ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• ​What are effective ways to promote reform?

• How has art historically been used as activism and to what results?

• How do art and literary movements reflect reactions to global events and ideas?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• ​Generate questions to learn more about the Spanish Civil War

• Discuss multidisciplinary topics from a variety of perspectives, introduced by self, peers, teacher, and thought leaders

• Make predictions and gather details based on a text

• Interact with digital storytelling as a learning tool

• Articulate the value of experiencing diverse art and culture

• Explain how art is an important mode for communicating our human experience

• Employ art as an aesthetic tool to communicate important historical and contemporary issues

• Incorporate multiple perspectives to provide meaningful feedback on peers' creative work

LEARNING OUTLINE

This module is on the Spanish Civil War video presentation. It can be used as a whole learning experience, or in chosen sections as time allows.

• ​15 minutes:  Launch Activity - Pre-viewing - Asking Questions About the Spanish Civil War

• 20 minutes:  While viewing - Learning About the Spanish Civil War Through Pilar's Firsthand Account

• 10 minutes:  Post-viewing - Sharing and Comparing

• 45 minutes:  Demonstration - Exploring the Spanish Civil War Through Art, Text and Video

• 15+ minutes:  Making Connections - Making Protest Panels as Civic Action

• 25 minutes:  Assessment - Art Exhibition, Interpretation, Feedback and Evaluation

Suggested Reading:

Spanish Civil War: Encyclopedia Britannica 

Picasso’s ‘Guernica’: 10 Facts You Didn’t Know About the Famous Painting

Picasso, Guernica- Image of the art activism panel

Guernica as Art Activism- Article on this anti-war panel and what it means

Suggested Video:

Spanish Civil War: The Telegraph (2:12min)

Supplies for Art Activism Panel:

Low Tech Activity: Canvas, paints, magazines, scissors, glue

High Tech Activity: Digital assets organized in folders

LAUNCH ACTIVITY - PRE-VIEWING:  Asking Questions About the Spanish Civil War

[15 minutes]

[Learning Objective 1]
Procedures:

• Topic:  Introduction - Exploring the Spanish Civil War and how art can be used for social change. This module presents a local artist whose family lived through the Spanish Civil War

• Imagine you had the opportunity to interview her: What questions would you want to ask her? Separate students in groups to generate questions for Pilar Pobil. Guide them as needed to think about questions related to when the war happened, who was involved, the underlying causes, and Pilar's personal experiences.

• Group students in a breakout room or assign them to unique Google Docs to brainstorm their questions collaboratively.

• Invite groups to share some of their questions prior to viewing the video.

WHILE VIEWING: Learning About the Spanish Civil War Through Pilar's Firsthand Account

[20 minutes]

[Learning Objectives 2, 3, 4}
Procedures:

• Give each student a link to a graphic organizer or cluster map. In their cluster map, have them write "Pilar and Spanish Civil War" in a middle circle. Then label five surrounding circles with "when", "where", "why", "interesting detail", and "something I want to know more about".

• Play the video Pilar Pobil - Spanish Civil War (13:49 minutes), pausing as appropriate for students to fill in their graphic organizer. (It is the first video at the top of this page.)

POST-VIEWING: Sharing and Comparing

[10 minutes]

[Learning Objectives 2, 3, 4, 8]
Procedures:

• Invite students to share notes either in partners, in a group breakout room, posting notes to a discussion forum, or by sharing ideas verbally. Did they have any of the same "interesting details" or things they'd like to know more about? How can they find answers to those "burning questions"?

DEMONSTRATION:  Exploring the Spanish Civil War Through Art, Text and Video

[45 minutes]

[Learning Objectives 2, 3, 4, 6]
Procedures:

Video link: 

Spanish Civil War: The Telegraph

(2:12 minutes)

Text link: 

Spanish Civil War: Encyclopedia Britannica

Art links: 

Picasso's 'Guernica': 10 Facts You Didn't Know About the Famous Painting

Picasso, 'Guernica'

Reading / Pre-viewing

• Tell students we are going to explore the Spanish Civil War further through art, reading and watching a short video. Introduce the war with this synopsis: "The Spanish Civil War was a military revolt against the Republican government of Spain, supported by conservative elements within the country. The military coup failed to win complete control of the country resulting in a bloody civil war."

