Lesson Title: Icebreaker Postcard Matching Game

Grade Level/Content Focus: This informal introduction to works of art in local collections is appropriate for students in art and social studies classes, grades 6 - 12, and for adults.

Time Period: Fifteen minutes to play the game or one forty-five minute class period to play the game, set up an impromptu art gallery, and write captions for the works of art.

Standards
Lesson plans submitted for this project should indicate the specific benchmarks, standards, and indicators being addressed. Because this activity can be used in a cross-discipline setting, we have listed a number of areas where state standards are relevant. The specific outcomes, expectations, and indicators listed for Fine Arts suggest some, but not all, of the ways this activity can be related to Maryland State Department of Education Standards in Fine Arts. Core Learning Goals for Social Studies and English listed indicate areas in which specific expectations with indicators can also be identified.

Fine Arts:
Outcome I
- Perceiving, Performing, and Responding - Aesthetic Education. The student will demonstrate the ability to perceive, interpret, and respond to ideas, experiences, and the environment through visual arts.

Expectation 2
Indicator b:
Critique the formal and expressive qualities in art forms from various cultures.

Outcome II - Historical, Cultural, and Social Contexts - The student will demonstrate the understanding of visual arts as a basic aspect of history and human experience.

Expectation 4
Indicator a
: Identify and describe parallels found in the visual arts, science, math, and the humanities.

Outcome III - Creative Expression and Production - The student will demonstrate the ability to organize knowledge and ideas for the expression in the expression of art.

Expectation 1
Indicator a:
Students will demonstrate competent application of the skills and knowledge required to produce works of art using a variety of media.
Indicator b: Students will interpret symbols and meanings of art forms from various cultures and create a composition with cultural references.

Outcome IV: Making Aesthetic Judgments - The student will demonstrate the ability to identify, analyze, and apply criteria for making visual aesthetic judgments.

Expectation 1
Indicator a
: Students will examine and describe artworks from different cultures based on universal elements of art.
Indicator b: Students will research, interpret, and discuss the influences of time, place, and function on an artistic form.

Social Studies:
World History/Geography/Government
: Peoples of the Nation and the World.

Core Learning Goal 1 - The student will demonstrate an understanding of the historical development and current status of principles, institutions, and processes of political systems.

Core Learning Goal 2 - The student will demonstrate an understanding of the history, diversity, and commonality of the peoples of the nation and world, the reality of human interdependence, and the need for global cooperation through a perspective that is both historical and multicultural.

Core Learning Goal 3 - The student will demonstrate an understanding of geographic concepts and processes to examine the role of culture, technology, and the environment in the location and distribution of human activities throughout history.

English:

Core Learning Goal 1 - The student will demonstrate the ability to respond to a text [in this activity, a picture] by employing personal experiences and critical analysis.

Core Learning Goal 2 - If the caption writing exercise is used, student will demonstrate the ability to compose in a variety of modes by developing content, employing specific forms, and selecting language appropriate for particular audience and purpose.

Core Learning Goal 3 - The student will demonstrate the ability to control language by applying the conventions of Standard English in writing and speaking.

Objectives

Participants will

Vocabulary/Concepts

Japanese/Tokugawa Period (Japan was closed off soon after the first European ships visited Japan in 1542, and did not reopen to foreign ships until 1853)

European/ Elizabethan Period (1552 - Book of Common Prayer to 1789 - French Revolution)

Materials/Resources (Specify if for Teacher or Student use)

Andrews, Malcolm. Landscape and Western Art (Oxford History of Art Series). London: Oxford University Press, 2000. Covers the full spectrum of landscape art, including painting, gardening, panorama, poetry, photography, and art.

Baker, Joan Stanley. Japanese Art (World of Art Series). London: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1984. rpt.1998. Especially useful for the chapter -Azuchi-Momoyama and Edo (1576-1868).

Johnson, Paul. Art: A New History. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. "Unapologetically opinionated, slightly Anglocentric narrative from respected popular historian Johnson. Despite its all-embracing title, this covers non-Western art primarily for the effect it had on the art of Europe and its colonies." --Kirkus Review

Murray, Peter, and Linda Murray Gaunt, William. English Painting: A Concise History (World of Art Series). London: Thames & Hudson, 1988 rpt. Ranges from England's position in the Middle Ages to the influence of Post Impressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism and abstract art, seen as a prelude to a flourishing modern period. "A highly informative though concise history which is illuminated both by a sensitive critical approach and a vast...knowledge of the historical background." --Arts Review

Turner, Jane, ed. From Renaissance to Impressionism: Styles and Movements in Western Art, 1400-1900. London: Oxford University Press, 2000. Covering all forms of the visual arts - architecture and decorative arts as well as painting and sculpture, essays discuss the origins, characteristics, leading players, and influence of the most important movements in European, North American, and Latin American art.

