https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1BQgRzI1jewc06es2WxvmYaKFgjKNMdtb/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=118077795636378039222&rtpof=true&sd=true

Lesson objective:  The objective of this lesson is to reinforce the importance of diversity in art and how we as artists can avoid appropriation in our art practice in this classroom.

Area(s) to address (i.e. inclusiveness, accuracy/authenticity, content, lesson resources, significance, themes)

Significance, inclusiveness, authenticity

Focal CLD/MLL Student(s):

• Home Language (s):  Marshalleese, Spanish

• What cultural knowledge and experiences will your focal student(s) access in this lesson, if any?  In my ceramics classes, more than half of our student population is black or mixed. This is why it was extremely important to me to make sure I had one lesson prepared for interning that centered the experiences of being Black in America, the incredible artists that emerged during slavery, and how we as artists in the classroom and honor and respect them in the art world by avoiding appropriation.

1.  Identify the Banks’ level of multicultural content of the current lesson plan:

I aimed for level 4.

1. Keeping the above information and what you know about your CLD/MLL students in mind, what do you need to change or do in your lesson to move to the next multicultural level up (or higher)?

• What might you change about the content/topic and/or structure of the lesson?

• How might you modify or add to this curriculum with other resources? ​

My lesson is missing an important piece of connecting the student’s project of face mugs to the face jugs we discuss in this lesson. I am reflecting on how I can make this lesson less lecture heavy, give away more responsibility to students in their learnings, and how to draw more connections to their face mug projects to face jugs.

I have two examples of face mugs that I made, one is very close to the style of Jim McDowell, and the other is more connected to Ed Klimek. I plan to use these real life examples to help students understand how I would acknowledge each artist in my project descriptions to avoid appropriation and highlight the West African tradition as the sources of inspiration for my pieces.

1. What elements of critical pedagogy will this lesson engage? Check any that apply.

  Help students think critically about their position, status, and situations in life

  Tools through which to question and challenge oppression such as critical thinking skills

 and critical literacy skills

   Develop students’ critical consciousness which encourages social critique and [political]

action).

1. What activities or strategies will you use and/or have the students do to develop their criticality?

Slide deck (draft)- lesson plan ppt.pptx - Google Slides

In this lesson, students will be guided through reflection points via written sketchbook entries and graphic organizers. It begins with an anticipatory set where they will watch a quick video from Antiques Roadshow where a face jug is found to be worth more than $7k to peak the student’s interest.

They first will be presented with aSmithsonian display of a face jug with no acknowledgement to the slave and West African traditions that originated the design , then a 2nd example from the Museum Of Natural History of another face jug (very similar to the first) with a well articulated acknowledgement of the slave practice of making face jugs and it’s roots in West Africa.They will be prompted to complete a graphic organizer with both images/descriptions and make a list of what they observe is different and similar between the two.

The students will then move into listening to a public radio podcast episode where a Southern white ceramicist (Ed Klimek) who makes face jugs is interviewed and asked about the history of face jugs (who notably admits to not knowing the history), then it moves into a discussion between historians about how white artists continue to appropriate this West African tradition under the guise of “folk art”. The historians discuss how they’ve been able to pinpoint face jugs coming to America via a single slave ship in the early 1800’s that escaped maritime law by sailing so fast they crash landed on Jekyll Island.

Students then will watch a video from Jim McDowell, a black ceramicist who creates face jugs for social justice by mirroring the practices of enslaved potter, David Drake, who used to write poetry critical of slavery on his pots in the 1800’s.

Students then revisit the compare + contrast notes from the Smithsonian and Museum of Natural History. They will reflect in their sketchbooks on how they would feel ifthey were descendants of David Drake and saw the Smithsonian displaying his art with no acknowledgement to his status of being enslaved and the West African tradition he was continuing.The lesson then concludes with a discussion on the importance of diversity in art and how we as artists can do our best to protect these stories by avoiding appropriation.