ALEX Learning Activity

  

Harlem Renaissance Art - Compare and Contrast

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  This learning activity provided by:  
Author: Asia Hester
System:Huntsville City
School:Academy For Academics & Arts
  General Activity Information  
Activity ID: 2053
Title:
Harlem Renaissance Art - Compare and Contrast
Digital Tool/Resource:
Treasures of The New York Public Library: Aaron Douglas's Aspects of Negro Life
Web Address – URL:
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.

  Associated Standards and Objectives  
Content Standard(s):
Social Studies
SS2010 (2010)
Grade: 6
United States Studies: The Industrial Revolution to the Present
4 ) Identify cultural and economic developments in the United States from 1900 through the 1930s.

•  Describing the impact of various writers, musicians, and artists on American culture during the Harlem Renaissance and the Jazz Age
Examples: Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Andrew Wyeth, Frederic Remington, W. C. Handy, Erskine Hawkins, George Gershwin, Zora Neale Hurston (Alabama)

•  Identifying contributions of turn-of-the-century inventors
Examples: George Washington Carver, Henry Ford, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Alva Edison, Wilbur and Orville Wright (Alabama)

•  Describing the emergence of the modern woman during the early 1900s
Examples: Amelia Earhart, Zelda Fitzgerald, Helen Keller, Susan B. Anthony, Margaret Washington, suffragettes, suffragists, flappers (Alabama)

•  Identifying notable persons of the early 1900s
Examples: Babe Ruth, Charles A. Lindbergh, W. E. B. Du Bois, John T. Scopes (Alabama)

•  Comparing results of the economic policies of the Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover Administrations
Examples: higher wages, increase in consumer goods, collapse of farm economy, extension of personal credit, stock market crash, Immigration Act of 1924

Unpacked Content
Strand: Economics, History, Civics and Government
Course Title: United States Studies: The Industrial Revolution to the Present
Evidence Of Student Attainment:
Students:
  • Identify cultural developments in the US from 1900 through the 1930s by describing the impact of various writers, musicians, and artists on American culture during the Harlem Renaissance and the Jazz Age.
  • Identify contributions of turn-of-the century inventors.
  • Describe the emergence of the modern woman.
  • Identifying notable persons of the early 1900s.
  • Compare results of various administrative economic policies of Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover.
Teacher 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.
Alabama Archives Resources:
Click below to access all Alabama Archives resources aligned to this standard.

Alabama Alternate Achievement Standards
AAS Standard:
SS.AAS.6.4- Identify at least one or more inventions and inventors of the late 1800s and early 1900s, including Thomas Edison (practical light bulb), Alexander Graham Bell (telephone), George Washington Carver (uses for the peanut), Wright Brothers (airplane), and Henry Ford (affordable car); illustrate the cultural changes of the early 1900s presented by at least one or more individuals including, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zora Neale Hurston, Helen Keller, Babe Ruth, W. C. Handy, and Charles Lindbergh.
SS.A


Arts Education
ARTS (2017)
Grade: 6
Visual Arts
10) Compare and contrast works of art or design that reveal how people live around the world and what they value.

Example: Molas of Cuna Indians in Panama with Kente cloth of West Africa.

Unpacked Content
Artistic Process: Responding
Anchor Standards:
Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.
Process Components: Perceive, Analyze, Interpret
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?
Concepts & 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
Skill 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.
Arts Education
ARTS (2017)
Grade: 6
Visual Arts
12) Interpret art by discerning contextual information and visual qualities to identify ideas and meaning.

Example: Students answer questions such as "Why are they leaving and where are they going?" in response to One Way Ticket in Jacob Lawrence's Great Migration Series.

Unpacked Content
Artistic Process: Responding
Anchor Standards:
Anchor Standard 8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.
Process Components: Perceive, Analyze, Interpret
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?
Concepts & 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
Skill 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.
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. 
  Strategies, Preparations and Variations  
Phase:
During/Explore/Explain
Activity:

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:

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


Advanced 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.

Variation Tips (optional):
 
Notes or Recommendations (optional):

If time permits, there is a 3-minute YouTube video that introduces the Aaron Douglas collection that can be shown to the class. 

The Harlem Renaissance - Treasures of the New York Public Library

  Keywords and Search Tags  
Keywords and Search Tags: