Introduction
I selected these texts, images, and videos with
the theme of social justice being brought into art. My target group of students
would be those at a high school level, as a lot of the issues discussed are
serious and complicated. There is a lot of social justice artwork and movements
to choose from, so I selected subjects that students could be most familiar with or have the most background knowledge on, such as civil rights and climate
change. Most of my tasks coming from these texts would be creating an art piece
in response or having a discussion before creating. My discipline is art education, so creating an art piece in response is important to me as the only way to become a better artist is through practice. Learning about these injustices will help inspire student artists to create pieces that can make a difference, all
while being aware of what is going on in the world they’re growing up in.
Print
1. Associated Press. "Street Art around New
York has Much to Say." Newsela. Ed. Newsela. The Associated
Press, 10 Sept. 2015. Web. 2 Mar. 2017. <
https://newsela.com/articles/streetart-humanrights/id/12123/>.
2. Associated
Press. "Latina Photographer Who Captured Civil Rights Movement Receives
Exhibition ." Newsela . Ed. Newsela. The Associated
Press, 7 Mar. 2017. Web. 8 Mar. 2017.
<https://newsela.com/articles/latina-photographer-civil-rights/id/27670/>.
This article is
about Mexican-American photographer Maria Varela and her photographs of the
civil rights movement, capturing demonstrations in Alabama. She was one of the
few Latinas involved in the civil rights movement, her work being overlooked
until now in the exhibition “Time to Get Ready: Fotographia Social.” Her
photographs show a unique perspective of someone that was a part of what was
happening. Her images were meant to be part of information booklets to pass out
to people working to resist segregation and poverty, to further the cause.
Varela claimed that organizers felt law enforcement officers would be less
likely to beat protestors if there were more cameras, as capturing violence
brings attention to it. Varela would go on to photograph Cesar Chavez from the
United Farm Workers after the civil rights movement. Artists today can look up
to Varela and how she used her photography to tell the perspectives of people
who were often disregarded, and also represents a unique perspective of a
Latina during the civil rights movement.
 |
| Marching Children Frame a State Police Sharpshooter Maria Valera 1966 |
The quantitative measure of this text is accessible to high
school students. I measured the readability of this article on storytoolz.com,
and it averaged a grade level of 10.7. I agree with this rating and I think it
also could be accessible to ninth graders as well. My target student audience
would be high school students in an art class, so this measurement definitely works
for me. The article is broken up into main points and offers headings when
ideas are transitioning. Its straight forward with its meaning, so students
wouldn’t have to infer a lot of information on their own. Some of the most difficult words that
students may have trouble with are coalition, segregation, autobiography,
burdened, pensive, entitled, and overlooked. However, these are the most
difficult words used, and the main points of the article could be understood
without knowing these words or solving with context clues. For qualitative
measurement, I looked at the Common Core Qualitative Measures Rubric, and found
it to be moderately complex. The text structure is very straightforward and
simple, using headings to represent what the next few paragraphs will be about.
Each paragraph has one to six sentences in it. There isn’t any photographs
included, but I would supplement this article with showing Maria Valera’s
photographs. The language features are easy to understand, using mostly
familiar vocabulary with some academic language. Sentences aren’t too long,
some very short while others more compound, but none long enough to become
confusing to students. I think the purpose is something students have to find
inside the reading, it doesn’t explicitly state it. The article says, “…artists
today can learn from Varela and how she used her photography to tell stories of
people who were often overlooked,” and also, “Organizers felt law enforcement
officers would be less likely to beat protestors if there were more cameras,”
which is the main points I would want students to take away from it. I think
the hardest part of the article that might make it more than moderately complex
is the demand for prior knowledge. Students would have to know about the civil
rights movement. The article references the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC), Selma, Alabama, civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and
other activists, and the March Against Fear in Mississippi. I do think by high
school that students have learned about the civil rights movement by sophomore
year at least, so students would have some prior knowledge. Therefore, the
quantitative measurement and the qualitative are accessible to a high school
student of any grade, but I think the best fit would be sophomores or juniors.
The text is moderately complex, so something more complex could be done with
the reader and task.
