OVERVIEW

This curriculum unit, designed for grades 5-8, focuses on parallels between a revival in Irish arts between 1860 and 1940 and the political and social struggles of the time to create an Irish Free State. These lessons begin with the resurgence of interest in the arts of Ireland and recent political and social events at the end of the twentieth century.

Students will study artworks by turn of the century Irish artists and historical events surrounding the struggle for independence in Ireland. They will look at the World's Fairs in the United States and the relationship between national identity and revivalism in the arts. They will use various tools to learn about artists, subject matter, and congruent social and political events. They will present their information by writing and speaking, and keeping Notesketch Books. They will create artwork that incorporates images from "Exploring Irish Arts" and describe their creations to classmates. Finally students will reevaluate earlier assumptions and ideas.

The unit is designed for use either in its completeness or in such a way that individual lessons can be expanded on to create units.

EQUIPMENT AND MATERIALS

Teacher Objectives:
In this unit, the teacher will use art as a vehicle for interdisciplinary instruction. The teacher will incorporate new resources and technology into interdisciplinary instruction.

Skill Development:
This project will allow each student the opportunity to: develop his/her skills in writing, develop his/her skills in investigating/research, especially using the Internet as a research tool, develop his/her abilities to work as part of a team and learn cooperatively, develop his/her skills in visually depicting historical concepts in two-dimensional medium, reinforce knowledge-level information learned as part of fifth-eighth grade art history, social studies, or history curriculum.

STANDARDS

National Arts Standards

• Visual Arts Content Standard #6: Makes connections between visual arts and other disciplines.
• Language Arts Standard #8: Students use a variety of technological and informational resources to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
• Language Arts Standard #12: Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes.

• Writing Standard #6.8.2
• Visual Arts SOLs
  · 5.1, 5.6, 5.16, 5.17, 5.19, 5.21
  · 6.12, 6.13, 6.15.1, 6.15.2, 6.15.3, 6.15.4
  · 7.11, 7.15, 7.19, 7.20
  · 8.7, 8.11, 8.12, 8.14, 8.17

Strategies

Each lesson consists of a week of learning time (approximately 250 minutes)

LESSON 1 & 2: A RESURGENT INTEREST IN IRISH ARTS AT THE END OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: This is a two part lesson that focuses on the arts and contemporary political/social events.

LESSON 1: This lesson introduces the many form of Irish Arts -performing arts, music, dance, movies, festivals, literature that have become popular in the past twenty years. Students should be able to find a plethora of examples. These should be played and displayed in class. Riverdance or the Making of Riverdance (videos) could be shown. Students could summarize movies they have seen and basic issues covered. Students are given resources they will need to complete their research. Students should keeps notes and sketches of material covered in their presentations. At the conclusion of the week - in-class writing assignment: What is Irish Art? Groups are organized for lesson two.

LESSON 2: Students will break into small groups to investigate/research contemporary historical events that address the issue of Ireland's struggles for home rule and an end to violence in Northern Ireland. Images and reports from these presentations should be posted along with the examples from lesson one. At the conclusion of the week, students should write a paragraph which addresses their knowledge of the major events and internal issues facing Ireland today.

LESSON 3: EXPLORING IRISH ARTS ONLINE: Although artists record the world around them - they often make conscious decisions about what they want to record and how they want to depict their subject matter. Art is open to interpretation, the social content in this work may be unconscious on the part of the artist. Students in this lesson will learn to research, compare and contrast contemporary with the art of a specific cultural time period. They will learn to discuss they ways art can be persuasive. Students will demonstrate inquiry skills and appropriate art vocabulary for describing, responding, interpreting, and evaluating works of art. Students are taken on a tour of the Brian B. Burns Collection. A list will be provided of which work to highlight. Present images from the online show and allow students to select an image and develop their own text to correspond with the artwork. Students should be encouraged to come up with their own captions for visual images and present it in an art piece - typography should be used as an element of artistic expression. Assignments should be presented and critiqued. Students will identify and examine criteria for judgment of those works researched: What social statements, if any, can students discern from the images in the show? What are the major themes? What is the artist trying to say? Students are expanding on an artist's theme and making a contemporary statement. This assignment can be expanded for an additional week to include similar themes in the students life: how are these themes relevant today? Identity through place, heroic/noble poor, women's roles, slice of life, family.

LESSON FOUR AND FIVE: REVIEW OF MODERN IRISH HISTORY: Explore major events and social issues. Teachers may want to give a brief overview of British seizure of Irish lands and the affect of disenfranchising local landowners, religious tension, and the affects of class distinction. Topics that can apply to this unit: Geographical make-up of Ireland: Northern Ireland and The Republic of Ireland, Treaty of Limerick, Act of Union, Great Famine, Emigration, Agitation for Home Rule, 1916: Easter Monday, 1918 Election, War of Independence, The Government of Ireland Act, Anglo Irish Treaty, The Irish Free State. The teacher should decide how in-depth this assignment should be based on the grade level and amount of available time. Students are broken into groups again to investigate assigned topics about turn of the century Ireland. The web site list provided summary description of these events, but teachers may wish students to explore for more detailed information. Keep in mind the essential questions as the topics are given and research assigned. In this research, students should look at how people are deprived of human rights, lands, and dis-empowered. Students will add to their events resources from Lesson One.

LESSON SIX AND SEVEN: CELTIC REVIVAL: A look at the World's Fairs at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Celtic culture on display at the World's Fairs, particularly in America. A look at the Celtic revival in Ireland. This can also be tied into the lessons on William Butler and Jack Yeats. This lesson gives students the opportunity to explore the concept of the World's Fair. In relation to this unit the Colombian Exposition and the St. Louis World's Fair are relevant to the revival of the Irish Arts. The Celtic Revival refers to a resurgent interest in Ancient Celtic metalwork, lace making and other folkways. It also corresponds to a literary revival as seen in the works of W.B. Yeats. Teachers may wish to review some of the lessons provided in the "Magic Word, Magic Brush." What relations can the students find between the growing interest in Irish traditional arts and the themes they found in the Burns collection. What is the result of displaying national art forms and artists.

LESSON EIGHT: THE GROWING DEMAND FOR HOME RULE
More in depth discussion of those events that focus on political and social change. Look for the parallels. Revisit the art of the festival and look for the parallels between growing national identity in the arts and the struggle for Home Rule. A reevaluation of earlier comments and thoughts. Look at the work collected in the first two lessons - what adjustments would the students make to their earlier statements.

Assessment