Us and Them

Us and Them

Overview

This unit focuses on some of the issues associated with individual citizens and groups in Canada and examines the power of art and writing to convey messages about these social issues.

Links to Curriculum Outcomes

Students will (be expected to)

·  identify and explain persistent issues involving the rights, responsibilities, roles, and status of individual citizens and groups in a local, national, and global context (Social Studies)

·  create artworks, integrating themes found through direct observation, personal experience, and imagination (Visual Arts)

·  use a range of strategies in writing and other ways of representing to explore and reflect on their feelings, values, and attitudes (Language Arts)

·  analyze the distribution of power and privilege in society and the sources of authority in the lives of citizens (Social Studies)

Links to Telling Stories: Themes / Key Words

·  Art as social comment

·  Genre painting – detail of everyday life

·  Alternate views of historical figures and events

Art Works

·  In Charlottetown Poor House, Robert Harris, CAG H-1740

·  In Ch’town Poor House, Robert Harris, CAG H-1679

·  Lord Aberdeen, Robert Harris, CAG H-1793

·  The Charlottetown Pillory, Robert Harris, CAG H-123

·  Maisonneuve Killing the Iroquois Chief, Robert Harris, CAG H-1335

·  Captain Vancouver, Charles Comfort, CAG 73.12

·  Captain Vancouver Portrait Mask, David Neel, CAG 98.

Lesson #1: Living High on the Hog

Objective Students will investigate Harris representations of poor and rich people and consider assumptions that they themselves make about people.

Related Art Work(s)

·  In Charlottetown Poor House, Robert Harris, CAG H-1740

·  In Ch’town Poor House, Robert Harris, CAG H-1679

·  Lord Aberdeen, Robert Harris, CAG H-1793

Materials

·  pencils or pens

·  paper

Activities

1.  Give students the opportunity to examine the art works. You may do this by either allowing them to view them online at computer stations, or by projecting them on a screen from the Internet. You may also do this by printing them off, and perhaps making overhead transparencies of them.

2.  Invite students to look at the works and, using observation skills, describe each person in them. Students might individually keep written records of this or create a class description.

3.  Encourage students to concentrate on such points as mood / feelings, what the subject’s occupation might be, what their first reactions were to that subject (guiding them away from mean / nasty interpretations).

4.  Have the students reflect upon why they made the judgments they did about these people. Allow students to think of why the people in the pictures are depicted the way they are (whether it be how they looked, or if the artist’s social ideas influenced the product), and why these individuals may be in their own unique situation.

5.  Ask students to personally formulate two lists in which they discover points for each role that help to depict each in a niche of society. Some example points might include

·  human traits (whether the person / people even have a face or identity)

·  environmental objects (setting, furniture), their clothes, etc.

6.  Challenge students to think of modern parallels, and to make a portrait of their own. Students may wish to create a painting, sketch, collage, etc.

Computer Option

·  Encourage students to search for and explore sites that try to overturn current practices, and / or help people overcome their lesser fortunes, such as:

www.maketradefair.com

http://www.corpwatch.org/

Lesson #2: Crime and Punishment

Objective Students will investigate the legal consequences, past and present, of peoples’ actions, and society’s view of criminals.

Related Art Work(s)

·  The Charlottetown Pillory, Robert Harris, CAG H-123

Materials

·  pencils or pens

·  paper

·  In the Shadow of the Gallows (Jim Hornby)

Activities

1.  With students, examine the picture of the man in the pillory (stocks) in Charlottetown. In a whole class discussion, generate ideas about what is going on in the picture. Invite students to make attempts at answering some questions such as:

·  Who do you think this person is?

·  Why do you think he is there? Where is he, and what is he in?

·  What are the other people doing there?

·  What time period was this in?

2.  Reveal to students that this was called a pillory, or stocks. Mention that it was usually used for people who, for example, lied while under oath in court, or attempted to (sexually) assault someone.

