Lomax, Alan. Mexican girls, San Antonio, Tex. 1934. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2007660003/.
Students will look at the image of the girls and will observe, with guidance, what they are doing. They will discuss the importance of music in their own lives and talk about what some of their favorite songs are. Students will then choose a song they want to preserve for history and make a recording of the song by themselves or with a group. In their recording, they will explain why this song or rhyme means something to them.
Alan Lomax was an ethnomusicologist known for traveling the country and recording people of various ages and demographics singing folk songs. In addition to audio recordings, he documented his sessions with photographs of the people he recorded.
Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alan-Lomax
Source: : https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alan-Lomax
- What do you think the girls in the photograph are doing? How do you think the girls in the photo feel about being able to record a song that is important to them? How do you know?
- Is music an important part of our history?
- How does music make you feel?
- Does different music change the way you feel?
- What music would you share if someone wanted to record you today?
ELA Standard
K.1. Developing and sustaining foundational language skills. Listening, speaking, discussion, and thinking—oral language. The student develops oral language through listening, speaking, and discussion.
Social Studies Standard
K.14.C. Social studies skills. Communicate information visually, orally, or in writing based on knowledge and experiences in social studies.
Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
- Students will look at the image of the girls gathered around the microphone. Have them discuss what they see, prompting them to keep observing and noting things. If students need guidance, ask them:
- Where do you think they are?
- What does it look like they are doing?
- What time of year is it?
- How are they dressed?
- How do you think they feel?
- Play an Alan Lomax recording of children singing. (There are multiple options, but it is quite possible that the recording of “Hijo, hijo, mira esta mujer” is a recording of the girls in the picture.) Explain that back before people had phones and computers to record things whenever they wanted, Alan Lomax took his special recording device around the country to collect songs and stories that were important to people. He thought this was an important part of our history, and it was something he thought we should keep.
- Have students think about different places they might sing or chant rhymes (i.e., school, home, in the car, on the playground, church). Have students share some of the songs and rhymes that they enjoy and think are important.
- Tell students to think like a historian and try to choose one song they would like to save for the future. Using an iPad or Chromebook, allow the students to record their song (or a piece of their song) alone or in a group. At the beginning or end of the recording, have the students share what it is about their song that is important to them—maybe they have a strong memory tied to it, or maybe it is a song that everybody knows.
- Set up the songs at a listening center for students to hear.
Gonzales, Josephine, Aurora Gonzales, Pearl Manchaco, Adela Flores, Lia Trujillo, Alan Lomax, and John A. Lomax. Hijo, hijo, mira esta muher. Recorded 1934. Audio recording. https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200196320/.