Lesson Plan

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Title: Working in the World

Creator: Beth Shaw McGuire, Senior Museum Educator, Ackland Art Museum

Subject: effective citizenship Course: American History Grade Level: 10

Unit Plan: personal responsibility

Standards:

COMPETENCY GOAL 10: The learner will develop, defend, and evaluate positions on issues regarding the personal responsibilities of citizens in the American constitutional democracy.

Objectives

10.03 Evaluate the importance of supporting, nurturing, and educating oneself in the United States society.

10.04 Demonstrate characteristics of effective citizenship.

Lesson Goals:

· Based on her writing, students will articulate how Keckley supported, nurtured, and educated herself.

· Students will identify how Keckley was and Saar is an effective citizen in American society.

· Students will articulate how Saar manifested Keckley’s characteristics of an effective citizen in the portrait Elizabeth Keckley: Mrs. Lincoln’s Seamstress.

· Students will articulate Saar demonstrates characteristics of an effective citizen by making the portrait Elizabeth Keckley: Mrs. Lincoln’s Seamstress.

Differentiation:

· Divide students into heterogeneous groupings, with each person contributing to the list each group develops (Part 2).

· Alter graphic organizer as necessary (Part 1 and 3).

· Alter writing assignment as necessary.

· Use persuasion map for students who have difficulty structuring their writing and/or their arguments.

Duration: 1 ½ 90-minute periods, or 3 50-minute periods

Teacher Materials:

· graphic organizer for reading selections of Behind the Scenes

· graphic organizer for reading interviews with and information about Lezley Saar.

Student Materials:

· High-quality reproduction(s) of:

Saar, Lezley American, born 1953 Elizabeth Keckley: Mrs. Lincoln's Seamstress, 2002 acrylic on fabric Mixed Media 243.8 x 139.7 cm (96 x 55 in.) Ackland Fund 2005.5

· Graphic organizer for Elizabeth Keckley

· Graphic organizer for Lezley Saar

Preparation:

Discuss the concept of citizenship with students prior to these lessons.

Procedures:

Part 1:

1. Give each student a graphic organizer before he/she reads one of the selections of Behind the Scenes and other websites. Make sure that the reproduction is in clear sight of all of the students.

2. Give each student a selection; make sure that the students who receive the same selection have complimentary learning skills to create heterogeneous groupings.

3. Ask students to read his/her selection, and take notes on it, using the graphic organizer.

4. Ask students to get together as a group, and discuss which ideas found in the graphic organizer they also find in the reading, and list the details on a flip chart for the rest of the group to read.

5. Each group briefly presents its findings to the other groups, referring to the list as necessary.

Part 2:

1. Independently, ask students to generate a list of characteristics of effective citizens in the United States. Ask students to share with a partner, then to cite their most important ideas to the rest of the group, during which the teacher generates a list in front of the group.

2. Show students the image Elizabeth Keckley: Mrs. Lincoln's Seamstress. Ask students to identify what characteristics from the list that they generated are represented in the work, and how. Ask students if they identified additional characteristics represented visually in the work, but that are not included on the list. Add these characteristics to the written list.

3. Ask students what parts of Behind the Scenes they see in Saar’s work, if any. Acknowledge all answers. Why do they think that Saar would want to depict Keckley in one of her works, considering the intensive planning and work that it takes to create one? (Saar has made other works depicting other individuals who are significant to American and world history in the past. Although they do not seem to be a series, they have some qualities in common.)

Part 3:

1. Ask students to read the interview with Lezley Saar, and to look at other works by Saar, and to consider what Saar wants to accomplish with her art, and if she is successful. Ask students to jot down their ideas as they read on the graphic organizer provided, and to be prepared to share with the rest of the class. Make sure that the reproduction is in clear sight of all of the students. Acknowledge all ideas; record them for the whole class to see.

2. Given what they now know about Lezley Saar, have their ideas about why she would create the work changed or not? Why?

Culminating Activities:

· Tell students that they are to write a nomination for an Effective Citizenship Award to Elizabeth Keckley or Lezley Saar. Students should include evidence from their nominee’s past life in their nomination, as well as information about the individual’s impact on the larger society/citizenry.

or

· Tell students to select a job that they would to do in the future, and to write a nomination for an Effective Citizenship Award for someone in that field. Students should include aspects of that person’s career in their nomination, as well as how the person’s job positively influences the larger society/citizenry.

Assessment:

Part 1:

Students completed his/her graphic organizer, and successfully communicated his/her responses with the larger group. Students listened respectfully to each other with the small group, and asked for clarification in appropriate ways. Members of the group clearly articulated the group’s findings to the remainder of the class.

Part 2:

Students generated a personal list of characteristics of effective citizens, and successfully communicated their ideas to their partners. Partners were able to add their best ideas to the class list effectively.

Students identified specific visual evidence of effective citizenship in the work of art, and articulated how that evidence related to the characteristic(s) identified.

Students provided specific sources of comparison between the written and visual text, and provided good reasons for why Saar selected Keckley as a subject for her work.

Part 3:

Students clearly articulated one or more things that Saar wanted to accomplish with her art, and their opinions as to whether she was successful or not, giving evidence to support their ideas.

Culminating activity:

Students wrote a convincing, fact-based nomination that included information about the nominee’s past life or career, and how the individual made an impact on the larger society/citizenry.

Supplemental Resources:

Keckley reading(s):

http://digilib.nypl.org/dynaweb/digs/wwm9713/@Generic__BookView

or

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASkeckley.htm

http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Bios/entries/keckley_elizabeth_hobbs.html

http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/26/Elizabeth_Keckley_Mary_Todds_maid

Lezley Saar reading(s):

http://artscenecal.com/ArticlesFile/Archive/Articles2000/Articles1000/LSaarA.html

http://saar.home.mindspring.com/documents/bio.html

Persuasion Map (as a preface to writing nomination): http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/pdf/persuasion.pdf

Technology Integration:

Students use websites as a source of information, from which they may glean facts for their citizenship nomination.

Relevant Websites:

Keckley:

http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/keck-eli.htm

http://docsouth.unc.edu/keckley/menu.html

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6224/

http://webpages.marshall.edu/~naegele2/

http://www.smithsonianlegacies.si.edu/objectdescription.cfm?ID=258

http://dept.kent.edu/museum/collection/keckley.htm

http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Bios/entries/keckley_elizabeth_hobbs.html

http://www.whitebow.com/Historic_Dressmakers.html

http://www.hfmgv.org/education/smartfun/hermitage/house/keckley.html

Lezley Saar websites:

http://www.janbaum.com/artistShow.asp?artistID=lsaar&fname=Lezley&lname=Saar

Gesture Black Power Hand:

http://www.epatric.com/causes/black-power.html

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/mm-mexicocity.html

NOTE: In an email to the Ackland Art Museum, Lezley Saar identified the hand decorating Elizabeth Keckley’s dress not as a Black Power hand gesture, but as an “M,” which, for her, represents “Mulatto Power.”

Key Focusing Questions:

· What does a person’s actions and choices say about them?

· What are the qualities and characteristics of an effective citizen?

· What are the different ways that individuals may be effective citizens?

File Attachments:

· Keckleygraphicorganizer.pub

· Saargraphicorganizer.pub

This lesson plan and its distribution were made possible by a grant from the Wyeth Foundation, the William Hayes Ackland Trust, and the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.