By Lindsey N. Link, Onslow Virtual School, Onslow County Schools, North Carolina
OVERVIEW OF LESSON:
In this lesson students will explore pictographs and petroglyphs, created by Indigenous peoples, to understand how the geographic location and physical environment can impact the medium that is used to document human experiences. They will then create a visual of their own, sharing their life in images. Through small and whole group activities coupled with independent reading and the creation of their own product, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of how art is used to document the human experience.
SUGGESTED GRADE LEVELS: Grades 9-12
SUBJECT: Visual Arts
CORRESPONDING NATIONAL AND/OR STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA STANDARDS:
North Carolina Visual Arts
B.V.2.3 Create personal, symbolic expression as a means of communication (original, visual language).
B.CX.1.3 Understand how art is used to document human experience.
B.CX.1.5 Explain the effect of the geographic location and physical environment on the media and subject matter of art.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
- What do images offer that words alone cannot?
- How has colonization impacted how the Indigenous community communicated their stories?
LESSON OBJECTIVES:
Students will be able to:
- Understand how art is used to document human experiences.
- Explain the effect the geographic location can have on the media used by Indigenous cultures to document the events.
- Create a visual story of the last five years of their life using emojis.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR THE EDUCATOR or RESOURCES TO EXPLORE FURTHER:
Prior to teaching this lesson, it would be helpful to read a few articles to familiarize yourself with the content. Some are provided below:
Eight Spots in the United States Where you can see Petroglyphs
Storytelling In Native American Cultures
Native American Storytelling as a Means of Cultural Preservation and Education
Storytelling Traditions Across the World: Native American
History of Native American Beadwork
A Life in Beads: The Stories a Plains Dress Can Tell
Native American Beadwork | Traditional Beading History, Patterns & Styles
Native American Beadwork Part One: History, Materials, and Construction
Beads help tell stories of the past of Native Americans.
Lumbee Tribe’s Stunning Beadwork Designs: A North Carolina Jewel
Cultural Heritage of Native American Beadwork: Discovering Intricate Designs and Symbolism
SPECIFIC STUDENT STRATEGIES & ACTIVITIES:
Snapshot:
- Engage: Students participate in “Tell Me Everything” to activate prior knowledge from their English and Social Studies classes on the different ways humans have documented their experiences throughout history.
- Explore: Students participate in a Honeycomb Harvest of pictographs, petroglyphs, emojis, terms, and definitions.
- Explain: Students will read an article about how Indigenous Peoples recorded and passed down important events in their lives.
- Extend: Students will brainstorm the most significant events in the last five years of their lives.
- Evaluate: Students will represent the last five years of their life with one emoji/image to represent each year.
Lesson Duration: 2-3 Class Periods
LESSON NARRATIVE:
Teacher’s Note: Lesson Preparation
Before you begin the lesson, copy and cut out enough sets of Honeycomb Harvest cards for each group of student pairs. Print on heavier paper, such as card stock, and laminate the cards to ensure that they last longer than just this one lesson. Use envelopes or paper clips to organize the sets of cards.
Use the attached Lesson Slides to introduce the lesson to your students by displaying slide 2. Share the lesson’s Essential Question on slide 3 and Learning Objectives on slide 4 to the extent you feel necessary.
Move to slide 5 and pass out sticky notes. Introduce the Tell Me Everything strategy to your students. Prompt them to think back to their English and Social Studies classes when they learned about how humans have shared and documented their experiences. Instruct them to write down each method on its own sticky note. Provide your students with a couple of minutes to activate their prior knowledge and write down everything they can think of, then have them combine like sticky notes with those around them and share with the rest of the class.
Display slide 6. Introduce the Honeycomb Harvest strategy to your students. Group them in pairs and distribute the attached Honeycomb Harvest cards. If students need scaffolded instructions, use slides 7-9 to share an example. As they are working, monitor and ask probing questions to help them determine why they chose these connections. Have your students set their work to the side so that they can return to it later.
Display slide 10. Introduce the Stop and Jot strategy and pass out the attached Cultural Preservation in Indigenous Cultures reading. Share with your students that the examples provided are just one of many. Once you notice that your students have completed the reading, have them work with their partners from earlier to discuss the notes they took. Use slides 11-18 to share examples of pictographs and petroglyphs.
Move to slide 19 and instruct your students to return to their Honeycomb Harvest activity. Based on the information, would they change anything based on what they just read? Have groups share out.
Move to slide 20 and hold a whole group discussion, asking questions such as:
- How might the geographic location impact the materials used?
- Northeast
- Southeast
- Midwest
- Southwest
- Northwest
- What other factors might have impacted the decisions for using different tools?
- How have the materials used to document stories changed over time?
- How have emojis standardized communication across languages?
- How have the meanings of emojis changed over time?
Display slide 21 and let your students know that they’re going to use the media available to them today to create their own Winter Count. Instruct your students to create a basic table to begin brainstorming, listing the last five years along the top.
