​rethink.

 

 

Lesson Overview:

 

Students will study and analyze pieces from Martha Rosler’s collection House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home. Students will explore the juxtaposition of these pieces through a short mini-lesson on the topic. Students will compare and contrast the imagery seen in these photographs with the images presented in the book My Name is America: The Journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty from the previous lesson as well as the images presented from the media shown in the first lesson. Finally, by using knowledge gained from the previous two lessons (and/or prior knowledge of the Vietnam War), students will discuss the House Beautiful series and what they think the works mean by using the Visual Thinking Strategies method.

 

Preparation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-- Red Stripe Kitchen from the series Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful (1967-1972)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-- Balloons from the series Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Graphic organizer students may choose to use

 

(materials and resources needed, prior knowledge necessary, staging of the classroom, etc.). Any images, videos, books, etc. needed for the lesson should be pasted into the website page if possible.  Links should be provided only if it makes the most sense.

 

Instruction:

 

1. Show two pieces: Balloons and Red Stripe Kitchen. Allow students to explore these pieces for a couple of minutes. Don’t tell students details about these pieces yet.

2. Using the Visual Thinking Strategies method, ask students what they notice about these pieces. Allow students to express what they see and how they feel about these images.  

3. If they don’t come across this observation on their own, guide students towards noticing the contrast of the war images and the home images. Lead a short mini-lesson detailing juxtaposition.

• Juxtaposition - placing things side-by-side, in order to bring out a specific quality or to create an effect, especially when the two things contrast or oppose the other.

• It has the viewer notice similarities and differences between the two images.  

• It is intended to be shocking to the viewer, and it encourages the viewer to rethink and consider previous ideas.

4. Have students reflect on the images from the book and media from the previous lessons and compare and contrast these images with the images they see in the two art pieces. Encourage students to reference the journal they created in the previous lesson. Have students write down the similarities and differences between these two pieces using a graphic organizer; they may use the graphic organizer located in the materials of the lesson or they may use one of their choice. After they complete this, come together and share the similar and different things they noticed between the pieces.

5. Oversee a discussion regarding what argument or idea the students think Martha Rosler is putting forth through these images, what purpose Martha Rosler has for these images, what Martha Rosler thinks about the Vietnam War. Introduce some of this information as needed:

• Martha Rosler

  • Anti-war activist

  • Imagery designed to provoke outrage and spur action

  • Questions what we learn from images that reach us through TV, newspapers and the Internet

  • Questions how visual imagery contributes to our perceptions and opinions about the Vietnam War

  • Questions how imagery can sway public feelings

• House Beautiful Series

  • Photomontages; used found photographs of events from Vietnam; photographs from photojournalistic sources and advertisements

  • Merges two worlds: Americans watching violence from living room & Vietnamese suffering violence directly

  • Intended study in contradiction

  • Combination of advertising images and documentary images - jarring and uncomfortable

• Balloons

  • Anxiety and fear on man’s face contrasts the serenity of the room

  • Focal point of image - pile of colorful balloons

  • Eyes shift between balloons and the anxiety of the man

  • Man appears to be coming up the stairs toward the viewer asking for help

• Red Stripe Kitchen

  • Created for American audience

  • Questions responsibility

  • Criticizes those who are sheltered from violence while their government is involved in war in their name

6. Wrap up discussion and lesson with some final thoughts summarizing the ideas that the students discussed.

 

(detailed description of the steps of the lesson).  This must be written so that any teacher could teach this lesson solely based on this description.

 

Standards:

• 8.3.5.D: Examine patterns of conflict and cooperation among groups and organizations that impacted the history and development of the United States.

• 5.3.5.G: Describe how groups try to influence others.

• 9.2.5.A: Explain the historical, cultural and social context of an individual work in the arts.

• 9.2.5.B: Relate works in the arts chronologically to historical events (e.g., 10,000 B.C. to present).

• 9.2.5.D: Analyze a work of art from its historical and cultural perspective.

• 9.3.5.A:

• Identify critical processes in the examination of works in the arts and humanities.

  • Compare and contrast

  • Analyze

  • Interpret

  • Form and test hypotheses

  • Evaluate/form judgments