Identity Bench

Lesson Overview:

• What will be the social justice issue or awareness you want to discuss in this lesson?

Identity, Intersectionality, Activism

 

• What will be the key concepts that can be related to this social justice issue or awareness? (At least list three)

Identities:

• Race/ethnicity

• sexual orientation/gender identity

• religion/spirituality

• nationality/socioeconomic status.

 

• Why is this issue important for high school students to learn? (We are designing lessons for the high school level)

Students need to connect their identities to the world around them. By talking about their identities, they are exploring them and discovering who they are. They are also acknowledging injustices surrounding equality and equal rights, and by confronting these issues through their various identities, they are helping to solve these issues. It is important for students to see how they connect to one another, and how many different identities they have. Through artwork, they are connecting their identities, deepening their relationships with themselves and other students, and are performing self-discovery (How does someone’s identity change how society treats them? How can we show our understanding and respect to those with identities that are different from ours?)*

 

• What do you want students to learn through this lesson?

- Critical thinking lenses: Connections between identities and equal values they impose.

- Creative/art methods: Collaborative art-making in small groups.

- Problem-solving skills: Participation in group ideation.

(How to transfer concepts to visual representations.)*

- The connection between students, deepening relationships

 

• What will be the students’ prior knowledge for doing this project? (Please identify what you assume students know and don’t know). How can you know if they have the prior knowledge to do it?

- Having an awareness of one's own identity, beliefs, and values. *

- Awareness of different identities (could be from friends or family)

- Past personal history (shaping/defining moments) for discussion.

 

• What questions can you ask to probe students to think about the key concept?

How do you identify?:

- Race/ethnicity,

- sexual orientation/gender identity,

- religion/spirituality,

- nationality/socioeconomic status

 

How do your family/friends Identify?:

- Do they dress and act the same as you?

- What are some main differences and similarities?

- Do those differences and similarities determine a person’s value/likeability?

- Do our physical traits contribute to our sense of identity? How and why?

 

• What is the art method you are assigned to teach?

-(Seating concept for the courtyard, construction, and surface treatment of the seating. (Benches))*

 

• How will you utilize the chosen art method to let students learn the key concepts? What art concepts can be related to this art method?

- Each group finds a way to represent a portion of what identity is. Students will utilize their own experiences, their pasts, their heritages, their hobbies, and unique personalities to pinpoint parts of their identities to include in this project.

- Graffiti, protest posters/stickers to show support of a cause.

- Visual representation matters to under-served identities.

 

• What will be the students’ role in this lesson? (For example, muralists, potters, gardeners, florists, etc.)

- Social justice/protest artists

- Exterior designers

- Discussing different identities

- Applied personal experience.

- Adding their portion of personal identity into the stencil design/painting.

- Students are the artmakers. While teachers will build the benches, students will produce the templates for the artwork and will be decorating the benches, and participate in the project. They will be the ones ensuring that the benches fit within the context of the courtyard and deliver messages of identity.

 

• What technology do you choose to integrate with this art method to help your students elaborate/better express their understanding of the social justice issue or awareness?

- Using a laser cutter to make stencils from a simplified digital image or symbol

- Students are welcome to use any kind of art technology that they have to sketch out ideas. - - This could include Snapchat (drawing tool), any kind of drawing programs, or anything else that they can think to use on their devices.

- Teachers will also provide paper for sketches, and an ideation sheet will be made so that students can answer questions and sketch out thumbnail sketches before they commit to their final design.

 

• Which contemporary artist(s) can be introduced to connect the key concepts?

Sculptors like...

- Brooklyn Artist Fanny Allie

- Canadian Artist Timothy Schmalz.

 

Activist Graffiti artists like...

- Banksy

- Shepard Fairey

- Keith Haring

- John Furniss (aka The Blind Woodsman)

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• What methods or activities will you utilize to help students reflect on their learning of the lesson?

Discussion/Reflection questions (occurs at benches):

- What intersecting identities did you incorporate into your learning?

- What techniques did you use in your artwork?

- What was the thought process when planning your artwork?

- How do you personally connect to the artwork you have created today?

- What was one problem you encountered, and how did you solve it?

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• How will you assess/evaluate students' working processes and final products?

- Participation in discussion

- Production in design for the bench.

-The clear content connection between design with social identity aspect.

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• What kind of difficulties may students encounter during the process? What solutions can you provide?

- Not enough generalization and/or specification for identity groups. (Solution: encouraging students to share past experiences in order to pinpoint personal identity relations.)

- Students may feel they don’t connect with any of the identity groups. (Solution: discuss observed identities from peers, family, and friends and elaborate on specific frameworks for identity that students could adhere to.

- Difficulty with visualization and/or construction with benches and etching. Dualism with art and craft, and social issues and identity. (Solution: Simplify or minimize framework for identities. Instead of including all forms of identity, discuss only what students feel are most relevant to them.)

- Difficulty with software comprehension.

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• Any safety issues that should be addressed?

- Students need to use any spray paint or liquid paints safely. Might need gloves or face masks if the paint has dangerous fumes.

- Spray painting is to be done outside.

- Unfinished Benches might have rough edges or splinters, so caution is needed when moving or holding the bench.

- Using the laser engraving may be hazardous to students because it is hot, so Cecilia will have to supervise to make sure that both students and teachers will be there to supervise and make sure that the equipment is being used correctly.

*General use of power tools of any kind must be supervised by Cecilia