Grade Level:

Overview:

The purpose of this lesson is to show students how traditional African art is closely related to African culture, daily life, and religion, and to get students to think about whether their own culture has similar items that could be considered art or that may one day be considered beautiful and interesting enough to be placed in art museums. Students will research African art and artifacts to learn about the significance of art in African culture and everyday life. They’ll investigate five works of African art and will record some information on each one. They’ll then choose one of the art works and write a story that incorporates it, pretending that they were present when it was created and/or used. Students will then be asked to consider whether their own culture has any art or objects that will one day be considered interesting cultural artifacts as these African pieces are.

Rationale:

• Critical Thinking

Objectives:

Students will:

• Browse three Web sites for pieces of African art.
• Choose five pieces of African art and record some information about each one and the country and culture from which it comes.
• Locate and mark the African countries and cultures on a world or Africa map.
• Write a story in the first-person using one of the art works, pretending that they were present when the art work was created and/or used.
• Explain some of the main purposes of African art, based on what they’ve learned in this activity.
• Discuss whether their own culture has similar objects that can be considered both useful and artistically appealing or that might someday end up in art museums.

Extensions:

• Have students bring in cultural art or objects from their ethnic or religious groups for a sophisticated "show and tell." Ask them to describe the purposes of the objects and to compare them to the purposes of traditional African art objects.
• Have students research the purposes and uses of European or American art. Are these purposes different from what they have learned about traditional African art? If so, how?

Notes to Teachers:

• This activity can be done with students at the fifth grade level or even lower, but the reading level at the Web sites may be too advanced for some younger students, including fifth graders. Preview the sites to determine whether your students will have difficulties with the reading material.
• It may be helpful for you to provide a general explanation of the idea that the countries in Africa do not necessarily correspond to the ethnic and cultural divisions. In other words, a typical African country contains multiple cultures and ethnicities, including many languages, and the art that students see is generally associated not with a country but with a culture that may exist within several countries (although students will be asked to look for some basic information about specific countries).
• For step 3 in this activity, students are asked to write a story using one piece of African art. You may want to have them create a computer-based presentation of their stories on HyperStudio or another program. If so, have them save the images from the Web sites onto their computers and incorporate them into the story (perhaps with a discussion of when it is and is not appropriate to download an image directly from another person’s copyrighted Web site). If they will be writing their stories on paper, they can draw pictures of the art work they’ve seen on the Web.
• Section 5 lends itself well to a class or group discussion, or you can have students write reflective essays individually.