3.  Have students investigate what the other people were doing in the picture (ridiculing, throwing objects at them like fruit or eggs), and when it may have taken place (up until at least 1876 in PEI, when the picture was made, although the practice was abolished in Canada by 1869).

4.  Encourage students to look into who would make decisions on such punishments. Also, have them look at what happens for such a crime in current society. For each case, past and present, discuss with the class whether they think the punishments fit the crime.

5.  Invite students to pick a similar crime, and create a representation of (or describe in words) the punishment they think will be used, or be fair, for the same crime in 100 years. Have students provide justification for their choices.

Lesson #3: All’s Fair…

Objective Students will investigate how, and why, very different images are based on the same subject or event.

Related Art Work(s)

·  Maisonneuve Killing the Iroquois Chief, Robert Harris, CAG H-1335

·  Captain Vancouver, Charles Comfort, CAG 73.12

·  Captain Vancouver Portrait Mask, David Neel, CAG 98.6

·  Propaganda posters from the world wars

Materials

·  overheads of the art works / projector

·  pencils or pens

·  paper

·  tempera paints (liquid or solid)

·  coloured pencils

Activities

1.  Invite students to examine the pictures listed above and any relevant ones you may have. At this point, you might have students guess what point of view is behind each work of art, or what point of view each work is advocating.

2.  Have students hypothesize as to why each work is putting forth the meaning that it is. Spark the students’ thoughts with the following questions, and have them answer them in their notebooks:

·  What kind(s) of bias(es) are shown in each image?

·  Why would someone make this image with such a one-sided view?

·  How would each image make someone of a contrasting view feel, and why?

·  How would it make someone feel who is impartial to, or in support of, that given view, and why?

Challenge students to identify a list of features in each work that help it to make its case (subject size, colours, expressions, phrasing, etc.)

3.  What is a contemporary topic about which there are opposing views that are represented in different ways (examples: the wars of the Middle East, fishery disputes, etc.)

4.  Encourage students to think of their own topic. Have them create a poster that strongly advocates one point of view. To accompany it, have students list the methods they used to help them convey the message they intended.

Computer Option

·  To aid them in deciding on a subject to represent and write about, students may wish to investigate topics on the Internet. For example, if students wanted to paint something based on the most recent quarrel between the United States and Iraq, they might look at mainstream sites like www.cnn.com, www.abc.com, (any major network). Then, they might also look at sites that try to get what they view as the “whole story” to people (e.g., www.michaelmoore.com, http://costofwar.com ) Sites which try to give a strong or opposing view, or perhaps “not the whole story” will be useful.

Ideas for Assessment

Have posters displayed in the room and have peers try to determine the message that students tried to convey. Compare their views with the intentions of the “creator”. Have a class discussion to look at what worked and why.

Lesson #4: Write-a-thon

Objective Students will create a set of written works based upon the first three lessons.

Materials

·  pencils or pens

·  paper

Activities

1.  Students will reflect upon the work they have done and the art works they have examined in the first three lessons. Have students create a multi-genre project on their experiences with these lessons.

2.  Ask students to choose five styles of writing from a list that might include:

·  concrete poetry

·  journal entry

·  tabloid

·  interview

·  A&E review

·  biography

·  haiku

·  creative writing / story

3.  Encourage students to include pictures / collages to express their thoughts.

4.  Have students put their group of works together, with a table of contents, list of resources / references, and a cover page.

Computer Option

·  You may encourage students to transform their multi-genre into a Corel slideshow, or a web site. Students may gain experience with different technologies / programs, such as: Corel Presentations, Front Page / Front Page Express, Netscape Composer, scanner, digital camera, Internet, etc.

Bringing it all Together

With the students, you might mount an art / literature exhibit of the student work in the classroom or in a public area of the school or community.

Suggested Resources

·  In the Shadow of the Gallows – Criminal Law and Capital Punishment in Prince Edward Island, 1769-1941 (Jim Hornby, 1998)