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1. All That Jazz

   In: English Teaching Forum 2003, Volume 41, Number 2 Format(s): Text, Image / Poster / Maps

   This article is the first of three to introduce Jazz music, which was born in the United States over a period of 200 years. Jazz was influenced by African, Latin American, and European music. It is generally accepted that Jazz was first recognized in New Orleans, Louisiana, the southeastern United States. This mostly historical article features many Jazz musicians including Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton, Buddy Bolden, Joe “King” Oliver, and Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong. A list of Web sites is included.

2. The Cotton Club

   In: English Teaching Forum 2003, Volume 41, Number 2 Format(s): Text, Image / Poster / Maps

   This one-page piece details The Cotton Club, one of the most glamorous dance and music clubs in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s. The Cotton Club was located in Harlem, which in the 1920s was an African-American residential and cultural business center in New York. The club had 30 to 50 chorus girls who danced and sang and were only hired if they were beautiful and very tall. Although the singers and dancers were almost all black, the audience was almost all white, which was a sign of the racial American society at the time.

3. Great Nicknames of Jazz

   In: English Teaching Forum 2003, Volume 41, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   The last of a three-piece article describes many of the nicknames that leading American Jazz musicians had. A nickname is a name that a person earns in addition to their given name. For example, Edward Ellington was called “Duke” by his friends and family when he was a child because he acted like a member of a royal family. Musicians like Lady Day, Duke Ellington, and Dizzy Gillespie were leaders in the Jazz music culture.

4. The Lighter Side

   In: English Teaching Forum 2003, Volume 41, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   This "Lighter Side" begins with a contest to name a Jazz song. The answer is "Georgia On My Mind." Although there is an American state called Georgia, Georgia is the name of a girl for whom the song was written in 1930. In the second section of "The Lighter Side," definitions and uses of the word Jazz are given.

5. VOA Podcast: "42" Tells the Story of Jackie Robinson's Major League Breakthrough

   In: VOA Podcasts: Shows in Special English Format(s): MP3, Website

   Learn about Jackie Robinson in this podcast from VOA Learning English. Learn English as you read and listen to a weekly show about people in America, including study in the U.S. Stories are written at the intermediate and upper-beginner level and are read one-third slower than regular VOA English.

6. Picture This

   In: Activate Games for Learning American English: Picture This Format(s): Text

   Picture This cards are a set of cards that can be used for a variety of conversation and word games in English classes. Picture This cards stimulate conversation through a series of thematically related questions and interesting images that engage students.

7. Picture This – Guess Which Challenge

   In: Activate Games for Learning American English: Picture This Format(s): Text

   In Guess Which Challenge, students create sentences that use one of the words on a Picture This card.

8. Picture This – Questions Quiz

   In: Activate Games for Learning American English: Picture This Format(s): Text

   Students practice creating questions that contain very specific information about one item from a Picture This card, so that there is only one correct answer to the question.

9. Picture This – Paraphrase It!

   In: Activate Games for Learning American English: Picture This Format(s): Text

   Paraphrase It! provides students with practice saying the same thing in a variety of different ways by paraphrasing. This game works best in groups of 3-4 students

10. Activate: Games for Learning American English - Word Bricks

    Format(s): Text

    Word Bricks help students identify word patterns in sentences. This overview will teach you sentence structure and patterns and help you to master all of the Word Bricks games!

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