Prior knowledge regarding formal and expressive qualities of works of art is assumed. Formal qualities are ways the elements of art (line, color, texture, form, etc.) are combined using design principles, such as balance, rhythm, contrast, emphasis and other compositional effects. Expressive qualities are meanings analyzed in works of art--the mood, dynamic state and ideas or ideals.
Activity 1.
Pictures numbered 1, 40 and 45 from the book, The Great Migration: An American Story, may be used. You may select others that you think more appropriate, as long as they meet the stated criteria in Steps A and B. Have students select a partner or assign partners as appropriate.
Step A. Sample responses include identifying the literal subject matter (cities, use of color to show ethnicity, smoke stacks for factories, people with suitcases to show travel, etc.) and seeing how the art elements and their relationships are used.
Step B. Sample responses include interpretation of the internal meanings of the elements: contrast of dark and light colors, use of few colors, colors all of the same palette, strong colors and lines to show power, people leaning forward to show eagerness and determination, background painted in thin, dry strokes of color, and people in thick, solid colors showing a focus on people more than on the background, etc.
After students have completed Step B, conduct a class discussion to share and clarify student responses. Be sure to probe how external meaning and prior knowledge of the subject influenced student responses in Steps A and B. Responses should be listed on chart paper and kept for use with Activity 9. Then, review the expectations for the task as stated in the student booklet.
Activity 2.
Students should complete Step A individually, share responses as part of Step B, participate in a class discussion and contribute to the development of a class list for Step C.
Step A. Sample responses include: climate, jobs, being in the military, war, health, crime, to join family, etc.
Step C. Accept any reasonable response, with appropriate explanation.
Activity 3.
Step A. Have students take notes as you present appropriate information from the Background Information box on the following page.
Step B. Complete this activity as a class. Sample responses include:
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climate: |
|
either |
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war: |
|
push |
| jobs: |
pull |
health: |
either |
| military: |
either |
crime: |
push |
| family: |
either |
persecution: |
push |
Step C. Have students view slides of paintings from the Jacob Lawrence series or look at those included in the book, The Great Migration: An American Story. The recommended paintings are designated below by number and probable responses are indicated, but explanations may vary. These responses will also be needed for Activities 6 and 7.
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2 |
|
pull |
|
13 |
|
push |
|
20 |
|
pull |
|
44 |
|
pull |
| 8 |
push |
15 |
push |
22 |
push |
54 |
pull |
| 9 |
push |
17 |
push |
24 |
push |
58 |
pull |
| 10 |
push |
19 |
push |
31 |
pull |
59 |
pull |
Activity 4.
Project a transparency of the map from the Teacher's Resources, covering the title. Have students respond individually. See the sample Scoring Tool near the end of this page.
After the activity has been completed, you may reveal the actual title of the map and discuss its appropriateness, and compare to titles developed by the students.
Activity 5.
In this activity, students examine a variety of sources to determine the various push and pull factors responsible for the Great Migration. Push factors included the destruction of cotton crops by the boll weevil, farms ruined by floods, harsh treatment of tenant farmers by white landowners, lack of justice in Southern courts, terrorism, etc. Pull factors included the promise of better jobs, food, housing and education, the freedom to vote, and encouragement from family, friends and newspapers in the North. For further discussion of these factors and other events which influenced the Great Migration, see:
Christian, Charles. Black Saga, The African American Experience. Boston: Houghton- Mifflin, 1993.
Use additional background information from the paragraphs below to introduce this activity.
Background Information
The migration of African-Americans from the rural South to the industrial North, as it unfolded in the first decades of the 20th century, had an epic character: a collective Odyssey to match the Illiad of the Civil War. It was forced by the merciless Southern white reaction that came in the wake of Reconstruction, plunging the African-American population of the Southern states--all poor, nearly all rural--into a purgatory of abrogated rights.
In the South, 1900-1925 brought the high tide of Jim Crow laws, of lynchings and the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan. Unable to vote, powerless to change their political status, Southern blacks voted with their feet, and by the end of the '30s more than a million of them (the exact figures will probably never be known) had flocked to the mid-Atlantic, Northeastern and Midwestern cities. They were looking for a better America than the one they had known. Some of them no doubt imagined they were going to a promised land. In this they were sharply disappointed, especially after 1929, when they arrived in a North economically devastated by the Depression (TIME, 11/22/93).
