Context
3.3 Identify and describe trends in the visual arts and discuss how the issues of time, place, and cultural influence are reflected in selected works of art.

4.0 Aesthetic Valuing
4.1 Articulate how personal beliefs, cultural traditions, and current social, economic, and political contexts influence the interpretation of the meaning or message in a work of art.

Music Content Standards for California Public Schools

Grades 9–12 (Proficient)
3.0 Historical and Cultural Context
3.1 Identify the sources of musical genres of the United States, trace the evolution of those genres, and cite well-known musicians associated with them. 
3.2 Explain the various roles that musicians perform, identify representative individuals who have functioned in each role, and explain their activities and achievements.

4.0 Aesthetic Valuing
4.3 Explain how people in a particular culture use and respond to specific musical works from that culture.

History–Social Science Content Standards for California Public Schools 

Grade 11
11.8 Students analyze the economic boom and social transformation of post–World War II America.
8. Discuss forms of popular culture, with emphasis on their origins and geographic diffusion (e.g., jazz and other forms of popular music, professional sports, architectural and artistic styles).