INTRODUCTION TO "BREAKING SOCIAL BOUNDARIES"
Description
This lesson is an introduction to the theme of “Breaking Social Boundaries.” Students will explore the definition and meaning of social boundaries through the poem, "The Mending Wall" by Robert Frost, artwork created about social boundaries, the writings of peers, in small group and class discussions, and through collaborating with a peer from another school and state. Each student will select a social boundary and investigate its roll as well as changes they would like to make to it. Students will create a two-dimensional artwork using either printmaking or photography demonstrating a new perspective about the social boundary . Along with a statement about the social boundary they selected, the work will be reviewed and altered by the receiving student. The receiver will contemplate their understanding of the boundary, what it means to them, and how they will alter it. Students will be asked to comment on how this artist demonstrates the social boundary and using the opposite technique, alter the piece. This lesson is a starting point for lessons under "Production - Photography" and "Production - Printmaking".
Objectives
Materials and Preparation
Procedures
Day 1:
- What social boundaries were expressed in these readings?
- How could they be described pictorially?
- What would they do to change this?
Day 3:
This lesson is an introduction to the theme of “Breaking Social Boundaries.” Students will explore the definition and meaning of social boundaries through the poem, "The Mending Wall" by Robert Frost, artwork created about social boundaries, the writings of peers, in small group and class discussions, and through collaborating with a peer from another school and state. Each student will select a social boundary and investigate its roll as well as changes they would like to make to it. Students will create a two-dimensional artwork using either printmaking or photography demonstrating a new perspective about the social boundary . Along with a statement about the social boundary they selected, the work will be reviewed and altered by the receiving student. The receiver will contemplate their understanding of the boundary, what it means to them, and how they will alter it. Students will be asked to comment on how this artist demonstrates the social boundary and using the opposite technique, alter the piece. This lesson is a starting point for lessons under "Production - Photography" and "Production - Printmaking".
Objectives
- Students will understand and be able to define social boundaries that they share with their peers.
- Students will identify ways these social boundaries affect them.
- Students will identify ways in which they can break or cross social boundaries.
- Students will understand how artists (contemporary and past) represent social boundaries and ways of breaking social boundaries using symbols, words, and images.
- Students will create an artwork expressing a social boundary and a new way of breaking it.
- Students will collaborate and exchange their artwork with a peer from another school in another state.
- Students will meet to discuss the project with their peer via Skype.
Materials and Preparation
- Student will need their journals for collecting, brainstorming, and sketching ideas.
- Class Discussion and Handout: "The Mending Wall" by Robert Frost
- Class Discussion and Handout: "See the Social Boundaries" by ShadowpawMFur
- Handout: What Are Some Social Boundaries? (See Educational Resources Page)
- Small Group Discussion and Handout: "A Day In The Life Of A Popular Person"
- Small Group Discussion and Handout: "Don't Talk To Her"
- Reproductions of art historical examples with discussion and inquiry questions
Procedures
Day 1:
- Initially students will be told that this Unit is a collaborative project between them and students from a school in S. Florida or L.A.. They will be creating, exchanging, and altering artworks revolving around social boundaries, ways to communicate boundaries and new ways to break them.
- The teacher will read aloud the poem, "The Mending Wall" by Robert Frost. Using the handout, "What Are Some Social Boundaries" discuss with students the meaning of the poem and social boundaries.
- Ask students to quietly re-read the poem, "The Mending Wall" and to make a list in their journal of personal and social boundaries they experience.
- The teacher will post on the board or in a Power Point some definitions and types of social boundaries the students might deal with. Ask the students to share some from their list.
- Brainstorm with students ways that they might cross or break some of the social boundaries they listed.
- Show the website, www.mixitup.org, and tell the class about Mix It Up, http://www.tolerance.org/mix-it-up?source=redirect&url=mixitup a project that challenges students to move beyond artificial labels and exclusive cliques by socializing with students from a variety of groups and backgrounds. Mix It Up is a project of Tolerance.org, Teaching Tolerance, and the Study Circles Resource Center. Every year on Mix It Up at Lunch Day, hundreds of thousands of students across the country sit in the cafeteria with students from different groups and backgrounds as a way to diminish social boundaries and stimulate ongoing dialogue about this issue.
- Homework: Have students make a list in their journal of social boundaries that they deal with and possible ways to break them. Tell them to bring them to class the following day. Have students look at Mark Vallen's artwork http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Vallen/vallen.htm. or Follow the link on the "Resource Page" in the photo gallery.
- Students will form small groups of 4-5 students. Each group will be given the handouts, "A Day In The Life Of A Popular Person" and "Don't Talk To Her'.
- After reading together the two handouts, and answering the "Questions for Discussion" on the bottom of both hand they will discuss their responses with their group. Additional questions to get them started are:
- What social boundaries were expressed in these readings?
- How could they be described pictorially?
- What would they do to change this?
- Students will share the list they made for homework and discuss Mark Vallen's work and their list with their groups. They will discuss which ones they have in common, which ones are different, the way they would break these social boundaries, and how they might translate their ideas into a two-dimensional artwork. Each group will present their findings to the class and summarize the answers their group gave to the various discussion questions.
- After discussing the above readings, challenge students to identify ways to bridge the social boundaries that exist at school. As a whole class, have them share their ideas for concrete ways to de-emphasize these social boundaries and encourage socialization across them. Have students record their ideas in their journal so that they can be used as inspiration for their artwork.
- Homework: Have sudents read, Caravaggio article located on the resource page. "Caravaggio insisted on working outside the aesthetic and social boundaries of his time."
Day 3:
- Discuss the article, "Caravaggio insisted on working outside the aesthetic and social boundaries of his time." Show examples of artist throughout history who have addressed social boundaries in their artwork.
- Discuss how past and contemporary artists like Faith Ringgold and Mark Valen have created artworks to communicate social boundaries. Students will record information about the artist and their works in their journal. See Resources for artist and artwork.
- Have the students identify the boundary and ways the artist has used symbols, words, and imagery to communicate their feelings about the boundary.
- Discuss with students will discuss alternatives to communicating boundaries.
- Have students select a social boundary to focus on.
- The teacher will explain that for their project students will have to select a particular social boundary and create an artwork expressing new ways to break the social boundary. Students in S. Florida will create a work using the medium of photography and students in L.A. will create a work using the medium of printmaking. They will document the original artwork digitally and then exchange with a peer in the other state. They will be altering the original work after discussing the effectiveness of the piece. Once completed, the artwork will be returned to the original artist. In the end of this project, the students will meet via Skype for a discussion about their works and experience.