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Lesson Title: Making Akan Gold Weights and Understanding
their Proverbial Meanings
Name: Elaine Jones
Discipline: Visual art
Grade Level: 4, 5
I. Conceptual Framework
Big Idea: Identity
Rationale: The study of the gold weights from the
Asante people will give students a visual perspective of ancient West
African art. In the process, they will learn the proverbs associated
with each piece of art and begin to understand the underlying moral
teachings of that culture.
Essential Questions:
- How can a proverb reveal who you are?
- How can an object symbolize the beliefs of a community?
Key Concepts:
- Identity is about arts in a culture.
- Identity is about community.
State and Local Standards:
Standard I: Perceiving and Responding- Aesthetic Education
Indicators:
- Identify and describe visual qualities found in ideas, experiences,
and the environment.
- Create thematic works showing personal observations, feelings
and stories.
Standard II: Historical, Cultural, and Social Context
Indicators:
- Inspired by the art of people from different times and cultures,
create a work of art that reflects aspects of his or her daily life.
Standard III: Creative Expression and Production
Indicators:
- Draw upon personal sources as a basis for meaningful images developed
through a process that includes idea generation, research to solve
representational problems, and artful crafting of a quality product
Standard IV: Aesthetics and Criticism
Indicators:
- Based on criteria generated from the study of selected artworks,
create art on a related theme.
- Based on the study of examples of narrative expression by a variety
of artists, create an artwork expressing his or her own story through
personal aesthetic choices.
II. TOPIC
- Objects can be symbols.
- Symbols can express complicated ideas.
III. ART FORM
- Asante gold weight sculptures
- Photographs of African goldsmiths
IV. LESSON
Motivation/Warm-Up:
- Students will listen to the story, Kwajo and the Brassman’s
Secret A Tale of Old Ashanti wisdom and gold by Meshack Ascare
Modeling/Discussion:
- The teacher will introduce some images of Akan gold weights.
- The students will read from a hand-out, a wide variety of proverbs
that are accompanied by a description of the miniature sculpture.
- The teacher will initiate discussion of the proverbs.
- The teacher will show an example of a gold weight figurine, the
Sankofa bird.
Guided Practice:
- The students will decide which proverb is meaningful to them and
make a
sketch of a sculpture that captures the essence of that proverb.
- The teacher will circulate the room to offer any guidance or assistance
needed.
Independent Practice:
- The students will model the clay using an additive method of sculpting.
- After the clay piece is fired, the students will display it on a
mat board base that has the proverb that it illustrates attached to
it.
Assessment/Closure:
- The students will share their completed artwork with the class.
- The evaluation will be made through use of a rubric.
Materials/Resources:
Texts:
- Antubam, Kofi. Ghana’s Heritage of Culture. Leipzig,
Germany: Koehler & Amelang, 1963.
- Ascare, Meshack. Kwajo and the Brassman’s Secret, A
tale of old Ashanti wisdom and gold. Ghana: Sub-Saharan Publishers,
2002.
- Bisson, Michael S. Ancient African Metallurgy: The Sociocultural
Content. Walnut Creek, CA: Alta Mira Press, 2000.
- Fox, Christine. Asante Brass Casting: Lost-wax casting of
gold-weights, ritual vessels and sculptures, with handmade equipment.
Cambridge: African Studies Centre, 1988.
- Garrard, Timothy F. Akan Weights and the Gold Trade.
London and New York: Longman Group Limited, 1980.
- Graffenried, Charlotte. Akan Goldweights in the Berne Historical
Museum. Bern, Germany: Benteli Verlag, 1990.
- Naylor, Rachel. Ghan. Oxfam, GB, 2000.
- Nitecki, Andre. Equal Measure for Kings and Commoners: Gold
Weights of the Akan from the Collections of the Glenbow Museum,
Calgary, Canada.
Calgary, Canada: Glenbow-Alberta Institute, 1982.
- Rattray, R.S. Ashanti Proverbs. Oxford: The Clarendon
Press, 1916.
On-line Resources:
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