Overview
Does a picture paint a thousand words? So often we ask our students to look at an image and tell us what they see. Typical responses will vary from the concrete and literal to the imaginative. But what happens when we ask students to look at a work of art from a specific time period in history? What happens when art is used as a primary source? Do they realize that they are looking through the lens from the perspective of an individual during a specific time period or a specific event in history? When and how can we encourage students begin to look a little deeper and question, explain and reflect on what they are seeing? Just what can students gain from each other's differing perspectives?
This unit will focus on art and historical fiction depicting the Revolutionary War. Art created during and after the Revolutionary War will serve as a catalyst for discussion of perspectives on life specifically in regard to race, class and gender during the Revolutionary War. Students will examine works of art and compare them with the historical fiction novel Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson during this four week unit in communications class. Students will judge the validity of the information before them by comparing and contrasting art and literature and then by drawing conclusions in order to write from perspectives of people of different races, classes and genders during the given time period. Culminating this unit with an essay, students will argue whether those perspectives still exist in today's society.
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