Lesson III: Jacob Lawrence
Summary
The objective of this lesson is to recognize art as a vehicle for teaching history. Lawrence used a series of 60 painting to tell the story of the African American migration from south to north. One of the reasons for the migration was because of the injustices of the southern legal system and lynching.
Procedures
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1. Teacher will ask the students to explain the difference between immigration and migration. Students will be asked to explore reasons why people might immigrate or migrate. Students will share anything they might know about the subject.
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2. Teacher will give background on the artist of the day: Jacob Lawrence and read the
Great Migration
to the class.
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3. Students will take notes during the reading.(See Great Migration Note Taking Sheet)
Evaluation
Students will write historical fiction as a post reading activity. The following prompt will be offered:
You are a reporter working for a black press during the Migration. Write a persuasive article convincing a perspective migrant to move North or to stay in the South. Use the note taking sheet to provide significant details to support your arguement. Be sure to follow persuasive/arguement writing guidelines.
Lesson Plan IV: Strange Fruit
Summary
Holiday, Billie (1915-59), one of the greatest jazz-blues singers of all time, also known as Lady Day. Born Eleanora Holiday in Baltimore, Maryland, she spent an impoverished childhood before moving to New York City in the late 1920s, when she began singing in Harlem nightclubs. She was vocalist with various orchestras, including those of Count Basie and Artie Shaw, and made many recordings with the saxophonist Lester Young and with the pianist Teddy Wilson. Throughout the 1940s and ‘50s Holiday appeared in clubs around the U.S. with great success.
Holiday rarely sang traditional blues, but had an ability to transform popular songs into emotionally profound pieces.
Strange Fruit
, a composition she wrote after touring the South in the 30’s where she saw a “black body swinging in the southern breeze,” was such a piece. After listening to Strange Fruit, students will recognize music as another artistic form that can also do what poetry and painting can do: teach history. Students will also explore the symbolism in lyrics.
Procedures
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1. Teacher will introduce the artist of the day: Billy Holiday.
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2. Students will listen to the musical composition Strange Fruit
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3. Teacher will lead a discussion exploring the symbolism in Strange Fruit and the relationship between Hughes poetry, Jacob Lawrence’s Great Migration and Billy Holiday’s Strange Fruit in terms of the idea of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Lesson Plan V: Japanese American Experience during WWII
Summary
As did Jacob Lawrence, Shelia Hamanaka used art to teach an untold part of US history. She painted murals depicting the Japanese experience pre-post WWII. As students develop an appreciation for art, they will become familiar with Japanese American history.
Procedures
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1. Teacher will ask students what they know about WWII 2. Teacher will read and discuss Shelia Hamanaka’s The Journey
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3. Teacher will assign half the class to read A Shameful Chapter in From Sea to Shining Sea and Japanese Americans and Wartime Mistakes, Peacetime Apologies in Cobblestone history magazine for young people..
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4. The class will reconvene and discuss what was learned about this experience
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5. Teacher will show photographs taken by Dorthea Lange
Evaluation
Students will complete one of the following activities:
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*Write a Journal Account of a detainie at one of the internment camps
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*Write a letter to Japanese American soldier from a family member detained in a camp
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*Write a monologue from one persons point of view about the internment experience
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*Read Farewell to Manzanar and write a book review
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*Inspired by knowledge acquired about the Japanese WWII experience, write a Japanese tribute poem@2H:Lesson Plan VII: Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness
Summary
Students will complete lesson plan I essay assignment.
Procedures:
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1. Students will gather necessary information to pre-write essays
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2. Students will submit draft to be peer edited.
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3. Students will revise essays.
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4. Teacher will schedule conferences with students before the final draft is to be submitted.
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5. Student essays will be published in the classroom.
Evaluation Essays will be graded by holistic standards developed for persuasive essays. Student should have standards and be aware of the scoring process.
Culminating Activity: In Search of Renewal Collaging Our Past
Summary
Student will research their cultural history and construct a collage which is reflective. Collages will be put together to create a mural which tells the story of American heritage. See Handout “Collaging the Past”.
Evaluation
Creativity in collage and written components explaining the content of the collage.