American Revolution and Art

The Corcoran Gallery of Art
17th St. and New York Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20006
(202) 639-1730 (Education Department)

Instructional Unit:
Review of basic elements of painting and "We the People."

Curriculum Unit:
Grade 5
Social Studies

Objectives:
1.The students should be able to recognize the basic elements of color, line, shape, and texture in paintings and be able to use these elements to gain meaning from the works as evidenced in classroom discussion and on a written test given after the field trip.
2. The students should be able to identify the four categories of subject matter (portraiture, still-life, landscape, and genre) from slides or prints.
3. The students should be able to define the vocabulary listed in the "We the People" packet, and discuss different works and their relation to the "We the People" packet.
4. The students should be able to make an educated guess as to the general style and time period of an unknown work and support his answer with evidence on a written test after the field trip.
5. The students should be able to present an opinion on the relationship of American art to the social and cultural history of the United States in discussion following the field trip.

Pre-Visit Activities:
The Corcoran's education staff has prepared materials for use by teachers scheduling tours with them. For "We the People," there is a set of sixteen slides (one each for landscape, still life, portrait, and genre paintings for each of the time paintings covered), a list of vocabulary words related to concepts studied, styles of painting, history, etc. The slides are presented to the students in their historical context. For example, all four of the colonial paintings will be presented and discussed in the classroom. The type of painting, the subject, the style, the evidence in the painting that dates it, and the events that may have influenced its production are considered. After all the periods are considered individually, all of the slides of one type, such as landscapes, are studied together to discover shifts in method, accessories included, composition, color, etc. and to enable the student to make comparisons. The appropriate vocabulary words are introduced to the students as the slide presentations/discussions proceed. Some of these words will be used by the students as they lead the tours through the gallery.

On-Site Activities:
A member of the educational staff will meet with the entire group and review the basic concepts of line, shape, color, and texture using a series of paintings on the Joan of Arc story housed in one room of the gallery. Following this, the students will split into three groups and take docent-led tours of the collection. The tours will consist of visits to and active discussions of paintings from the three historical periods under consideration. The people, places, every day activities, and objects seen in the paintings will be discussed and the paintings will be placed in their historical context with discussion of the events of the time of their execution. The docents will encourage the students to compare and contrast the paintings they see through open-ended questions. After lunch allow some free time for students to explore additional galleries.

Follow-Up Activities:
Students will share with each other the things they saw and some of the things they heard from the docents and from each other. The parent chaperones will be asked to stay through this discussion to assist in drawing out from the class the important points made. The following day there will be an art project (self-portrait) through which the students will demonstrate what they learned and a written test which will help me evaluate the field trip and study unit.

Appendices: none

Bibliography:
We the People teacher packet for the Corcoran Gallery of Art tour.

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