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9th Grade  Project 6 weeks

Voices for Change Gallery Walk

BENJAMIN G
Updated
VA:Pr6.1.Ia
VA:Pr.6.1
VA:Pr6.1.IIIa
MA:Pr6.1.iii.b
MA:Re7.1.iii.b
+ 11 more
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Purpose

Students investigate a community issue that matters to them and use art, writing, and multimedia to answer the question, How can words and art inspire change in our communities? Across Drawing & Design, English, and Freshman Seminar, they study civil rights texts, research credible sources, and create original messages that inform, persuade, and call others to action. The work prepares students to present to families, peers, career partners, and Teach Democracy through a public Social Change Gallery Walk that builds awareness, dialogue, and reflection.

Learning goals

Students will analyze how speeches, essays, and visual/media artworks use symbolism, composition, evidence, and multimodal techniques to shape audience beliefs and inspire social change. They will research a community-connected social issue, evaluate sources for credibility and relevance, and develop a clear claim, written analysis, and call to action in an essay, artist statement, and multimedia presentation. Students will create and revise an original social commentary painting and advocacy presentation using peer, teacher, and Teach Democracy feedback while considering ethical implications of representing people and issues. They will also collaborate in critique panels, gallery curation, and event planning, then reflect on how their choices as artists, writers, and presenters influenced audience understanding at the Social Change Gallery Walk.

Standards
  • [National Core Arts Standards] VA:Pr6.1.Ia - Analyze and describe the impact that an exhibition or collection has on personal awareness of social, cultural, or political beliefs and understandings.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] VA:Pr.6.1 - Objects, artifacts, and artworks collected, preserved, or presented either by artists, museums, or other venues communicate meaning and a record of social, cultural, and political experiences resulting in the cultivating of appreciation and understanding.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] VA:Pr6.1.IIIa - Curate a collection of objects, artifacts, or artwork to impact the viewer’s understanding of social, cultural and/or political experiences.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] MA:Pr6.1.iii.b - HS Advanced: Independently evaluate, compare, and integrate improvements in presenting media artworks, considering personal to global impacts, such as new understandings that were gained by artist and audience.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] MA:Re7.1.iii.b - HS Advanced: Survey an exemplary range of media artworks, analyzing methods for managing audience experience, creating intention and persuasion through multimodal perception, and systemic communications.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] VA:Cr1.1.IIIa - Visualize and hypothesize to generate plans for ideas and directions for creating art and design that can affect social change.
  • [Common Core] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.1 - Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9—10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] VA:Cr2.2.IIa - Demonstrate awareness of ethical implications of making and distributing creative work.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] VA:Cr2.1.IIIa - Experiment, plan, and make multiple works of art and design that explore a personally meaningful theme, idea, or concept.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] MA:Pr6.1.ii.b - HS Accomplished: Evaluate and implement improvements in presenting media artworks, considering personal, local, and social impacts such as changes that occurred for people, or to a situation.
Competencies
  • Effective Communication - Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.
  • Critical Thinking & Problem Solving - Students consider a variety of innovative approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.
  • Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.
  • Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.
  • Academic Mindset - Students establish a sense of place, identity, and belonging to increase self-efficacy while engaging in critical reflection and action.
  • Self Directed Learning - Students use teacher and peer feedback and self-reflection to monitor and direct their own learning while building self knowledge both in and out of the classroom.

Products

Students will create four individual products: an original social commentary painting on poster board, a research-based social commentary essay, a multimedia presentation or advocacy video, and an artist statement that explains their message, symbolism, and call to action. Along the way, they will also produce research notes with credible sources, concept sketches and composition studies, essay drafts, storyboards, and revision checkpoints informed by peer, teacher, and Teach Democracy feedback. Collaborative products will include peer-feedback protocols, a shared research bank, curated gallery labels and display plans, and event materials for the schoolwide Social Change Gallery Walk. The culminating public products will be exhibited for families, peers, and career partners at the after-school Gallery Walk.

Launch

Open with a project reveal that transforms the room into a mini social-change gallery featuring protest art, short clips of speeches such as “I Have a Dream” and “Remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.,” and mentor multimedia pieces focused on current community issues. Students complete a quick-write and silent notice/wonder protocol around the question, “How can words and art inspire change in our communities?” then discuss which issues feel most urgent in their own lives. End with a virtual or live message from Teach Democracy inviting students to create work for a public Gallery Walk with families, peers, and career partners. Students leave the launch by posting one issue they want to investigate and one action they hope their work could inspire.

Exhibition

Host an after-school Social Change Gallery Walk where students display their original social commentary paintings alongside selected essay excerpts, artist statements, and a QR code linking to their multimedia presentation or advocacy video. Organize students into gallery curation teams and event planning committees to design the flow of the exhibit, welcome families, peers, career partners, and Teach Democracy guests, and facilitate short conversation stations about the essential question, “How can words and art inspire change in our communities?” Include a brief live showcase in which a few students share key lines from their essays and explain the symbolism and research behind their work, followed by audience feedback and reflection prompts. After the exhibition, students complete a final reflection on how their presentation choices shaped audience understanding of the social issue and call to action.