Objectives
By the end of this instructional unit, students will have an in-depth understanding of Delaware’s role in segregation, the history of desegregation within their own school district and school building, and public art (both within the city of Wilmington and outside of it). These three different objectives are married by the idea that public history and public art are often interwoven concepts; traditionally, one does not exist without the other. Four of the new Common Core Literacy Standards heavily influence student objectives, in addition to Delaware’s Visual Arts Standards and Delaware’s History Standards (Appendix A).
Common Core standards addressing informational text are addressed in this unit, as students will be reading informational articles on both public art and Delaware’s segregation history. The following are Common Core standards this unit addresses regarding informational text:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.7: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.
Students will read various informational texts in addition to viewing sketches, photographs, and other images of various pieces of public art. Students will use this textual and visual information to analyze works of art, justify their meanings and locations, and to help them develop their own ideas for the original work of art that they will ultimately create.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.6: Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or beauty of the text.
Students will read a specific article from The Morning News (Delaware’s primary newspaper in the late 1800’s-early 1900’s) regarding the unveiling of the James A. Garfield Monument in Wilmington Delaware on May 31, 1895. The article describes this occasion as an extraordinary social and political event and also effectively describes the prominent location of the monument, in addition to the reasons behind why this location was chosen. The article’s persuasive tone merely gains power as students learn that the monument was later relocated to drastically different surroundings.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11-12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Discussion will play an active role in this unit as students gradually understand how desegregation in Delaware led to the busing between the city and the suburbs that still continues today; students will use discussion to inform and share their opinions on the district’s busing policies. Students will also discuss multiple aspects of public art, including policies, processes, and meanings, in order to forge their own opinions about particular works of art and their histories.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.5: Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.
Students will be asked to choose both a local and a global piece of public art on which they must craft a presentation to share with their peers. Because the umbrella of “public art” is so broad, the number of pieces that we can focus on in class is quite limited; however, there will still be several pieces within Wilmington and outside of the city that are worthy of attention and analyses.
DE Grades 9-12 History Standard 4A: Students will develop an understanding of modern United States history, its connections to both Delaware and world history, including:
Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877); Development of an industrialized nation (1870-1900); Emergence of modern America (1890-1930); Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945); Postwar United States (1945-early 1970s); Contemporary United States (1968-present).
Although most of the historical information related to desegregation and Brown v. Board of Education (1954) refers to the postwar and contemporary United States time periods, some works of public art explored during this unit will provide historical insight into the civil war and reconstruction era, the development of an industrialized nation era, and the emergence of modern America era.
Through the creation of their final project, students will exercise an understanding of applying media, techniques, and processes (Delaware Visual Art Standard 1: Understanding and applying media, techniques and processes) and will choose a range of content, symbols, and ideas that they will integrate into their designs (Delaware Visual Art Standard 3: Choosing and evaluating a range of subject matter, symbols and ideas). Through the exploration of various pieces of public art, students will demonstrate an understanding of the visual arts in relation to history and cultures (Delaware Visual Art Standard 4: Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures) and will also reflect upon and assess the characteristics and merits of others’ work (Delaware Visual Art Standard 5: Reflecting upon and assessing the characteristics and merits of their work and the work of others).
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