ART – Use this project based learning lesson to teach students art skills through interdisciplinary work with social studies.
Learning Objective:
To design an object that represents the journey and experience of an immigrant story, construct the object out of clay and collage the resources and narratives researched onto the surface, installing the objects into a class steamer trunk that will be installed in a community location (pending COVID-19 restrictions).
Barbara Mullen wrote this lesson to include a Project Based Learning activity that tied in more real-world aspects for her students in Fall River, MA. Students will be able to connect to the subject personally and have an understanding of the hardship that families have experienced in immigration, with the goal of creating more empathy for others.
Materials Needed:
- Earthenware Clay
- Clay tools
- Visual Journals
- Color copier for primary resources and printed images for collage
- Kiln
- Paper mache glue mix, modge podge
- Brushes, glue applicators
- Scissors
- X-acto knives/cutting mats
- Cardboard for Steamer Trunk (or recycle old suitcase)
Inquiry: Authentic real-world problem or question that is open-ended and leads to discovery
Essential Questions
- Consider how and why people immigrate to other countries
- What are the different experiences that an immigrant can have on their journey to a new country?
- What type of objects would immigrants take with them on their journey?
- How can these objects symbolize narrative?
Students will respond to the essential questions in their visual journal or on a Google Doc and will share it in Google Classroom. Students will research a family that has immigrated to America at any period. They may use their own family as inspiration or can be given a case study of a family or individual.
Students will research and read the lessons and topics at Immigration Primary Resources and respond to the Questions for Further Thought at the end of each section. These questions will prompt students to have a full understanding of the immigrant experience. Examples include:
- What were living conditions like for passengers in first-class compared to steerage-class?
- How did conditions change for the better for steerage passengers over time? What still needed improvement?
Students will be able to differentiate how the treatment of passengers was based on their class level and how this could have led to a different traveling experience. Students can use this motivation to investigate how luxury items, such as an ornate perfume bottle or ivory hairbrush, could symbolize the life passengers left behind or a family heirloom that was taken with them. What information can these items tell us about the past?
Students will learn about oral history methods. Teachers can use this lesson plan that has an assessment. Students who choose to research an immigrant’s story outside their family can listen to oral histories through the Library of Congress or the National Park Service – Ellis Island.
Student-Designed Solution: Teacher as a facilitator allowing students to research on their own
- Students research their own family’s immigration journey and create a sketch or model of an object that represents their journey
- Students research a case study of an individual who has immigrated to America and designs an object that represents their story
Reflection and Revision: Students need to test out ideas, learn about strengths and weaknesses and make changes for the final project
- Students will listen to primary source oral history reports that give first-hand accounts of an immigrant’s story
- They will interview family members and recall key aspects or artifacts that were represented in their journey
- Students meet with the teacher for weekly check-ins on the progress of idea development
- They will send ideas to peers in class for peer to peer reviews via google classroom
Students will have researched and chosen an object or symbol that represents the immigrant’s journey. The students should share their sketches and reference pictures via email and Google Classroom. The teacher will approve these before students move on to the construction aspect of the project.
Students will be taught intro to hand-building skills in ceramics. These skills include, pinch pot, slab construction, and coil methods. Students will choose the proper hand-building technique to construct their objects. During dry times and firings, students will be collecting images, creating fonts, texts, and pictures that they will paper mache and collage over the object after a bisque firing. Ms. Mullen drew inspiration from the One Million Bones Project on how a bisqued form gives a visual impact and more structural integrity.
Students will create a layered 3D collage over their object that tells a visual journey of the immigrant narrative. Classes will also construct a cardboard Steamer Trunk that will house all students’ artwork inside as an installation.
Presentation: Opportunity for students to demonstrate the process of learning including any bumps in the road
- Students will present their final sculpture along with a google slide presentation documenting their process and telling the narrative of the immigrant
- They will then collaborate on putting their objects together in a steamer trunk to represent the stories of the families that chose to start a new life in America
Students present their final sculptures and a PowerPoint presentation on the story about their projects. Slide shows would be incorporated into the installation at the community location (TBD). Students will have in-class critiques with teachers and peers. They will also present their work to the public at a gallery opening or digital slideshow presentation of their work.
Assessment:
- Artwork 60%
- The visual journal, ideas, research, and final work
- Class Participation 20%
- Using class time wisely, behavior and effort
- Final Presentation 20%
- Preparation to present final to public and in-class critiques
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.