Lesson Overview:
Explorers exist in every field of human endeavor, including geography, the arts, sciences, and philosophy. In this lesson, students will gain an understanding of humans' need to explore. They will create a "journey map" depicting the accomplishments of artistic explorers, and research the influences that caused the artists to embark on these explorations.
Length of Lesson:
Five 45-minute class periods
Instructional Objectives:
Students will:
- learn about journey maps and explorers.
- expand their understanding of the term "explorer" to include those individuals who have made discoveries in the areas of arts and literature.
- identify artists and writers who are "explorers."
- make journey maps detailing these explorers’ creations, ideas, and influences.
Instructional Plan:
Introduction
Lead the students in a discussion of the human need to explore. In what ways has the human race been affected by all forms of exploration and discovery? Explorations can lead to one final discovery, or to more questions. What types of explorations are the students most familiar with? Prompt the students by asking questions such as:
- What do you think of when you hear the word "explorer"?
- What makes an explorer different from other people?
- What motivates him/her to explore?
- What keeps people from being explorers? (i.e., fear, doubt, money)
Ask students to brainstorm the most famous explorers from the past and the present day. Make a list on the blackboard.
Activity
Examine the explorers named by students thus far. Ask the students to start thinking of people who are explorers in fields other than geography, such as science, politics, and the arts. Remind students that an intellectual exploration can be like a journey even if it does not include travel.
Focus the classroom discussion on explorers in the arts. Name artist "explorers" for each of the following genres of art: theatre, literature, musical theatre, visual arts, music, and dance. Examples might include:
Theatre:
Literature
- Edmund Spenser
- Ernest Hemingway
- Leo Tolstoy
Musical Theatre
Visual Arts
- Picasso
- Jackson Pollock
- Manet
Music
Dance
Introduce students to the concept of "journey mapping" and show examples, such as the examples from the National Geographic MapMachine.
Examples of journey maps can also be found in The Times Atlas of World History. Traditionally, journey maps show the mapping of geographical explorations. Extending this idea, journey maps can be made to trace various forms of progress, including in some cases the physical movement of ideas, inventions, systems of government, art styles or motifs, and social and religious movements.
For example, the idea of democracy can be traced from its inception in Greece to its republican adaptation in Rome. Democracy could then be traced to a modified version in the universal democracy of clerics, its adoption in the Magna Carta, the ideas of John Locke, its oligarchical form in the thought of America’s founding fathers, the present-day understanding of democracy in the United States, and its adaptation in developing countries.
Tell the students that they will be making journey maps related to concepts in the arts, focusing on the work of certain “explorers.” Students should research the influences that caused the artists to embark on their “exploration,” particularly the childhood/adolescent experience of the artist, their homelands and hometowns, their schooling, family life, the ideas or discoveries that they developed, the way that those ideas influenced other artists and changed the genre in which they worked, their social interests, etc.
For an example, see Picasso—The Early Years, 1892-1906 from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Web site. This exhibition examines the first decade and a half of Picasso's extraordinary career, a period in which he constantly adopted new styles and experimented with new approaches. Discuss the ways in which Picasso can be considered an artistic "explorer."
Allow students to create their journey maps in any creative way they choose. They can either make traditional maps that show geographic locations, or make a timeline-style map that shows a chronological order of events, or a creative method of their own design (subject to your approval).
Closure
Display the various journey maps around the room and bind them all into a classroom “atlas.” Ask the students what surprised them most about their research and creation. Relate the work of this activity to their studies of other cultures. Compare and contrast two artists of the same genre that come from different countries, and look for the similarities and differences in the journey maps of these two artists.
Assessment:
Use the Assessment Rubric to evalute student learning.
Sources:
Print:
- Barraclough, Geoffrey,ed. The Times Atlas of World History. Revised Edition. Maplewood, NJ: Hammond, 1985.
Authors:
-
ARTSEDGE and DoDDS, Curriculum Partnership
The John F. Kennedy Center
Washington, DC
