Format
Videoconference presenters show portraits from the museum’s collection using the Smithsonian Learning Lab platform (https://learninglab.si.edu/org/NPG). Through inquiry-based questions and discussion, presenters engage with participants as they explore the portraits together.
Objectives
After completing this lesson, students will be better able to:
-Identify and analyze the contributions of key Americans in the various struggles to achieve civil rights for disenfranchised or marginalized groups, and broke barriers from the Civil War era to the present.
-Identify key components of a portrait and discuss what we can learn about the sitter through these components.
Standards Alignment
National Standards
Key Ideas and Details:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.1
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.2
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.3
Identify key steps in a text's description of a process related to history/social studies (e.g., how a bill becomes law, how interest rates are raised or lowered).
Craft and Structure:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.5
Describe how a text presents information (e.g., sequentially, comparatively, causally).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.6
Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author's point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts).
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.7
Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.8
Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.9
Analyze the relationship between a primary and secondary source on the same topic.
Key Ideas and Details:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.1
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.3
Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them.
Craft and Structure:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social science.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.5
Analyze how a text uses structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation or analysis.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.6
Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the same or similar topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.8
Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author's claims.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.9
Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.
Key Ideas and Details:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.1
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.2
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.3
Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain.
Craft and Structure:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including analyzing how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.5
Analyze in detail how a complex primary source is structured, including how key sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text contribute to the whole.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.6
Evaluate authors' differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the authors' claims, reasoning, and evidence.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.7
Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.8
Evaluate an author's premises, claims, and evidence by corroborating or challenging them with other information.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.9
Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.
State Standards
Maryland
Social Studies
Standard 5.0: Students will examine significant ideas, beliefs, and themes; organize patterns and events; and analyze how individuals and societies have changed over time in Maryland and the United States.
Standard 5.2: Students will demonstrate understanding of the cultural, economic, political, social and technological developments from 1898 to 1929.
Standard 5.3: Students will demonstrate understanding of the cultural, economic, political, social and technological developments from 1929-1945.
Standard 5.4: Students will demonstrate understanding of the cultural, economic, political, social and technological developments from 1946-1968.
Standard 6.0 Social Studies Skills and Processes: Students shall use reading, writing, and thinking processes and skills to gain knowledge and understanding of political, historical, and current events using chronological and spatial thinking, economic reasoning, and historical interpretation, by framing and evaluating questions from primary and secondary sources.
Acquire Social Studies Information
Identify primary and secondary sources of information that relate to the topic/situation/problem being studied
b. Read and obtain information from texts representing diversity in content, culture, authorship, and perspective
c. Locate and gather data and information from appropriate non-print sources, such as music, artifacts, charts, maps, graphs, photographs, video clips, illustrations, paintings, political cartoons, multimedia, interviews, and oral histories
Visual arts
Standard 1.0: Students will demonstrate the ability to perceive, interpret, and respond to ideas, experiences, and the environment through visual art.
Standard 2.0: Students will demonstrate an understanding of visual arts as a basic aspect of history and human experience.
District of Columbia
Social Studies
Standard 5.4. Students identify prominent people and movements for social justice in the United States.
Standard 5.13. Students explain important domestic trends of the 1950’s and 60’s..
Standard 5.14. Students describe the key events and accomplishments of the Civil Rights movements in the United States.
Standard 5.15. Students describe some of the major economic and social trends of the late 20th century.
Standard 8.10. Students analyze the issue of slavery, including the early and steady attempts to abolish slavery and to realize the ideals of the Declaration of Independence.
Standard 11.11. Students analyze the origins, goals, key events, and accomplishments of Civil Rights movements in the United States.
Standard 11.12. Students analyze important events and trends in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Standard 11.13. Students describe important events and trends of the late 20th century.
Visual Arts
Standard 1: Each student will understand and apply media, techniques and process in the creation and production of art.
Standard 3: Each student will choose and evaluate a range of subject matter, symbols and ideas to communicate meaning in artworks.
Virginia
Social Studies
Standard GOVT.1: The student will demonstrate mastery of the social studies skills
responsible citizenship requires, including the ability to
a) analyze primary and secondary source documents;
c) analyze political cartoons, political advertisements, pictures, and other graphic media
Standard USI.1: The student will develop skills for historical and geographical analysis, including the ability to
a) identify and interpret primary and secondary source documents to increase understanding of events and life in United States history to 1877;
b) make connections between the past and the present;
c) sequence events in United States history from pre-Columbian times to 1877;
d) interpret ideas and events from different historical perspectives;
e) evaluate and discuss issues orally and in writing;
Standard USII.1: The student will demonstrate skills for historical and geographical analysis and responsible citizenship, including the ability to
a) analyze and interpret primary and secondary source documents to increase understanding of events and life in United States history from 1865 to the present
b) make connections between the past and the present;
c) sequence events in United States history from 1865 to the present;
d) interpret ideas and events from different historical perspectives;
Standard USII.7d: The student will demonstrate knowledge of the economic, social, and political transformation of the United States and the world between the end of World War II and the present by describing the changing patterns of society, including expanded educational and economic opportunities for military veterans, women, and minorities.
Standard USII.8a: The student will demonstrate knowledge of the key domestic issues during the second half of the twentieth century by examining the Civil Rights Movement and the changing role of women.
Standard VS.9b: The student will demonstrate knowledge of twentieth century Virginia by identifying the social and political events in Virginia linked to desegregation and Massive Resistance and their relationship to national history.
Visual Arts
Standard 7.19: the student will explore and identify subjects, themes, and symbols as they relate to meaning in works of art.
Standard 7.26: the student will analyze and describe how factors of time and place
influence visual characteristics that give meaning and value to a work of art.