Mahalia Jackson was an influential gospel singer who used her music to inspire others. She grew up in New Orleans singing in her local church where the music helped provide comfort during difficult times. Jackson went on to record popular gospel songs that brought the genre to new audiences. Her powerful voice and emotionally charged performances helped spread messages of strength, hope and freedom through music.

1. Mahalia Jackson
By Julius Lester
Reading Street Unit 3 Week 4

2. Day 1 – How does an artist use
music to inspire others?
 Video – Aretha Franklin
 http://www.biography.com/
people/aretha-franklin-
9301157
 p. 424 – 425
 How do the musicians in an
orchestra create a powerful
sound?
 How do we know this
teenager’s melody will reach
many others?
 In what ways might each
band member inspire others?

3. Concept Map
Read Aloud: Bud, not
Buddy p. 425b
Amazing Words:
steady, jam session, beat,
fiddle
Does a steady beat need to
be fast or slow?
Discuss with a partner:
What do we do every day
at a steady pace?
How an artist uses music to inspire others
Powerful
sounds
Working
together
Recordings To learn

4. Comprehension Skill: Main Idea and Details
Comprehension Strategy: Text Structure

5. Aretha An
American
Queen

6. Vocabulary
 Use and online dictionary to define the words below.
appreciate barber choir

7. Vocabulary
 Check your vocabulary definitions with the definitions above!

8. Spelling – Take your pretest on SpellingCity
Conventions – Finish WS 14 after reading
groups
Handwriting – Work on the next two pages
in your cursive packet

9. Day 2 – Content Knowledge
Oral Vocabulary
 How does an artist use music to inspire others?
 “The drops would fall loud and clear as anything, then before
you knew it they were right back into the Thug’s steady,
bouncy beat.” – “Bud, not Buddy”
 The author uses a simile, likening the notes of the music to
drops of rain. How might the notes sound like drops of rain?
 What is beat?
 What is being brought back “into the Thug’s steady, bouncy
beat?”

10. Concept Map
Amazing Words:
symphony, digital music
How is the music in “Bud,
not Buddy” like a
symphony?
When and where would
you hear the music of a
symphony?
Discuss with a partner:
What instruments do
musicians play in a
symphony?
How an artist uses music to inspire others
Powerful
sounds
Working
together
Recordings To learn

11. Vocabulary
released religious slavery teenager

12. Vocabulary
 Check your vocabulary definitions with the definitions above!

13. Word Analysis: Suffix –ous
 Suffixes are letters added to the end of a word that can change
the meaning and part of speech of a word.
 The suffix –ous means “possessing the qualities of” or “full of”
when added to a word, making it an adjective.
 joyous, nervous, wondrous, generous, numerous, and humorous.
 Identify the base word and the suffix in each word in your
reading spiral.
 How does the suffix change the meaning of the base word?

14. Vocabulary Skill: Antonyms
 The record company held
on to the unfinished CD
and released the
completed one.
 What is the meaning of
released?
 What analogy could we use
to determine the meaning
of released?
 I appreciate good music
but dislike bad music.
 What other words can we
put in for appreciate,
good, dislike and bad?

15. Vocabulary Skill: Antonyms
 Read “Out of Great
Pain, Great Music” on
page 429.
 Words to know:
Barber, choir,
teenager, appreciate,
released, religious,
slavery
 Look at the
illustrations in Mahalia
Jackson. Choose an
illustration to write
about. use words from
the Words to Know list
in your writing.

16. Main Story
 Expository Test explains
about real people, things,
or events. It can include
text features, such as
illustrations, captions, and
boldface or italic fonts,
that emphasize important
points.
 Read Mahalia Jackson page
430 to 433

17. Spelling – Practice your words on Spelling
City
Conventions – WS 214
Vocabulary – WS 217

18. Day 3 – Content Knowledge
Oral Vocabulary
 How does an artist use music to inspire others?
 Mahalia Jackson – Amazing Grace
 https://www.youtube.com/watchv=ZJg5Op5W7yw&list=RDZJg5O
p5W7yw#t=170
 “Slavery caused great sorrow and pain, but it also gave rise to
some of the world’s most moving music.” – “Out of Great Pain,
Great Music”
 The conjunction but shows a contrast, or difference. In this
sentence what two things caused by slavery are contrasted?
 To give rise means that something comes from it. What are some
synonyms for the idea of giving rise to something?

19. Concept Map
Amazing Words: melody,
harmonize
We read about the blues
yesterday. Like many
songs, what makes a blues
song special is its melody.
What is a melody?
What is the melody of “You
Are My Sunshine”?
Discuss with a partner:
Name or sing another
melody that you know.
How an artist uses music to inspire others
Powerful
sounds
Working
together
Recordings To learn

20. Literary Terms: Imagery
 What is an image?
Author’s create images by using words. This can be compared
to an artist creating images by using paintbrushes.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoNl1Ue5ZtQ
 Imagery is the use of words to help the reader experience the
way things look, sound, smell , taste, or feel. The images
author’s create help us to visualize in our minutes what is
happening.
 Let’s look for imagery in Mahalia Jackson on page 432.
 The author compares having the flu to having the blues. he
does this to describe how it feels to have the blues. How does
this help you understand it?