• Provide students with this list of questions (Appendix A). Have students read through questions and make predictions about questions 3, 6, 9, and 11. Share predictions and justify their thinking. What information or perspectives inform their predictions?

Reading / While Viewing

• Pass students the links to the article and short video and tell students to answer as many questions as they can from the article. Then have them watch the video and tell them to be prepared to share their responses.

Reading / Post-Viewing

• Discuss the questions and answers (in small groups, self-assess with a given answer sheet, or discuss as a class).

• Did anyone have an accurate prediction for questions 3, 6, 9, or 11

Exploring the Spanish Civil War Through Picasso's Guernica

• Show Picasso's painting Guernica to students (place link in your class chat or discussion forum; share your screen, etc.).

• Share the following introduction verbally:  In 1937, Picasso was living in Paris when the Spanish Republican government approached him with a commission to produce a mural that would expose the atrocities of General Francisco Franco and his allies, for their pavilion in that year's World's Fair. The Republicans saw the event as an opportunity to condemn the actions of Franco's Nationalist army. Several months later, on April 26, the city of Guernica was bombed by German aircraft, and the coverage of the widespread devastation drove Picasso to being working on the commission.

• Invite students individually, in pairs, or small groups, to interpret Picasso's Guernica. What elements or images do you see? What do you think each represents? What do you think this panel depicts? (There are no wrong answers)

• Facilitate a discussion making connections between existing analyses of the piece and the perspectives of the students. Highlight the function of the work as protest art.

  1. What does Picasso's Guernica teach you about the war?

  2. Do you think this was an effective way of communicating a social injustice?

  3. If you were at the World's Fair in Paris in 1937 and saw this, how do you think you would react?

• Tell students that no one really knows what influenced the choice of elements in this piece because Picasso never talked about what his art meant. Post or read this excerpt to them:  The strong symbolism in Guernica - like that of the bull and the horse - has been a topic of much debate and discussion, with scholars and art experts coming up with varied interpretations. Picasso, who was naturally approached for an explanation, simply said, "This bull is a bull and this horse is a horse. If you give a meaning to certain things in my paintings it may be very true, but it is not my idea to give this meaning. What ideas and conclusions you have got, I obtained too, but instinctively, unconsciously. I make the painting for the painting. I paint the objects for what they are."

• Discussion:

  1. What do you think about what Picasso said?

  2. What questions would you ask Picasso about this painting if you had the opportunity?

  3. What would you add to this masterpiece?

MAKING CONNECTIONS: Making Protest Panels as Civic Action

[15 minutes]
[Learning Objectives 5, 6, 7, 8]
Procedures:

• Invite students to think about the role of art in expressing our experiences.

  1. How did Pilar's art express her experiences and emotions?

  2. How can art serve to convey passions and principles and protest injustices?

  3. How can art be a form of civic engagement?

• Have students deep dive into a current issue that is important to them. Give them time to generate ideas (e.g., climate change, Black Lives Matter movement, indigenous peoples' rights, animal rights, etc.)

• Show them (share your screen or link) Pilar's protest painting on air quality. Under the Great Seal of the State of Utah

• Provide guidelines for students to create their own protest panels. Consider high, low, and no-tech options. They might create a digital collage or digital painting or a more traditional paper and glue collage with images from magazines.

  1. Individually or in pairs

  2. Medium - paint, photography, text, collage, or other

  3. Size

  4. Effective messaging

  5. Explanatory concept paragraph

• Determine how they will share their work and give and receive peer feedback. Options listed below under Assessment Strategies #2.

ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES: Art Exhibition, Interpretation, Feedback and Evaluation

1. Have students share their protest panels with each other. Discuss and interpret what each other's panels represent.

2. Showcase student work. Options include:

   • Zoom (breakout rooms)

   • Canvas (discussion forums)

   • Flipgrid (create and share student videos)

   • Padlet (create a board where students can pin their work and leave comments for peers)

   • Digital Video (create and share videos using digital storytelling software, e.g.; Adobe Spark)

   • Google Drive (use Google slides or a Google folder)

Invite students to “dig deeper” on these topics by providing additional options for research and reflection about the Spanish Civil War.

Website

• Pilar Legacy Foundation

  - A nonprofit organization established to preserve Pilar’s Salt Lake City home.

Literature

• Ernest Hemingway: For Whom the Bell Tolls tells the story of an American fighting for the Republican cause during the Spanish Civil War.

  • Text Excerpts from SparkNotes from

    For Whom the Bell Tolls

    to share with students

• George Orwell:

  • Homage to Catalonia: Tells a personal account of his experiences and observations fighting for the Republican army during the Spanish Civil War.

  • Text Excerpt (Chapter 1) from Homage to Catalonia to share with students

  • Criticism

• Erich Maria Remarque:

  • All Quiet on the Western Front vividly depicts the trauma of trench warfare during World War I through the eyes of a German soldier.

• Article in The New Yorker on American soldiers who fought in the Spanish Civil War

Essential Questions

• How does an individual's identity reflect culture?

• How is your own cultural history woven into the history of America?

• How does one’s cultural identity diffuse and change over a lifetime?

• How does communicating with people from other cultures improve our world?

• How does your cultural identity reflect your surroundings?

Learning Objectives – In this Module, students will:

• Write about multifaceted identity;

• Discuss multidisciplinary topics from a variety of perspectives, introduced by self, peers, teacher, and thought leaders;

• Make predictions and gather details based on a text;

• Interact with digital storytelling as a learning tool;

• Reflect on the underlying values of others and oneself;

• Map identity based on an awareness of the self as a cultural being;

• Articulate an appreciation of the multicultural world;

• Initiate and engage in positive intercultural dialogue;

• Explain how how art is an important mode for communicating our human experience;

• Employ art as an aesthetic tool to communicate important issues;

• Incorporate multiple perspectives to provide meaningful feedback on peers’ creative work.

Learning Outline

This module is on Pilar’s Cultural Identity & Belonging video presentation. It can be taught as one 3-hour and 15 minute learning experience, or in sections as time allows. 

• 30 minutes: Launch Activity: Pre-Viewing– Exploring Who We Are and Where We Belong

• 15 minutes: While Viewing– Pilar’s Intersecting Identity and Belonging Story 

• 35 minutes: Post-Viewing–Reading, Writing and Synthesizing

• 35 minutes: Demonstration: Cultural Artifacts & Burial Chambers

• 35 minutes: Making Connections: Arts Integration Project I– Designing Your Burial Chamber

• 20+ minutes: Making Connections: Arts Integration Project II– Probing Intersectional Identities Through Full-Self Portraits

• 25 minutes: Assessment– Art Exhibition, Interpretation, Feedback & Evaluation

Graphic Organizers:

Your choice of graphic organizers for the “Pre-Viewing” and “Demonstration” sections

Suggested Reading:

• What are Grave Goods?  A short introduction into the concept, significance and even the problems of grave goods.

• Weekly View Pop Icon's Grave Goods Article An entertaining article featuring what famous people have taken to their graves.

Suggested Video: 

• Emperor Qin’s Tomb (Article with accompanying video–2:45) Describes one of the most famous archaeological discoveries– an elaborate mausoleum in Xi'an, China, created to accompany Emperor Qin (pronounced Chin) into the afterlife.

Launch Activity–Pre-Viewing: Exploring Who We Are and Where We Belong

[30 min]

[Learning Objectives 1,2,5,6,8,11]

Procedures:

• Topic:  Exploring cultural identity to better understand ourselves, each other, and appreciate this multicultural world. 

• In this module we present a local artist in her 90’s who identifies as both Spanish and American. She was raised in Spain from 1929- 1956, and has spent the last 60+ years in Utah.  Her identity blends her experiences in both places. 

• Discussion: 

  • What places have been part of your life so far? What groups do you belong to? 

  • Can you think of any experiences that have made you who you are? 

  • What do you value? 

  • Note to educators: Discussing where one is from can be sensitive. Before this lesson, you might view this TED Talk by Taiye Selasi: Don’t ask me where I’m from, ask me where I’m local. 

  • Can you think of a way to frame the conversation around “where students are local”?

• Share definitions of “culture” and “cultural identity.” (link to vocabulary pdf).