I think that students interest level in the civil rights movement
would be mildly interested compared to other subjects, because it is something
that they are familiar to learning about and its an important moment in racial
equality and human rights. The purpose for choosing this article would be to
introduce students to how photography can make a difference; photographing
injustice brings it to attention, documenting important figures spreads their
word, and you as a photographer also put your own perspective into photos. I
think this task is more complex, as students would be asked to choose what
injustice they want to bring attention to through photography, or what
perspective they want to document. So their task is more open-ended, and might
lead students to read some articles about what other photographers are choosing
to photograph involving different issues. Therefore, I would be using this text
to introduce a topic of photographing social justice and motivate interest for
photographing their own perspectives. The task that I am asking of the students
is more complex, as it’s more self-directed but also an important choice to
represent something they personally want to bring attention to. I also think
that sense of choice will motivate students to being excited about photography
and motivate them to make a difference with it.
Multimedia
1. Curtis,
Elissa. "Faces and Phases: Portraits from South Africa's Lesbian
Community." The New Yorker. N.p., 21 May 2012. Web. 9 Mar.
2017.
<http://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/faces-and-phases-portraits-from-south-africas-lesbian-community
>.
2. Rojo, Jaime, and Steven Harrington. "Painting the Desert: Urban Artist in the Navajo Nation." The Huffington Post . N.p., 15 Oct. 2014. Web. 3 Mar. 2017. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jaime-rojo-steven-harrington/the-painted-desert-project_b_5973480.html>.
3. Brooks,
Katherine. "9 Political Cartoons That Put Climate Change in
Perspective." The Huffington Post . N.p., 07 June 2014.
Web. 10 Mar. 2017.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/07/niels-bugge-cartoon-award_n_5455509.html>.
 |
| Bob Eckstein (USA) |
This article is an image set of different political cartoons
about climate change from artists all around the world. These artworks were
submitted to the Niels Bugge Cartoon Award with the theme of climate change,
and the top 9 winners were chosen for this article. These political cartoons
are not in the typical format someone would think of, but spread across mediums
and artistic styles. I think this is a better choice than showing students
typical political cartoons because instead of trying to imitate the sketchy
style of drawing and black and white restrictions, students can use mediums
that work best for them and choose their subject matter more widely. However,
these images do follow the political cartoon theme of unfolding the issue
before them in a charged image full of imagery. These artists’ cartoons are
thought-provoking and don’t give the message of themselves right away, they
require discussion and discovery.
According to storytoolz.com, this article has an average
readability score of 11.6, meaning it is accessible to juniors and seniors in
high school. I think the quantitative measurement can be extended to a high
school students of all grade levels, which would be my target level. The only
reading in this article is the brief introduction paragraph stating how these art
pieces were brought together and after that it is all
images. I think the more difficult part of the article is deciphering and reading the images for their messages, instead of the reading of
text. Some vocabulary words I could take from the introduction are
illustrators, cartoonists, interpretation, solicitation, transgenic, maltreat,
and encapsulating. For the qualitative measurement, I would describe it as in
between very complex and moderately complex, according to the Common Core’s
Qualitative Measurement Rubric. The text structure for this article is a brief
introduction, clearly organized as its broken up into three smaller paragraphs,
each 2-6 sentences. This paragraph is followed by the selection of images, each
image labeled with the artist and the country they’re from. The images are
large and of high quality, so you can see all aspects of the piece to further decode
it. The language features used in the text are easy to understand because the
writing is straight forward. Some of the vocabulary is more complex as
described before in the chosen vocabulary words. I think with some explanation
students wouldn’t have a problem understanding these words. The sentence structure
is more complex because the introduction uses longer sentences, but these are
broken up into small paragraphs. The purpose of this selection of images is
clearly stated as relating to climate change, but it is up to the reader to
read the purpose of each individual art piece, which is why I would call this
article very complex. However, with some class discussion these images could be
more understood, but it is always hard to say for certain what the purpose of
an art piece is unless its coming from the artist itself. The knowledge demands
are also very complex, because students would need to know previous subject
matter knowledge on climate change and different issues relating to this. I
think before coming to this selection of images, students would need
scaffolding on what processes and issues are causing climate change and why
these things matter. Through this, students could more easily interpret what
these artists are trying to say. Therefore, the quantitative measurement of
this article is for all high school students, but the qualitative measurement
of the selection of images is more demanding, so I think would be better for
any level above 9th grade.
 |
| Markus Grolik (Germany) |
The
purpose for using this text would be able to talk about creating a message
through an image, which political cartoons are exceptional at. I think this
task would be a good introduction into the social justice art world because
political cartoons are something more familiar to students, from learning about
them in history classes and seeing images online. Also learning how to construct
a message in an image is what social justice art is all about, and political
cartoons range from showing messages in clear to complex ways. From there, I would
want students to create their own message through an image, particularly about
climate change because they would have just had the scaffolding about the
issue. I think this task matches the text, both equal in complexity; this is
how artists create charged images, now you try to create your own. Because
student have some prior knowledge about political cartoons from history classes
and also would have the scaffolding about climate change, coming up with their
own ideas for imagery would be the biggest learning curve. I think while learning
about how climate change can affect our lives students would be motivated to
tell others about this. Further motivation could be brought from placing these
political cartoons about climate change in the school hallways, similar to how
political cartoons are published in newspapers and online, so students would
want to impress their peers.