Local museum sites where postcards for the exercise were purchased. Visuals at these sites could be printed and used instead of postcards.

http://www.usna.usda.gov/
The National Arboretum with links to the National Bonsai Museum

http://www.nga.gov/
National Gallery of Art

http://www.asia.si.edu/
Freer and Sackler Galleries

http://www.textilemuseum.org/
The Textile Museum

General websites with links to more specific resources. Teachers should preview art websites with special care to make sure the sites meet the needs of their students and the community.

http://www.euronet.nl/users/artnv/Japart.index.html
Western Influence on Japanese Art

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/tl/japan/edo.html
Japanese art prints and information

http://www.kanzaki.com/jinfo/jart.html
Traditional Japanese Art

http://www.Luminarium.org
Medieval and Renaissance information

http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/fineart/html/chinese/
Chinese and Japanese Art

http://renaissanceconnection.org/main.cfm
An middle School friendly website not to be missed

For the matching game:

Postcards purchased at the Freer and Sackler Galleries and the National Gallery of Art showing works of art in local collections from the Japanese/Tokugawa period in Japan and from the European/Elizabethan period in England

For the impromptu gallery:

White 3x5 cards on which to write captions explaining the matched postcards; pens; masking tape for creating impromptu gallery

Lesson Abstract

The primary purpose of this activity is to allow participants to get to know each other. The game requires no expensive or complicated equipment. Players are encouraged to move around the room and talk with their peers while finding a match in the other culture for the card they have chosen. There are no wrong answers, but each player must be able to state a basis for matching the cards.

To play the simpler version of this icebreaker game, begin by instructing players to claim a postcard from the piles of cards on each table. Announce that players have five minutes to find a partner who has a card for the other culture that at some level matches their card. Players who absolutely cannot make a match in two or three minutes may choose another card from the pile of unused cards. After four minutes, encourage players who have not made a match to join an already established partnership. More than one card from one culture can be matched to a card from the other culture. However, remind players that each match must be justified. Also, remind players that matches will not be absolute or perfect. When most or all players have settled on a match, stop the game. Ask players to introduce themselves and share the basis for their match with the group.

Having established a number of comparisons and introduced themselves to each other, players should be encouraged to discuss important differences as well as the dangers of superficial comparisons. In conclusion, time should be devoted to a discussion of the differences in working with postcard photographs of material objects such as ceramic vessels and kimono and photographs of paintings. Adult players, such as our very well prepared group of participants, will be eager to discuss the dangers of grossly oversimplifying the meaning and value of cultural artifacts in such an exercise. However, we will all know one another better and perhaps understand a bit more about both cultures. Finally, remind players that this activity is limited by the postcard reproductions available.

Lesson Development

Placing enough postcards on tables around the room to allow one card for each player. Use an equal number of cards from each culture under study. In this game European and Japanese works of art are used. Each player will claim one card. At this point there will be considerable discussion and switching of cards. Assure players that there will be enough cards for all and that they will be allowed to change their cards if they discover that they do not like or cannot work with the card selected.

Group leader will show several cards, select one card that has not been claimed from one of the tables, and demonstrate a potential match with one of the cards held by a player in the group.

Players will now circulate, locating first cards from the other culture, and then narrowing their choice to a card that in some way matches their own card.

*Reading skills: Post card captions will need to be read carefully to confirm players' guesses as to culture, artist, and time frame represented in the picture.

*Thinking skills:

The group leader will encourage players to establish a basis for comparison:
Similar subject matter content such as animals, plants, persons, supernatural beings, sky, river, or seascapes
Similar arrangement of specific or overall content such as vertical, round, very horizontal
Similar medium such as oil, watercolor, drawing
Similar use such as container, devotional object, ornament

When all matches are completed, assemble the postcards into an impromptu gallery and give the players time to look at the matches.

*Writing skills: Players working in pairs will write and edit captions explaining their postcard matches.

In an informal get-acquainted session, players will be rewarded verbally as part of the group interaction and sharing. Although there are no absolutely right or wrong matches in this game, we can assess the player's level of close observation and of participation in the group interaction by using the rubric sheet below.

RUBRIC FOR POSTCARD GAME

Basis for assessment Three cheers
(Excellent)

Hand clapping
(Satisfactory)

Pats on back
(Needs improvement)

Clearly introduces self to the group
(English Core Learning Goal 3)
     
Matches specific details in both artifacts
(Social Studies Core Learning Goal 2; Fine Arts ELOs 1 and 2)
     
Exhibits originality and imagination in identifying similarities
(Fine Arts ELO 3)
     
Clearly articulates the basis for making the match
(English Core Learning Goal 1)
     
Considers important differences
(English Core Learning Goal 1)
     
Avoids oversimplification
(English Core Learning Goal 1)
     

 

 Ask players to consider the differences in the presentation of a flower when it is created on a ceramic object, a textile, a screen, a canvas, a piece of paper. What do those differences say about the work of art as a cultural artifact and as an example of the artist’s technical skill?

At the end of the game, players will tour the impromptu art gallery. In a classroom setting, the players will be asked to write a one-page visitors guide for the exhibit.

Lesson Extensions
This game can be used to prepare for a fieldtrip to a museum or as a follow-up activity for the class after the field trip. Also, it may be extended to become a simple way to assign students to work groups, or to a workshop strand. Before the matching game, place a number on the back of each card. At the end of the exercise, identify the numbers as workgroups. For example, all #1s study paintings, all #2s study woodblocks, all #3s study ceramics, and all #4s study textiles. At the Teaching East and West conference, cards were numbered 1 or 2. Number 1s were instructed to attend all workshops numbered 1. Number 2s were asked to attend all workshops numbered 2.

Key Words
Tokugawa, Elizabethan, Japan, England, art, icebreaker, oral presentation, comparative studies