• To break down cultural identity further, share something about you– for example:  “Part of my cultural identity is that I am a female African-Canadian, raised Catholic in a large blended family. I have lived in the US for the past 20 years. I am a writer and who helps foster dogs as a member of a Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. I believe in education for all. 

• Invite students  to reflect on their own cultural identity to strengthen their sense of self. Give students a link to a cluster map.  In their cluster map, have them write “Who I Am” in the middle and then fill in the surrounding circles. Some ideas: “nationality”, “ethnicity”, “religion”, “social class”, “educational background”, “family”, “other groups I belong to” , “ things and experiences I value.”

• Have students write a short bio based on what they wrote in their cluster maps. 

•  Invite students to share some of their bios, or post in a discussion forum. Have classmates comment on at least one interesting thing they learn from a peer’s bio.

While Viewing: Pilar’s Intersecting Identity and Belonging Story

[15 min]

[Learning Objectives 1,3,4,5]

Procedures:

• Give each student a link to the Pilar’s Cultural Identity graphic organizer.

• Play video of Pilar– Cultural Identity and Belonging (8:40min). Have students take notes in the graphic organizer as they watch.

• Pause as appropriate for students to take notes. 

Post-Viewing: Reading, Writing and Synthesizing

[35 min]

[Learning Objectives 1,2,5,8,11]

Procedures:

• Have students merge both columns on their graphic organizer by writing a short paragraph at the bottom of the page that describes Pilar’s cultural identity. 

• Invite students to share and compare their paragraphs with a partner (in a breakout room, or by posting a picture of their notes to a discussion forum) and discuss the following:

  • What does Pilar value? 

  • Did they learn anything new about Spanish and/or American (Utah) culture? 

  • Do they have any of the same “interesting details” or things they’d like to know more about? 

• As a class, read this interesting detail about Pilar from her book, My Kitchen Table: 

  • “I love people and have many friends but inside I have the feeling I am not entirely like them. And now, when I return to Spain, the same feelings come when I am with my friends there. Because of my life here, I am not like them either. I guess this is how life takes over and shapes you in different ways, according to your surroundings and your experiences. The feeling of separation is not as strong now as it was when I first came to America. At that time, the distance was enormous. The world I knew was gone and I had to face a new one, and I did. Even ordinary things were different: I confused cabbage with iceberg lettuce, I had never eaten corn on the cob or avocados, I had never seen television. I had to learn new ways of expression, not just with language but with perceptions. My husband sometimes teased me and said I had the soul of a Mallorcan peasant because I still do things my own way, sometimes rejecting the tools the modern world provides. I use modern things when they serve my purpose, but many times doing things the old way serves to preserve my hidden identity, a certain self-expression.” Pilar Pobil

• Give students a moment to reflect, then ask:

  • Have you ever felt like you were between two cultures? 

  • Have you ever known anyone who was navigating two cultures and not feeling like they fit well in either one? 

  • As a local member of a particular culture, how might you get to know someone who was experiencing your culture for the first time?” 

Demonstration: Cultural Artifacts & Burial Chambers

[35 min]

[Learning Objectives 2,3,4,5,7,9]

Procedures:

Reading

• Introduce the topic of grave goods and being buried with things you value by sharing the article What are Grave Goods? 

• In breakout room pairs, have students respond to the following questions:

  1. Provide three reasons people might be buried with objects.

  2. What were some of the things the Vikings were buried with? 

  3. Why do they think they were buried with so much? 

Watching

• Give students the link to the article Emperor Qin’s Tomb. Scroll down to watch the video, China’s Terracotta Warriors (2:45min). 

• In breakout room pairs, have students respond to the following questions: 

  1. How was this burial site discovered? 

  2. Qin took the throne at 13 years old and soon after ordered laborers to start construction. What did you learn was in this burial site (or mausoleum) and what purpose did it serve? 

  3. Emperor Qin’s tomb sits still sealed in this excavated burial complex. What do archaeologists think is inside his tomb? Why don’t they open it?

  4. What did you learn about this burial site that most amazed you? 

• As a class, have a few students share how they answered the last question on the Emperor Qin’s Tomb section, “What did you learn about this burial site that most amazed you?” 