The Great Migration altered the very structure of American society and thrust the question of the “color line,” as W. E. B. DuBois labeled it, onto the national agenda. Newcomers, faced with an existence far different from their lives in the South, helped to create a new, more aggressive African-American community in the large, predominantly African-American neighborhoods that emerged in Northern cities. Though this mass movement set the scene for modern life in most American cities today, it remains one of twentieth century America's least studied and most poorly understood historical events.
The Great Migration was first and foremost of people, the result of hundreds of thousands of individual decisions to leave an old life behind in search of a brighter future. It was a movement within America, yet it paralleled the immigrant experiences of other ethnic groups. Both the migrants and immigrants carried their hopes and dreams, along with their cardboard suitcases and clothes bundles, into an uncertain existence (Field to Factory brochure).
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Divide students into four groups as indicated below. In advance, prepare a packet for each student group including the materials indicated. The photographs, letters and poems are found on pages 39 through 56. Working in groups, have students analyze the source(s) of information to respond to Steps A, B and C.
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Group 1: |
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the book, The Great Migration: An American Story |
| Group 2: |
photographs from the Library of Congress |
| Group 3: |
letters from migrants describing their experiences |
| Group 4: |
poems |
Activity 6.
When students in the four groups have completed Activity 5, have them “Jigsaw” to form teams consisting of one member from each group. With this strategy, each team will benefit from the “expertise” developed by its members as they worked in their original groups.
Students compile a team list of the push/pull factors responsible for the migration. The number of factors listed will vary by team. Provide direction for students to use the two extra lines if their team can list more than eight.
Activity 7.
Students work individually. If you use the paintings recommended in Activity 3C, sample responses are included with that activity.
Activity 8.
Conduct a class discussion using the list developed in Activity 2, Step C, and refined in Activity 3, Step B.
Examples of factors students may eliminate, with appropriate explanation, include climate, military, war or others. Students may add factors such as segregation, flooding, boll weevils, poor or no schooling, poor housing or others with appropriate explanation.
Activity 9.
Step A. Have students refer to the chart paper from Activity 1 on which they listed the formal and expressive qualities used by the artist, then complete Step A independently. Responses may include: strong colors, people leaning forward, background in thin, dry brush strokes, etc. Have students identify and describe how the formal and expressive qualities Lawrence used in selected paintings convey meaning.
Step B. You may want to model this step using painting number 58, which focuses on education. Use of increased height of each figure, colors, design in dresses, numbers on chalkboard, and position of legs convey a positive attitude toward this “pull” factor.
Activity 10.
Step A. Students work independently.
Step B. Students work with a partner.
Activity 11.
Initially, have students work on their own to create a list of criteria to use for evaluation of personal visual statements. Then, discuss the criteria as a class and create a master list. See the sample scoring tool on further down this page for suggestions. The list will depend, in part, on prior knowledge of students in using form, media, techniques, processes, tools and materials. Once their list is developed, post it in the studio in order to continually focus student attention on the criteria.
Activity 12.
Provide as many different materials as possible for students to use in completing this activity.
Activity 13.
Step A. Remind each student to use the criteria the class developed in Activity 11 to critique his/her own work. Each item listed on the criteria must be addressed in the self-evaluation.
Step B. Have a procedure that will allow students to critique the work of at least one other student using the criteria developed in Activity 11. Student comments on the work of peers should be constructive, honest, and focused on the criteria.
Bibliography.
Adero, Malaika, ed. Up South. New York: The New Press, 1993.
Christian, Charles. Black Saga, The African American Experience. Boston: Houghton- Mifflin, 1993.
Hughes, Robert. “Stanzas From a Black Epic.” TIME, November 22, 1993, pp. 70-71.
“Field to Factory: Afro-American Migration, 1915-1940.” Brochure for exhibit of the same title at the Smithsonian Museum, Washington, DC, 1987.
Meltzer, Milton, ed. In Their Own Words. A History of the American Negro 1916-1966. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, Co., 1993.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Phillips Collection (1993). The Great Migration: An American Story. New York: HarperCollins.
Turner, Elizabeth Hutton. Jacob Lawrence, the Migration Series. Washington, D.C.: The Phillips Collection, 1993.
Watts, Jim and Davis, Allan F. Generations: Your Family In Modern American History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978.
Optional Extension Activities.
- Take a field trip to the Smithsonian's Museum of American History to view the exhibit, “Field To Factory: Afro-American Migration, 1915-1940.”
- Use paintings 1 and 38 from The Great Migration: An American Story. Ask students to describe the role of the railroad in the Great Migration (e.g., provided means of transportation, dictated destinations, jobs, etc.).
- If there is access to the works of another artist that addressed the Great Migration (William Johnson, for example), compare them to Jacob Lawrence's paintings based on the greatest similarity in viewpoint, and/or the greatest difference.