Use slides 22-24 to walk your students through the brainstorming process. An example table is included. Note on slide 23 students are told to choose the most important event in their life, not an important event in the world. The example shows that for the year 2020 the student listed COVID, getting her first cat, and playing a lot of games during quarantine. While COVID was a significant event in the world, to this student, getting her first cat was the most important thing to her.
Display slide 24 and instruct your students to finalize their Winter Counts by selecting an emoji/image that best represents each of the last five years of their lives. Make sure to instruct them not to include any text with their visuals.
Display slide 25 and share the instructional strategy Gallery Walk. Direct your students to quietly walk around and view their classmates’ work. As they do so, they should make a guess about the major events represented on a sticky note. Once your students make it back to their work, they should take some time reviewing what their peers wrote about their work.
After all of your students have completed the gallery walk, move to slide 26 and ask the following questions to hold a guided discussion:
- What limitations were there when looking at your peers’ Winter Counts?
- What were some commonalities?
- Would contextual information (text) have helped you better understand what your peers created?
ASSESSMENT:
Evaluate: Students will represent the last five years of their life with one emoji/image to represent each year.
LEARNING EXTENSIONS:
To extend the learning, have your students analyze the social media accounts (Instagram) of some famous indigenous people in your community. How are they sharing their life in pictures?
Additionally, your students could analyze mural work that is shared online such as:
MATERIALS:
- Honeycomb Harvest Cards – Decoding History (one set per pair of students)
- Cultural Preservation in Indigenous Cultures – Decoding History Handout
- Decoding History Slide Deck
- Student Laptops
- WiFi
- Teacher Laptop/tablet
- Projector
- Pencil/Pen
- Colored Pencils/Markers
- Sticky Notes
REFERENCES:
Britannica. (2023, December 7). Emoji. Arts and culture. https://www.britannica.com/topic/emoji
Carnegie Institute. (n.d.). The Carnegie Winter Count. North South East West Carnegie Museum of Natural History. https://nsew.carnegiemnh.org/lakota-nation-of-the-plains/winter-court/
Emojipedia. (2022). The new 🫢 Open Eyes & Hand Over Mouth emoji look familiar? . Twitter. Retrieved January 17, 2024, from https://twitter.com/Emojipedia/status/1503427645425524742.
Highsmith, C. M. (2014). An artistic rock carving that highlights the many pictographs by native peoples found among the rocks in surrounding Terrell County, in the “Trans-Pecos” region of southwest Texas. picryl. Carol M. Highsmith’s America Project. Retrieved January 17, 2024, from https://picryl.com/media/an-artistic-rock-carving-that-highlights-the-many-pictographs-by-native-peoples.
K20 Center. (n.d.). Honeycomb harvest. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/61
K20 Center. (n.d.). Stop and Jot. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/168
K20 Center. (n.d.).Tell me everything. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/107
Kiss emoji png sticker, social media illustration on transparent background. (n.d.). rawpixel. Retrieved January 17, 2024, from https://www.rawpixel.com/image/6481637/png-face-sticker.
Krage52. (2019). Wintercount. Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved February 29, 2024, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wintercount.png.
Magazine, S. (2019, July 18). Eight spots in the United States where you can see petroglyphs. Smithsonian.com. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/eight-spots-in-united-states-where-you-can-see-petroglyphs-180972445/
National Park Service. (n.d.). Definitions. https://www.nps.gov/petr/planyourvisit/def.htm
National Parks Gallery. (2010). Deluge Shelter Pictograph – Bighorn Sheep. Picryl. National Parks Gallery. Retrieved January 17, 2024, from https://picryl.com/media/deluge-shelter-pictographs-bighorn-sheep-1e25be.
QueenOfFrogs. (2018). Judaculla Rock. Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved February 29, 2024, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Judaculla_Rock.jpg.
Roth, J. (2011). Panther Peak View. flickr. Retrieved January 17, 2024, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/24257260@N00/6168033044/in/photolist-ap3Mkj-EtAnj3-3jhtex-d8mvtd-3jht7v-7tqT8v-ap3KQy-3jmSKq-8NHWX7-7tqSNe-8NERjP-8NHYx9-8NEPtg-FRwE2R-FPenr3-EW5WGU-FRwuVK-8NHQY3-4SVbCk-oejuwE-8NHS6Y-aoZZEa-FPeMg7-4SZmdU-8NHQCh-QY2Pz-pYSDmp-4SVa7P-8NHQ5j-8NEN6T-4SZnLJ-BsandZ-4SVcoF-8NEN1p-Bo9ihP-4SV7CR-BxouVk-AWW3yc-AC37LM-Bo9coz-AzRVDj-ABVXLL-B4iwFC-AYSQxH-Bx9A1u-EtWeaX-B1WMX2-Bv5fcb-BpTfdS-B6fuqu.
slworking2. (2019). Native American Cave Paintings In the Anza-Borrego Desert Blue Sun Cave. flickr. Retrieved January 17, 2024, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/slworking/49113884388.
St. John, J. (2015). James St. John Follow Indian petroglyphs (~100 B.C. to ~1540 A.D.). flickr. Retrieved January 17, 2024, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/22489512559