21. Imagery in Poems
 What imagery is in this
poem?
 How does it help you
picture what’s happening?
 Bear In There by Shel
Silverstein
There's a polar bear
In our Frigidaire—
He likes it 'cause it's cold in there.
With his seat in the meat
And his face in the fish
And his big hairy paws
In the buttery dish,
He's nibbling the noodles,
He's munching the rice,
He's slurping the soda,
He's licking the ice.
And he lets out a roar
If you open the door.
And it gives me a scare
To know he's in there—
That polary bear
In our Fridgitydaire.

22. Main Story
 Summarizing what you have
read so far, what are “the
blues”?
 How has what you have read
helped you understand why
early blues music was
important to slaves?
 Read pages 434-439

23. Think Critically – Answer the think critically
questions on page 438
Conventions – WS 155
Type to Learn – Practice your typing for 15
minutes

24. Day 4 – Content Knowledge
Oral Vocabulary
 How does an artist use music to inspire others?
 http://www.biography.com/people/louis-armstrong-
9188912
 Louis Armstrong
 “The words in a gospel song and the words in the blues
will be different, but both can make you start moaning
like you just bitten into the best fried chicken anybody
ever made.” – Mahalia Jackson
 In the second part of this compound sentence, what
does the word both refer to?

25. Concept Map
Amazing Words: tempo,
movement
Jackson recalled the
people in her church
keeping the beat with
their hands and feet. Beat
and tempo have similar
meanings. What does
tempo mean?
How can you change the
tempo of a song?
Discuss with a partner:
Name two songs and
describe their tempos.
How an artist uses music to inspire others
Powerful
sounds
Working
together
Recordings To learn

26. Vocab and Listening
 Antonyms
 Context clues can help you figure out
the meanings of words. Antonyms, or
words that are opposite in meaning,
are one kind of context clue. You can
use antonyms and analogies to
determine the meaning of unfamiliar
words.
 Work on the analogies worksheet to
practice.
 Look back in this week’s readings.
Find an unfamiliar word that has an
antonym as a context clue. Write an
analogy using the unfamiliar word
and the antonym. Then say what you
think the unfamiliar word is.
• Give Directions
• When you give directions,
you describe how to do an
activity. The purpose of
directions is to teach other
show to make an item or do
an activity.
• Create step-by-step
directions on organizing a
concert, wrapping a present,
or preparing a meal. Switch
with a partner. Have them
read and the directions to
see if they can follow them!

27. Spelling – Practice your spelling words quietly
with a partner and a dry erase board
Conventions – WS 221
Vocabulary - WS

28. Day 5 – Content Knowledge
Oral Vocabulary - Concept Map
 Amazing words: steady,
jam session, beat, fiddle,
symphony, digital music,
melody, harmonize, tempo,
movement.
 Use the concept map and
what you have learned
from this week’s
discussions and reading
selections to form and
– a
realization or big idea
about inventors and
artists.
 In your spiral write down
a few sentences about
your
beginning with, “This
week I learned…”
How an artist uses music to inspire others
powerful
sounds
working
together
Recordings To learn
movement Jam session digital
music
write
lyrics
melody harmonize computer sing
choir symphony records play an
instrument
Rhythm
tempo
beat
steady

29. REVIEW: Main Idea and Details
Comprehension Skill
 The main idea is the most important idea about a topic.
 Supporting details tell more about the main idea.
 Review pages 432 – 433 of Mahalia Jackson, Summarize
the mean idea and details. Make sure you maintain
meaning and logical order. Compare with a partner
when you are finished!
 Worksheet 157

30. REVIEW: Antonyms
Vocabulary Skill
 What is an antonym?
 Words that have the opposite or nearly opposite meanings.
 Complete the following analogy:
 Rude is to polite as appreciate is to ____________.
 Create analogies with antonyms using the lesson
vocabulary words.
 Vocabulary words: appreciate, barber, choir, released,
religious, slavery, teenager.

31. REVIEW: Suffix –ous
Word Analysis
 The suffix –ous means “possessing the qualities of” or “full of”
when added to a word, making it an adjective.
 What do the words dangerous and continuous mean?
 mischievous, monstrous, poisonous, treacherous, vigorous
 Using the meaning of the suffix –ous, determine the meaning
of each of the words above.

32. REVIEW: Imagery
Literary Terms
 Reread page 437 of Mahalia Jackson, looking for
examples of imagery.
 What is the first full paragraph about?
 What imagery is in this paragraph? Is it effective?
 Make a t-chart in your reading spiral. On one side place
Imagery and the other side place What It Describes.
 Find imagery in the selection and tell what it desribes
and how it helps you understand what the writer is
describing.