- Select another group of people studied (e.g., American colonists, Native Americans, the Jews during and after World War II, a specific immigrant group, etc.). Have students work with partners or in groups to examine ways the migration of this group was similar to and/or different from that of African-Americans during the Great Migration.
- People from different locations had various reactions to the migration of African-Americans from the South. How might each of the following have reacted?
- Someone who lived in one of the cities being flooded by migrants
- A soldier returning to a Southern plantation at the end of World War II
- A landowner in the South
- An African-American doctor in the South
- An African-American sharecropper in the South
- A white factory worker in a steel mill in Pittsburgh
- An article in the 7/14/97 issue of Newsweek, “Race: South Toward Home,” included a review of unpublished census data showing a reverse migration of middle class African-Americans to the South. This trend began in the mid-1970s. According to the article, if the current pace continues, 2.7 million African-Americans will have headed South between 1975 and 2010. Have students discuss push/pull factors for this reverse migration. Responses could include: family roots, better jobs, cheaper real estate, warmer weather, a more easygoing lifestyle in the South as pull factors; urban poverty, violence, segregation in older suburbs in the North as push factors. This article may be accessed via AOL at keyword: Newsweek.
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Rationale.
For the purposes of this exemplar task, sample scoring tools are provided for activities that students complete individually. These are Activities 4, 7, 9, 11 and 12. You may wish to use checklists or other types of scoring to evaluate progress on group activities.
Activity 4. Score Steps A and B together.
A. What title might you give to this map? Why?
B. What information can you learn from the map that the Great Migration paintings of Jacob Lawrence do not show you?
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This activity addresses Social Studies Outcomes #3, Geography, #5, Skills and Processes, and #6, Valuing Self and Others. The responses are assessed using a 0 - 3 scoring tool. |
| Scoring Tool: The response demonstrates an ability to use print sources of information such as maps to analyze patterns of population growth and settlement in different times for different cultures. |
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3: |
The response gives thorough evidence by:
- providing an accurate and appropriate title based on map information and knowledge of “push/pull” factors.
- providing a thorough and appropriate explanation for the title.
- identifying at least 2 types of information about the Great Migration not found in the paintings.
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| 2: |
The response gives adequate evidence by:
- providing an appropriate title based on map information.
- providing a partial explanation for the title.
- identifying at least 1 type of information about the Great Migration not found in the paintings.
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| 1: |
The response gives some evidence by providing information for at least one of the points defined for a score of 2. |
| 0: |
All other responses. |
| Sample Titles: |
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“Origins and Destinations for Migrants”
“Migration from South to North and West” |
| Sample Explanation: |
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The map shows arrows leading from the different parts of the South to different areas of the North and West. The thickness of the lines shows that more people moved to the Northeast and North Central US than to the West.
Types of information not found in the painting are locations from which migrants moved and areas to which they moved. Also, the regions are identified, and the West is included on the map.
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Activity 7.
Look at the Jacob Lawrence paintings again. Working on your own, select the painting that best depicts each factor identified by your team in Activity 6. Write the number of the painting you select in the box found next to each factor on the list.
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This activity addresses Social Studies Outcomes #3, Geography, and #5, Skills and Processes. The responses are assessed using a 0 - 3 scoring tool. |
| Scoring Tool: The response demonstrates an ability to define and clarify a problem drawn from history, judge information and draw conclusions to compare regions and to analyze patterns of population growth and settlement in different times, cultures, and environments. |
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3: |
The response provides thorough evidence by correctly matching all factors listed with an appropriate painting, i.e., a minimum number of 8 factors. |
| 2: |
The response provides adequate evidence by correctly matching at least 6 factors listed with an appropriate painting. |
| 1: |
The response provides partial evidence by correctly matching at least 4 factors listed with an appropriate painting. |
| 0: |
All other responses. |
| Sample Answer: (Note that these depend on factors listed and paintings used; for convenience “push” factors are listed first.) |
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|
Factor |
Painting Number |
| A |
Segregation |
19 |
| B |
Floods |
8 |
| C |
Boll weevils/Crop failure |
9, 13 |
| D |
Poor food/Cost of food |
10, 11 |
| E |
No voting |
59 |
| F |
Excessive punishments for crime/No justice |
14, 15 |
| G |
Landowners treating tenant farmers poorly |
17 |
| H |
Right to worship more freely |
54 |
| I |
Better jobs |
36, 37 |
| J |
Better education |
58 |
| K |
Better housing |
31 |
| L |
Better food |
44 |
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Activity 9A.
