Thursday, January 31, 2013

Civil Rights Leaders Portraits

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, I decided to teach a unit on Civil Rights Leaders, and non-violent social change. Students learned about the African-American Civil Rights movement of the 1950's and 1960's and the role that young people played in standing up for desegregation. I also taught the students about the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement and its leaders Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. We also looked at the role young people had in the Chicano/Chicana student walk-outs. We also discussed the Women's Rights movement and the work of leaders such as Gloria Steinem.

When learning about the Mexican American civil rights unit, I discussed how the Tuscon public school system had recently prohibited any teaching of Mexican American studies and how if we lived there I wouldn't be able to teach them this unit. This brought up all sorts of issues and questions from the students, of course, and I explained as best I could that there are still many human rights issues that exist today.  Here is an article with more information about it:
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/24/155644119/first-year-without-controversial-class-in-ariz-ends


Students used a grid system to help learn the proportions of the human face and how to draw portraits. Students chose their own Civil Rights leader to draw and had to explore the Art element Value by drawing a range of dark to light in their pencil drawings. I was so impressed in how they turned out and  how involved the students were in the project.

Four of the portraits even won prizes at the University Interscholastic League competition. I know that more would have done so, but we were limited to only three per category.

Portrait Winners
6th Grade: 2nd Place Drawing Category
(We also took the 1st place drawing for a Picasso Split Portrait Drawing!)
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., pencil

6th Grade: 2nd Place Misc. category
Cesar Chavez, pencil drawing and collage


7th Grade
2nd Place Winner Drawing Category

Muhammad Ali, pencil on paper

3rd Place Winner Drawing Category
Coretta Scott King, pencil on paper

On display at UIL at Dailey Middle School, DVISD

On display in the hallways at Ojeda MS



Lyndon Baines Johnson, signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964








 Gloria Steinem, Feminist and Women's Rights Activist

 Robert. F Kennedy

Rosa Parks



John F. Kennedy

Angela B. Davis


Malcolm X

 Angela B. Davis
 Coretta Scott King
Rodolfo Gonzales

 Harvey Milk

 Thurgood Marshall



Shirley Chisholm


 Mahatma Gandhi




 Richard Aoki


 Richard Aoki



Inside my classroom










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