“A statue is like a bigger parent. We are all like children: we have to look up. We are suddenly becoming children, students looking up to authority figures.”-K.W

Memorials


  • Content Areas: English, Art
  • Lesson Objective: to examine why people create statues and to examine the Lincoln statue in particular; to provide students with background information about Lincoln’s history in war.
  • Skills: image analysis, planning/organizing ideas
  • Common Core Standards: RI.7.1, SL.7.2, SL.7.5, SL.7.6
  • Time: 1 50-minute period
  • Materials: Images of Abraham Lincoln (paintings, photographs)
    Image of the Abraham Lincoln statue in Union Square
    Images of famous statues around the world (see links below)
    Memorial Planning Worksheet
    Blank paper for sketching statue plans
  • Download: Lesson 2
  • Essential Question(s):
    What are we remembering when we’re looking at statues? What is being memorialized/remembered in USQ’s state of Lincoln? What is worth memorializing?


Process

  • 1) Explain that in this lesson students will begin to think about why artists create statues, and in particular, why the state of Abraham Lincoln in Union Square was created.
  • 2) Write the word “Memorial” on the board/active board/chart paper. Ask students to generate definitions for the term. Provide the etymology after discussion: “memento” is the imperative for “to remember.” Thus, it means, “Remember”—an order, a command.
  • 3) Ask students to clarify the terms “statue”, “memorial” and “public monument.” What do these three terms have in common? How are they distinct from one another? Perhaps you would have students create a Venn diagram to help them visualize what is unique about each.

  • 4) Ask students to write for a few moments in response to this question: “If you were an artist and were to create a statue of something that you would like people to remember when they look at it, what are the concepts/events/people that you would like to memorialize?”

  • 5) Have students think of statues and memorials they know of—write their names on the board/active board/etc. Allow students to bounce ideas off of each other.
  • 6) Explain that now you are going to look at famous statues and memorials from around the world. Then show images of other well-known statues. As students look at these images, ask them to consider why the artists made them. Why statues at all? Why don’t paintings suffice? Ask them, also, to consider what the artist of each statue is “commanding” us to remember. (If you don’t know the context of the statues, no problem; can students read the statues for their symbolism?)—also, feel free to add more statues that reflect your students’ home countries or to reflect any curricular work you’ve done with them or that they’ve done in the past.

  • 7) Undoubtedly, students will suggest that a statue takes the place of the person, someone who has probably died and therefore can no longer speak. They may say that a statue is likely to be of someone who has done great things for a country and people and therefore have had a good deal of authority in that place.

  • 8) Why are statues large? What does their size do to the way we interact with them?

  • 9) Now explain that students will return to the response they wrote at the start of class—which events/people/concepts would they memorialize Hand out blank paper and explain that students will are going to design a statue memorializing that individual, idea, or event.

  • 10) You may need to help students decide upon an event—each will design his or her own statue. If students struggle with this idea, ask them about their personal history—what events or people led them to the United States, which events have they or their parents lived through or experienced, which concepts are those that they believe in most deeply?

  • 11) Hand out worksheet for memorial design.

  • 12) Allow students ample time to plan their memorial on blank paper and explain that they will share their plans tomorrow in class. They may add color if they desire. Explain that that the more details they are able to imagine for their statue, the better prepared they will be for the next class.

  • 13) If they haven’t finished their sketches in class, this could be a homework assignment. They’ll want a complete sketch done before they turn their sketches into Tableaux Vivants (Lesson 3 and Lesson 4).