Using what you know and what you have learned, consider what formal and expressive qualities Lawrence used in his paintings to convey his point of view. List and describe these elements on the lines below.
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This activity addresses Visual Arts Outcome #1, Perceiving and Responding. The responses are assessed using a 0 - 2 scoring tool. |
| Scoring Tool: The response demonstrates an ability to examine and describe the treatment of subject, media, and expressive qualities in selected artworks. |
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2: |
The student clearly identifies and fully describes two or more formal and two or more expressive qualities used by the artist. |
| 1: |
The student identifies and fully describes one formal and one expressive quality,
or
identifies two or more formal qualities or two or more expressive qualities without
fully describing them. |
| 0: |
All other responses. |
| Sample Answer: |
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Formal qualities Lawrence used include a deep brown color to show ethnicity, and the use of vivid primary and secondary colors almost totally from one painting to the next. Expressive qualities include showing people with suitcases to indicate travel and smoke stacks to show factories. |
Activity 9B.
Select one of the Jacob Lawrence paintings and identify it by number.
On the lines below, explain how the artist used formal and expressive qualities and what point of view he conveyed by using them in this specific painting.
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This activity addresses Visual Arts Outcome #1, Perceiving and Responding. The responses are assessed using a 0 - 2 scoring tool. |
| Scoring Tool: The response demonstrates an ability to examine and describe the treatment of subject, media, and expressive qualities in selected artworks. |
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2: |
The student selects a painting and provides a thorough and accurate explanation of how the artist used formal and expressive qualities to convey a point of view. |
| 1: |
The student selects a painting and provides a partial explanation of how the artist used formal and expressive qualities to convey a point of view. |
| 0: |
All other responses. |
| Sample Answer: |
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I picked painting 58. Lawrence uses the height of each figure and the design of the dresses as formal qualities to give an impression of growth and optimism. Expressive qualities that convey a positive attitude include numbers on the chalkboard and the position of the peoples' legs. |
Activity 11.
Develop a list of criteria to use in evaluating the personal visual statement you create and the visual statements created by other students. State the criteria below.
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This activity addresses Visual Arts Outcome #4, Aesthetic Criticism. The responses are assessed using a 0 - 2 scoring tool. |
| Scoring Tool: The response demonstrates an ability to identify and classify criteria for assessing visual qualities observed in nature and human-made forms. |
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2: |
The student's criteria clearly and accurately states a thorough list of criteria to be used in evaluating personal visual statements and those created by others. |
| 1: |
The student's criteria contains a reasonable but partial list of criteria to be used in evaluating personal visual statements and those created by others. |
| 0: |
All other responses. |
| Sample Answer: |
| 4 |
The student's visual statement:
Clearly and accurately depicts one or more push/pull factors.
Shows selection and use of media, techniques and procedures to support visual communication.
Shows selection and use of methods and materials to solve art problems.
Uses information from a variety of sources to create visual images.
Shows use of an organizational structure intended to achieve desired expressive
qualities and surface effects. |
| 3 |
Depicts a push/pull factor and 3 of the other characteristics stated above. |
| 2 |
Depicts a push/pull factor and 2 of the other characteristics stated above. |
| 1 |
Depicts a push/pull factor and 1 of the other characteristics stated above. |
| 0 |
Other. |
Activity 13. Score Steps A and B together.
A. On your own, apply the criteria developed by your class to the personal visual statement you created to evaluate your success in completing Activity 12. Complete your evaluation in the space below.
B. Follow the directions of your teacher to apply the criteria developed by your class to evaluate the artwork of other students in your class.
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This activity addresses Visual Arts Outcome #4, Aesthetic Criticism. The responses are assessed using a 0 - 3 scoring tool. |
| Scoring Tool: The response demonstrates an ability to assess personally created art work and artwork from different sources by applying criteria for making and supporting aesthetic judgments. |
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3: |
The student accurately applies all criteria developed in Activity 11 to complete a written evaluation of his or her personal visual statement and that of at least one other student. |
| 2: |
The student accurately applies several of the criteria developed in Activity 11 to complete a written evaluation of his or her personal visual statement and that of at least one other student, or the student applies all criteria developed in Activity 11 to complete a written evaluation of either his or her own personal visual statement, or that of another student. |
| 1: |
The student applies at least two of the criteria to complete an evaluation of at least one personal visual statement. |
| 0: |
All other responses. |
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Actual time required for each activity will vary depending on student ability and the amount of instruction required. The total time for this task is estimated at 140-210 minutes, plus studio time for art work in Activity 12.
