Lesson 2
Returning to the Past: Portraying War Through Writing
Grade Level: Eighth grade
Duration: Seven fifty-minute class periods
Lesson Theme: War
General Unit Goals: It is important that students understand social issues and how icons are used throughout society to express these issues. David Levinthal's work is important because it visually connects society and iconology.
General Learning Objectives: Upon the completion of this lesson,students will be more knowledgeable about how to use the library as are source. There, they will complete a short research assignment in order to introduce them to the libraries recourses.
Students will research a work of art. The work the students will research is going to be by an artist of their own choice. The teacher will provide a second piece of work by David Levinthal to each student. Students will express their understanding of the iconology in the works as well as work on their essay writing skills.
Materials:
Teacher Materials:
1. 5 color reproductions of David Levinthal work out of the series "Hitler Moves East"
2. 20 individually cut out captions on war for students
3. Projector/Screen
4. Slides ("Hitler Moves East" series)
5. Plastic bowl
Student Materials:
1. Glue
2. Scissors
3. Pencils
4. Poster board
5. Markers (assorted colors)
6. 1 reproduction image of war
7. 1 reproduction image of David Levinthal's work from "Hitler Moves East" series
Vocabulary:
1. Bibliography: a list of sources of information on a given subject or on written works by an author
2. Theme: a big idea or experience; they are not tangible which means a person cannot touch, hold, or actually see themes. ex: Celebration
Specific Learning Objectives:
1. After completing the motivational activity, the eighth grade students will be introduced to David Levinthal's works of art by viewing slides presented by the teacher. Students will discuss the themes in Levinthal's work and will discuss the artist's choice of media used.
2. Students will complete a short research assignment in the library. By the end of the assignment students will correctly site resources in a bibliography.
3. Now that the eighth grade students know how to locate recourses in the library, they are to research the theme "war" in David Levinthal's works. Students are to locate an image in the library on war and compare that image to the David Levinthal image provided by the teacher. These contrasts are to be written in paragraph form.
4. While writting their essays, the most successful students will remember the term "icons" from the previous lesson. They will include the use of iconology found in the two images in their essays. The most successful students will also writetheir papers using the proper essay writing form including: introduction paragraph, two paragraphs for the body of the essay, a conclusion paragraph and a bibliography. The students will mount their two images along with their essay onto poster board for display. The student's images are to be labeled clearly underneath each one on the poster board.
Standards of Learning:
8.11 The student will identify and analyze art and architecture from various world cultures, periods, or civilizations by styles, symbolism, and technological impact.
8.15 The student will analyze the effect the elements of art and the principles of design have on the communication of ideas.
8.16 The student will investigate and discuss the use of social, cultural, and historical context as they contribute to meaning in a work of art.
8.18 The student will critique personal work and the work of others in oral and written form using appropriate art vocabulary.
8.19 The student will provide evidence of the critical and artistic processes used to achieve final art solutions in personal works of artby documenting preparation, rough drafts, and final solutions.
8.20 The student will discussand analyze the purposes, values, and meanings of works of art.
8.21 The student will formulate and respond to meaningful questions about works of art based upon observations and interpretations.
8.22 The student will describe personal sensory responses to the visual qualities of a work of art using appropriate art vocabulary.
Advanced Organizer: The following must be accomplished before the lesson can begin:
1. The desk tables need to be arranged into five groups, two tables pushed together to make one group.
2. A color reproduction of Davis d Levinthal's work from the series "Hitler MovesEast" will be placed on top of each group's tabletop, 5 reproductions in total.
3. Twenty individual typed out captions will be folded and placed into a plastic bowl.
Motivational Activity: Often an important event in our history is portrayed in an artist's work of art. An example of this would be David Levinthal's series of works titled "Hitler Moves East". Each student will draw a piece of paper outof a bowl and one-by-one
sitting at their table they are to read aloud their selected caption to the class. As each student reads aloud their caption, the students observe the reproduction image that is placed before them on their tabletops. After hearing the captions the students will have a better
understanding of war as it is pictured in the scene. This psychologically places the student at the scene and takes them back to the time during this war. This activity will make the students more excited to research other examples and representations of war in our past.
Lesson Sequence:
Day I:
1. Present the motivational activity to the class.
2. Introduce students to David Levinthal and present them slides from his series "Hitler Moves East". Each student is to write down at least two themes they see in his works. These themes will be discussed in class.
Day II:
1. Pass out a library assignment and review out loud the instructions to theclass.
2. Take the students to the library to complete the assignment.
3. Students will be told at the end of class to meet in the library for the next class.
Day III:
1. Students will meet in the library instead of the regular classroom for class.
2. Now that the students are able to locate resources in the library, they will research in the library on other wars in history.
3. They are to locate an image, other than one by David Levinthal, of their choice portraying any one specific war in history and photocopy the image(8"X10"). Students may consider images from WWI, WWII, Vietnam War.
4. They will now be given a 8"X10" photocopied image of one of David Levinthal's works,the same image that was presented to the students during the motivational activity. 5. At the end of class (last 5 minutes) the teacher will hand out the studio assignment. For homework the students should review the handout.
6. The students will be told to meet back in the regular classroom next class and to bring this assignment sheet along with their two photocopied images with them to be discussed.
Day IV:
1. The studio assignment is discussed aloud in class and any questions will be answered.
2. Students will start on their assignment in class. The teacher will walk around to help any students having trouble.
3. The students are to continue to work on this assignment for homework.
Day V:
1. Students will use this day to finish up the assignment.
2. Teacher will walk around classroom to help students.
3. Students will be told to bring in the finished assignment for class the next day and to be prepared to orally discuss out loud to the class about their images andessay.
Day VI:
1. One by one students will have three minutes to orally explain their finished assignment to the class.
Day VII:
1. Use this day to finish the rest of the presentations.
Closure: Individually students will stand up and give an oral presentation on their completed assignment. They are to speak loudly and clearly to the entire class. The students are to explain why they chose their particular image and discuss the use of iconology in the two images. While explaining their essay to the class the most successful students will discuss the images in their essays without having to read directly from the essays mounted on their poster board.
Transition: In this lesson we talked about the work of David Levinthal and discussed his use of iconology within hiswork. Next time we will discuss other artists who use icons in their artwork, but in completely different media.
Evaluation:
Student evaluation: Students will be evaluated on:
1. Their chosen image, whether it relates appropriately to the theme.
2. How well they understand the use of iconology in their images.
3. Whether their essay is written in proper form and contains the required amount ofparagraphs.
4. How correct is the use of grammar within their paragraph?
5. How their ability is to orally discuss their images and essays to the class. (Does the student read directly from his/her mounted essay or are they able to orally recite from memory the important points?)
Lesson Evaluation: The teacher should not spend too much time with the class in the library, but long enough to be sure they know how to locate resources. This will allow them more time to research their chosen images. If the students are given too much time in the library
doing research, then they might get off task.
Modifications: Special needs students may need to partner up with a more advanced student in the library to obtain their resources. These students will not be required as many paragraphs in their essays. These students might also work with the teacher's aide.
References:
* Stainback, Charles. (1997). David Levinthal: Work from 1975-1996. New York: Distributed Art Publishers, Inc.
*(08/22/01) http://www.pbs.org/newshour/essays/rosenblatt_3-13-97.html
Reproductions:
"Hitler Moves East" series
David Levinthal
Mixed media
1975-1996
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