• Share the Weekly View Pop Icon's Grave Goods Article about contemporary celebrities and what objects they were buried with. As a class, discuss:  What do ancient and modern burials have in common? 

Arts Integration Project I– Designing Your Burial Chamber

[35 min (time to lay out the project; work will happen outside of class or in another session)]

[Learning Objectives 2,4,5,6,8,9,10,11]

Procedures:

• Have students choose an item that tells something about their background (e.g., watch, glasses, purse, phone, scarf, etc.) and jot down notes about what this item says about them and their culture.

• Have students rewatch Pilar’s: Cultural Identity and Belonging (8:40min) video and take notes on what is in Pilar’s burial chamber. Encourage them to comment on what is interesting, or what they can relate to.

• Discuss how the burial chamber expresses Pilar’s cultural identity. Discuss how things we keep are symbolic of what we value. Have a few students share their valued item and how it is “symbolic” of what they value, and who they are.  

• Now invite students to imagine their own burial chamber. 

  • What would they put in their chamber and why? If the burial chamber is too morbid they could imagine what they would put in a time capsule. Ask students, “What would you put in a burial chamber or time capsule that would tell people about who you are? 

• They can work individually (jotting down ideas) or discussing in pairs or in small groups. 

• Discuss connections between their burial chamber objects/ artifacts and the culture(s) they associate with.  

  • How do their burial  chamber objects reflect their values? 

  • What value is there in sharing these personal objects? 

  • How does it feel to share this with others?

•  Have students create their own burial chamber/ time capsule by taking photos of their artifacts and creating a tour video posted on YouTube (high tech) to creating a Google Slideshow, or putting the photos into a shared folder on Google Docs (medium to low tech), or simply collecting their objects in a box or dedicated area of their home and recording it with photos or describing it with words.

• Discussion: 

  • Ask students what they learned about themselves and others? 

  • How does art help convey cultural identity? 

  • What are the benefits of sharing what we value with others? 

  • In what ways could they encourage family members or others in their community to share in order to better understand and appreciate our multicultural world? 

Arts Integration Project II– Probing Intersectional Identities Through Full-Self Portraits

[15+ min-(Time to lay out the project; work will happen outside of class or in another session)]

[Learning Objectives 2,5,6,8,9,10,11]

Procedures:

• Share this quote from Pilar with students: “When you leave your native land for good, your life is cut in two.” Then show students Pilar’s painting called “Two Worlds.”  Remind them that they saw this in the video, where Pilar explained that this is her self-portrait: she sits in the middle foreground and behind her are two windows. On the left is her grandmother’s house on the island of Mallorca, Spain; and on the right is her garden in Utah –where she is now– with its snowy pines. 

• Invite students to think about the role of art in expressing who you are. 

• How is this an effective way for Pilar to share who she is and how she feels?

• Invite students to deeply reflect on their own cultural identity by creating their own self portrait.  Their portrait can be realistic, symbolic, or abstract and can represent the past, present, or future. 

• Provide clear guidelines for their work:

  • Size: 8.5x11 minimum

  • Content: 1 or more images, presented, overlayed, manipulated or enhanced.

  • Medium: physical or digital; freehand, photographic, or collage.

  • Have students write a few lines of explanation to accompany their portrait. 

  • Invite low key or peer grading/feedback systems. Options include:

  • Zoom (breakout rooms)

  • Canvas (discussion forums)

  • Padlet (Create a board where students can pin their work and leave comments for peers)

  • Google Drive (use Google slides or a Google folder)

Invite students to “dig deeper” on these topics by providing additional options for research and reflection about cultural identity.

Videos

• I Learn America (Watch here with your public library card)

• Your Digital Afterlife

• Grave Goods Film (11:30 min) Leslie Tai’s personal film about her grandma, who wanted to bring her things with her into the afterlife.

Photograph Slideshow

• Chinese Grave Goods

Websites

• Teaching for Tolerance: Social Justice - about unpacking identity and diversity

• Facing History and Ourselves- a resource site for teachers and students on topics such as immigration, race, identity, building community, etc.

• Pilar Legacy Foundation- a nonprofit organization established to preserve Pilar’s Salt Lake City home for public use. 

Literature

• Poem: Remember by Joy Harjo