A selection of interactive prompts pulled from Art21’s Educators’ Guides, the Learning Library offers both discussion questions and hands-on activities in relation to Art21 artists and film segments.
Contemporary Approaches to Teaching by Art21
Use themes and big ideas driven by essential questions to frame your investigation.
Give students options: introduce multiple artists and media sources.
Push beyond a media-driven curriculum.
Think and talk more; make less.
Emphasize process over product.
Use themes and big ideas driven by essential questions to frame your investigation.
Assessment as Dialogue: Shifting Power Dynamics in the Classroom by Todd Elkin
“The first catalyst for the curriculum was Paulo Freire. In his book, Teachers as Cultural Workers, Freire discusses the traditional practice of teachers—“reading a class of students as though it were a text to be decoded”—and envisions classrooms where students reciprocate, “observing the gestures, language…and behavior of teachers.” Of course, students are already doing this, all the time; however, they are not typically invited in any structured way to share the results of these “readings” with their teachers or with each other. The power dynamic that Freire is uncovering here, the fact that assessment in almost all public-school classrooms travels in just one direction, from teacher to learner, was one of the major themes running through “Assessment as Dialogue.” For a long time, I’d wanted to redress this imbalance in my own classroom, and Freire’s words added urgency to that desire.” -Todd Elkin, Art21
Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process
This widely-recognized method nurtures the development of artistic works-in-progress through a four step, facilitated dialogue between artists, peers, and audiences. The Process engages participants in three roles:
1. The artist offers a work-in-progress for review and feels prepared to question that work in a dialogue with other people;
2. Responders, committed to the artist’s intent to make excellent work, offer reactions to the work in a dialogue with the artist; and
3. The facilitator initiates each step, keeps the process on track, and works to help the artist and responders use the Process to frame useful questions and responses.
The Critical Response Process takes place after a presentation of artistic work in any discipline. Work can be short or long, large or small, and at any stage in its development.
The facilitator then leads the artist and responders through four steps:
1. Statements of Meaning: Responders state what was meaningful, evocative, interesting, exciting, striking in the work they have just witnessed.
2. Artist as Questioner: The artist asks questions about the work. After each question, the responders answer. Responders may express opinions if they are in direct response to the question asked and do not contain suggestions for changes.
3. Neutral Questions: Responders ask neutral questions about the work. The artist responds. Questions are neutral when they do not have an opinion couched in them. For example, if you are discussing the lighting of a scene, “Why was it so dark?” is not a neutral question. “What ideas guided your choices about lighting?” is.
4. Opinion Time: Responders state opinions, subject to permission from the artist. The usual form is “I have an opinion about ______, would you like to hear it?” The artist has the option to decline opinions for any reason.
12 Tips for New Teachers by Larry Miller
6 Elements of Social Justice by Bree Picower
Teaching Racism as an Idea
“If we teach students to see racism as an idea that's expressed through behaviors, institutions and cultures rather than an immutable character trait, we free them to see things more accurately and with more openness to change, argues Cyndi Kernahan.” -Inside Higher Ed
Challenging the Established Picture by Mark Sealy and Magnum Photos
“Archives capture history insomuch as they enshrine the perspectives of those who have been privileged enough to narrate and control how it is recorded. At the core of Mark Sealy’s work is a motivation to challenge the notion of archives as singular repositories of historical truth-telling, which he argues has influenced not just the history of photography, but our collective understanding of history itself. By being open to diverse perspectives, Sealy aims to broaden our understanding of history, and expose the power structures that have, and continue to, allow established narratives to dominate.
“I think once we get ourselves over the idea that photography is not this fantastic invention, the undisputed eye of the world, but is just another dominant tool used to narrate Eurocentric perspectives, then I think we’re in a place where we can begin to unpick photography’s social meanings through the prism of different ways of seeing… It’s a form of curatorial resistance work. It’s about understanding that things aren’t always the way that powerful cultural institutions tell us that they are.” The solution lies in locating “our silent history”, as he described it when speaking at a Magnum talk on archives at the Barbican.” -Magnum Photos
"It’s a form of curatorial resistance work" - Mark Sealy
The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Adichie
Watch TED Talk here. July 2009.
“Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.”
A Conversation With Native Americans on Race By Michèle Stephenson and Brian Young
“What does it mean to be a Native American today? ln our latest installment of The Times’s Conversation on Race project, we set out to include as many perspectives on native identity as possible.
And there are many perspectives indeed. For this film, we spoke to dark-skinned and light-skinned individuals. Those whose ancestry ranges from one-sixteenth to four-fourth. People younger and older. And those who follow their tribe’s religion to those that follow Bible-based beliefs. We heard from people with backgrounds from as far as Arizona Navajo to the northeastern United States, and even interviewed Hawaiian and South American native individuals living in New York City.” NYTimes Op Docs