Overview
Students will reflect on, and write about a specific experience they have had during the pandemic that affected their - or someone else’s - human rights, negatively or positively. They will then begin to brainstorm on how they can capture their chosen experiences in an artistic form. Examples of multimedia they can choose from are photographs, captions, audio, video, drawing, collage, or writing. Their final art pieces will be shared in an online or in-person classroom exhibit at the end of module two.
Note to Teacher: Based on class needs you will be able to adjust the timing of the next several lessons. For example, if students create their artwork outside of the classroom then less time for art creation will be needed during school hours.
Grade Level
8th-12th Grades
Essential questions the lesson will address:
● How can a personal experience, or a collective one, during a crisis be captured in an artistic creation?
● How can a human rights issue be represented in a work of art?
Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to:
● Identify and describe in a written reflection a specific personal experience during the pandemic that affected their - or someone else’s - human rights, negatively or positively.
● Analysis their personal experience with a student partner and discuss how and why they feel their - or someone else’s - human rights were supported or not .
● Design how they would like to transform their experience into a work of art using a choice of mediums such as: photography, writing, drawing, collage, video or or another art medium.
Common Core State Standards
unMASKing Curriculum Glossary
● Multimedia: a technique (such as the combining of sound, video, and text) for expressing ideas (as in communication, entertainment, or art) in which several media are employed (Merriam-webster)
Formative Assessment Strategies
Students will be able to:
● Students’ homework, in which learners further investigated the questions their groups wrote about the stories their peers shared in the unmasked Pandemic Stories: Reflections from Youth Around the World.
● Class-wide discussion around human rights issues represented in art.
● Partner collaboration when students share their reflection writing with a partner.
Materials for Instructor
● Samples of Human Rights Issues Reflected in Art - this PDF should be projected in the classroom.
Materials for Students
● unMASKing Journals
● Handout: Human Rights Art Creation
LESSON PLAN
I. Discussion (5 min.)
Open a discussion reflecting on the last class and on their homework question. Entry point questions can include:
● Have you thought about any of the stories you explored in the unMASKed Pandemic Stories: Reflections from Youth Around the World?
● What did you discover through your homework assignment?
II. Stories to Art (35 min.)
Step One (10 min.)
Have students take out their unMASKing Journals. Let them know that the class has been discussing and exploring other peoples’ stories during the pandemic, and that it is time for them to write their own story.
Ask students to reflect on and write about a specific experience they have had during the pandemic that affected their - or someone else’s - human rights, negatively or positively. Let them know that they will be sharing their stories.
Note to Teacher: There may be students who need extra time for reflection before they write their entries.
Step Two (7 min.)
Share with students that human rights issues can be represented in art forms, and that they will be able to transform their stories into art. Project the Human Rights Issues Reflected in Art image. Lead a discussion about the art pieces. Entry point questions can include:
● What human rights issue do you think the barbwire represents in the first image?
● What do you imagine the youth is shouting through his bullhorn in the second image?
● What is the message in the third image?
● If you could fill in the protestors’ signs in image four, what would you write?
Step Three (8 min.)
Let students know that they will be transforming their stories into works of art. Pass out the Human Rights Art Creation Handout and have students fill them out individually.
Step Four (8 min.)
Have the students sit with a partner and share their ideas and give each other input.
III. End (10 min.)
Class Discussion on Designs
Ask students to share their human rights art piece design ideas.
During this discussion it may be discovered there are students with similar design ideas and themes. If so, some students may choose to work together.
IV. Homework
Notes for Teacher: Depending on whether or not students will be creating their pieces in the classroom or off-premises will dictate how the flow of the next two