Culturally Relevant
1. How to Change the World (A Work in Progress).
Perf. Kid President. Youtube. N.p., 19 Dec. 2013. Web. 14 Mar.
2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z7gDsSKUmU>.
2. "Gondola Clip" Disney's Zootopia .
Dir. Byron Howard and Rich Moore. Perf. Jason Bateman and Ginnifer Goodwin. Youtube.
N.p., 17 Feb. 2017. Web. 10 Mar. 2017.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6G8k5b01uE>.
This is a brief clip from the film Zootopia
(2016). This is an animated film with underlying themes of how racism can
change a society. The main character is Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin), a
rabbit, who is the first rabbit to join the police force. She is faced with
challenges because her superiors don’t believe in her ability, because she is a
rabbit, not a large animal or predator, like most on the police force. She
meets a fox while working on a case, Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), who also faces
prejudice because people believes foxes to be sneaky and conniving. There is
also the division of predators and prey in their society. By the end of the
movie, both of their prejudices have been proven wrong and the society as a
whole works together and embraces their differences. This clip is Nick talking
about an experience he had when he was stereotyped by his species and predator
status. I think this is a great example on how to talk about important issues
while not pointing the finger to blame or stigmatizing any group in the
process. Also, animation is a form of digital art and film is in the art world,
so it fits into my field, and its definitely appropriate for school. I think
that this film is culturally relevant because it’s a film made for young kids,
but has themes that cross age, race, and gender barriers; its theme concerns everyone.
It’s also delivered in ways more accessible to students and something that they’re
used to seeing and enjoying viewing, animation.
I took the quantitative measurement of this
clip from the dialogue. According to storytoolz.com, the readability of the
dialogue is an average score of 3.7, so third grade and above. However, I think
the underlying themes and making connections to contemporary issues are more
complex for students of that young of an age to understand. The way
that I would want to analyze this scene and techniques used in the film would fit middle school students or above, which is my target age group. I think that the emotion
in this scene would pull on the heart strings of any age group. Also, students
need to be mature enough to talk about this scene and film in comparison to
race and cultures in America, which might be better for high school students.
For the qualitative measurement, I would rate this as moderately complex,
according to the Common Core’s Qualitative Measurement Rubric. The film overall
is organized and easy to follow because it’s a film that’s targeted towards
children. The use of graphics is the an important part of the film and is an
art piece in itself. The language features of the film are also easy to
understand because the language is clear and the vocabulary is familiar, as the
readability score said. Some vocabulary I would want to discuss in relation to the clip would be stereotype, prejudice, oppression, perspective, and coexistence. Considering the underlying themes of this
movie, the dialogue needs to be looked at more closely. For example, when Nick
says, “If the world is only going to see a fox as shifty and untrustworthy,
there’s no point in trying to be anything else,” this is a statement about
modern society and how some cultures may feel defeated by the stereotypes given
to them. Because of this, the purpose of this film is the most complex part, I would
rate it very complex. The further you dig into the film, the more connections
with modern day race and culture relations are revealed. The previous subject
matter knowledge is also very complex, because the purpose calls for students
to know about racism and different cultural stereotypes. Therefore, the quantitative score for this film is lower, reaching from third grade to above, but the qualitative aspect and deciphering this film for its symbolism and messages is closer to eight grade and above.
The purpose for using this clip of Zootopia
would be to introduce a topic and to motivate interest. I would use this clip
to facilitate an important discussion about racial stereotypes and how they can
hurt people and affect someone their whole life, like how it affected Nick in
the clip. When discussing stereotypes in the terms of the film, there isn’t
pressure to call upon certain groups or to single out anyone, but to have an
open discussion using what was occurring in the film and digging deeper. A discussion on portraying this issue in the medium of film and also targeted towards younger children is also could be interesting. After talking
about the film in this way, then connections to modern day could be created, and how
this injustice is still occurring. From this conversation, we could look at
artworks by minorities and make connections from the artwork to themes in the
film.
