March Lesson Plan for Third Grade

Jacob Lawrence March lesson Plan for Third Grade Storytelling Artwork

Display the included paintings using the Smart board or via the overhead projector for discussion. This can be done by opening the lesson plan via the teacher’s computer from Patterson’s website just as you did at home. Ask the teacher for assistance if needed.

Biographical information Jacob Lawrence was an African American artist whose work was known for its emphasis on storytelling. He was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on September 7, 1917, and spent most of his childhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, before moving to Harlem in New York with his mother and sisters at age 13. He received his artistic training at community art centers in Harlem, the easel project of the Works Progress Administration, and the American Artists School in New York. Jacob Lawrence's work focuses on the history of African Americans in the United States. Many of his screen prints, which are bold and graphic, include several panels that tell the same story, each in a different way. He includes scenes of everyday life, historical events, and the lives of African American heroes and heroines in his work. He had a strong interest in creating visual narratives about historically important African Americans. One series of narratives about Harriet Tubman was published as a children’s picture book, Harriet and the Promised Land. The series of paintings that first brought attention to his art is called The Migration Series. It depicts the shift of African-American populations from the rural South to the urban North between the two world wars. Lawrence’s family participated in that shift. For him it was lived history, and he conceived his depiction of it that way.

Lawrence painted the 60 pictures not one at a time but production-line style, working on them all simultaneously. In a given studio session he would apply a single color to several paintings in progress. In the next session he would apply another color in the same way. Reoccurring colors was one way he bound the series together. The use of repeated motifs was another. Linear uprights — bare trees, prison bars, raised arms, flames — alternate with the flat planes of open skies or high walls to create a rhythm of escapes and enclosures punctuated by exclamations. Figures, often in silhouette, move, then wait, then move again. Descriptive captions under each image enhance a sense of unity. The series begins with these words: “During the World War there was a great migration North by Southern Negroes.” It ends, “And the migrants kept coming.” Discussion Questions Here are a few questions to ask the students while showing panels 1, 3 and 10 of Jacob Lawrence’s The Migration Series.

• How does Lawrence tell a story in his paintings? • Who was migrating in The Migration Series? Where were they going? • Why were they leaving the South? • What type of jobs had African Americans traditionally done in the South? • What type of jobs were many migrants hoping to find in the North? • Why do you think he added descriptive captions to the panels?

Vocabulary Words Color scheme - is the choice of colors used in design for a range of media Primary colors - sets of colors that can be combined to make a useful range of colors Secondary colors - a color made by mixing two primary colors in a given color space Narrative style - an account of any event and the incidents it is composed of; giving a connective order to a series of recorded events.

Storytelling Artwork Materials: Project example, crayons, paper, watercolor sets, brushes, bowls for water, newspaper for painting area.

Demonstrate the lesson by following these step by step instructions, please remember to have the students put their name on the back of their paper and to roll up their sleeves.

1. The object of this lesson is to create your own storytelling artwork, begin by thinking of a significant event in your life or to your ethnic group or family heritage.

2. Use crayons on heavy paper to draw a portrait of the person featured in your story. Surround the main portrait with other story images, using bold colors and firm strokes. Fill in your drawings with color.

3. Go to painting station and use watercolors to fill in the background of your drawing. Migration Series1940–41

Panel #1

During the World War there was a great migration North of Southern Negroes. Migration Series1940–41

Panel #3

In every town Negroes were leaving by the Hundreds to go North and enter into Northern industry. Migration Series1940–41

Panel #10

They were very poor. Project Example