Learning Activity

Harlem Renaissance Art - Compare and Contrast

Subject Area

Arts Education
Social Studies

Grade(s)

6

Overview

Students will analyze visual art from Aaron Douglas's Aspects of Negro Life  using the digital resource and make connections to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Students will compare and contrast the works of Aaron Douglas and Jacob Lawrence.

This activity was created as a result of the Arts COS Resource Development Summit.

Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 6 - Visual Arts

AE17.VA.6.10

Compare and contrast works of art or design that reveal how people live around the world and what they value.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.VA.6.10

Vocabulary

  • Artistic ideas and work
  • Formal and conceptual vocabulary
  • Innovation
  • Investigation
  • Two-dimensional
  • Three-dimensional
  • Experimentation
  • Conservation
  • Craftsmanship
  • Linear perspective
  • Environmental responsibility
  • Prior knowledge
  • Museum
  • Gallery
  • Curator
  • Digital
  • Horizon Line
  • Brainstorming
  • Research

Essential Questions

EU: Individual aesthetic and empathetic awareness developed through engagement with art can lead to understanding and appreciation of self, others, the natural world, and constructed environments.
EQ: How do life experiences the way you relate to art? How does learning about art impact how we perceive the world? What can we learn from our responses to art?

Skills Examples

  • Select examples of how geographical, cultural, and historical perspectives are represented in visual artworks.
  • Compare and contrast the ways that personal aesthetic choices in visual arts influence personal choices.
  • Examine and describe the influence of art in a community.
  • Research examples of arts-related activities in communities around the world.
  • Describe what the global community would look like or be like without art.
  • Demonstrate the responding process, using, background knowledge, personal experiences, and context when examining artworks and determining personal meaning.
  • Examine and discuss how the geographical, cultural, and historical perspectives represented in visual artworks influence personal choices (economic, political, and environmental) and personal aesthetic criteria.
  • Compare attributes of artworks in the classroom, school, and community, or artworks of a specific culture, place, or time, and describe how they influence culture, ideas, and events.
  • Demonstrate the responding process, with attention to the elements and principles of design, to interpret and describe works of visual art.
  • Analyze how the uses of traditional and nontraditional mediums affect the mood of an artwork.
  • Demonstrate various presentation and responding processes for a work of art. Evaluate visual artworks by analyzing their structure and interpreting meaning using various criteria.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 6 - Visual Arts

AE17.VA.6.12

Interpret art by discerning contextual information and visual qualities to identify ideas and meaning.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.VA.6.12

Vocabulary

  • Artistic ideas and work
  • Formal and conceptual vocabulary
  • Innovation
  • Investigation
  • Two-dimensional
  • Three-dimensional
  • Experimentation
  • Conservation
  • Craftsmanship
  • Linear perspective
  • Environmental responsibility
  • Prior knowledge
  • Museum
  • Gallery
  • Curator
  • Digital
  • Horizon Line
  • Brainstorming
  • Research

Essential Questions

EU: People gain insights into meanings of artworks by engaging in the process of art criticism.
EQ: What is the value of engaging in the process of art criticism? How can the viewer "read" a work of art as text? How does knowing and using visual arts vocabularies help us understand and interpret works of art?

Skills Examples

  • Select examples of how geographical, cultural, and historical perspectives are represented in visual artworks.
  • Compare and contrast the ways that personal aesthetic choices in visual arts influence personal choices.
  • Examine and describe the influence of art in a community.
  • Research examples of arts-related activities in communities around the world.
  • Describe what the global community would look like or be like without art.
  • Demonstrate the responding process, using, background knowledge, personal experiences, and context when examining artworks and determining personal meaning.
  • Examine and discuss how the geographical, cultural, and historical perspectives represented in visual artworks influence personal choices (economic, political, and environmental) and personal aesthetic criteria.
  • Compare attributes of artworks in the classroom, school, and community, or artworks of a specific culture, place, or time, and describe how they influence culture, ideas, and events.
  • Demonstrate the responding process, with attention to the elements and principles of design, to interpret and describe works of visual art.
  • Analyze how the uses of traditional and nontraditional mediums affect the mood of an artwork.
  • Demonstrate various presentation and responding processes for a work of art. Evaluate visual artworks by analyzing their structure and interpreting meaning using various criteria.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.
Social Studies (2010) Grade(s): 6

SS10.6.4

Identify cultural and economic developments in the United States from 1900 through the 1930s.

Unpacked Content

UP:SS10.6.4

Vocabulary

  • Harlem Renaissance
  • Jazz Age
  • suffragettes
  • suffragists
  • flappers
  • personal credit
  • stock market crash
  • Immigration Act of 1924

Knowledge

Students know:
  • The cultural and economic developments of the early 1900s.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Characterize the impact of notable people and events that shape our world.
  • Compare multiple points of view to explain economic policies.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Major cultural and economic changes took place in the US during the early 1900's.

Phase

During/Explore/Explain
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • Students will interpret the meaning of artwork from a specific time period. 
  • Students will make connections to the Harlem Renaissance using artwork from the time period. 
  • Students will compare and contrast works of art from two different artists of the same time period. 

Activity Details

1. This activity should follow the Jacob Lawrence Migration Series See, Think, Wonder Learning Activity. 

2. The students will use the digital resource to analyze the artwork from Aaron Douglas's Aspects of Negro Life. Have students browse the entire collection to determine an overall theme or mood of the collection. Then, have students choose or assign the students one piece, in particular, to analyze more closely. Students will use a graphic organizer to record their analysis. 

See, Think, Wonder Graphic Organizer

3. Have students complete a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the works of Jacob Lawrence and Aaron Douglas. Have the students consider the theme, mood/message, medium, and historical context in their graphic organizers. 

 Artwork Venn Diagram

Assessment Strategies

Assessment Strategies

Students will write a concluding statement about the artwork that they analyzed and its connection to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. 

See, Think, Wonder Graphic Organizer

Students will write a concluding paragraph, comparing and contrasting the works of two artists from the same time period.

Artwork Venn Diagram

Background and Preparation

Background / Preparation

The teacher should be familiar with the Great Migration of the 1920s and the Harlem Renaissance. 

 The teacher should make sure students have access to a computer and test the internet connection before the lesson to make sure students will be able to access the digital resource. 

 The teacher should make copies of the See, Think, Wonder Graphic Organizer and the Artwork Venn Diagram before the lesson.

Digital Tools / Resources

Treasures of The New York Public Library: Aaron Douglas's Aspects of Negro Life
http://exhibitions.nypl.org/treasures/items/show/170

Approved Date

Owner (Author)

asiahester1
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