National Endowment for the Humanities
Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series: Removing the Mask
Describe, analyze, compare and contrast poets from the Harlem Renaissance. Critical thinkers analyze the imagery, characterization, tone, symbolism, and historical context of Jacob Lawrence, Helene Johnson, and Paul Laurence Dunbar. A...
Curated OER
PAINTING COLORFUL STORIES INFLUENCED BY JACOB LAWRENCE
Students research the background of Jacob Lawrence and study the music, poetry, and spirit of the Harlem Community that was present during Jacob Lawrence's formative and subsequent art productions. They create a piece of artwork...
Curated OER
How Do Artists Effectively Relate Historic Events?
Students explore African American migration. In this black culture and history lesson, students use a map to identify northern and southern states in which African Americans lived in the 1900s. Students observe and describe objects and...
Curated OER
The Life and Work of Jacob Lawrence
Black History Month provides a time to talk about the accomplishments of African Americans like Jacob Lawrence.
Curated OER
Harriet Tubman
Students detect specific characteristics in the paintings of Jacob Lawrence. In this collage lesson, students utilize the style of Jacob Lawrence to create works about Harriet Tubman and her life.
Curated OER
Learning from Jacob Lawrence and Harriet Tubman
Young scholars view and discuss a painting of Harriet Tubman by Jacob Lawrence. They complete a fact sheet/worksheet on Lawrence and on Tubman. They examine the colors, shapes and patterns used in the painting and compare them to their...
Curated OER
Highlights of Modern American Family Art and Literature
Students develop imagery in literary and art works. They discuss Jacob Lawrence's painting, the "Tombstones, 1942", which conveyed overcrowded tenements and families living in Harlem (New York, New York). They design picture stories...
Curated OER
Asking Questions
Middle schoolers examine a painting that depicts a scene from the Underground Railroad. They discuss the painting and write journal entries and poems in response to the painting's themes and their impressions.
Curated OER
The Great Migration
Students explore how migration to Harlem created a new life for African Americans. In this cross curricular lesson, students illustrate maps showing the migration, paint murals representing African American life in the South and...
Curated OER
Sports Action Figure
Fourth graders identify art elements and design principles in art such as movement, unity, space and color planning.
Curated OER
The Great Migration: Pushed By The South, Pulled By The North
Young scholars identify key features of the Great Migration. They explain the concepts of push and pull factors for migration. They create an art project which shows an understanding of the push and pull factors.
Curated OER
The Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance inspired a group of writers, musicians, and artists whose influence is still seen today.
Curated OER
Visual Art: Romare Bearden and Group 306
Students examine the life and art of Romare Bearden. Using his "Mill Hand's Lunch Bucket" for inspiration, they write a first chapter for a book. Students observe numerous other works of his art and discuss them from artistic and...
Curated OER
Determining Importance
Students observe pieces of art and look for the principle story the artwork portrays. They compare the techniques artists and authors use to focus on and support these essential stories. They create a piece of art that portrays a given...
Curated OER
How was Your Day? Creating Mixed Media Designs
Learners explore how art reflects culture and history. They examine everyday life experiences in various countries. Students design a mixed media composition. They create a class presentation.
Curated OER
The Real Me!
Fourth graders examine and explain who they are and communicate that person to the viewer through the use of the visual arts. They think about themselves and try to find five things that represent who they are and what they feel is...
Curated OER
The Laundress
Students explore the concept of work, and work typically assigned to women, through artwork depicting laundresses.
Other
Whitney Museum: Jacob Lawrence: Exploring Stories
A look at Jacob Lawrence and his art, and instructions on how to make your own tempera paints and "paint your own story," using Lawrence's work as inspiration.
Columbia University
Columbia University: "The Migration Series" by Jacob Lawrence
This is a four slide-show examination of the pictorial series that the Harlem Renaissance artist Jacob Lawrence created in paint to tell the story of the "The Great Migration" of African-Americans from the Southern United States to the...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Making of African American Identity: Painting the Migration
Paintings by Jacob Lawrence titled, "The Migration of the Negro", a series of sixty paintings, illustrates the migration of African Americans to the North in the twentieth century. A link to this artwork can be found within this summary.
Other
Art, Repetition, and Jacob Lawrence
A great idea for a lesson including the style of Jacob Lawrence's "Parade." Not only includes lesson, but also a list of artists with similar styles to Lawrence. Lesson is under Instructional Unit Three.
Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago: Art Access: Jacob Lawrence
A painting by American artist Jacob Lawrence entitled The Wedding, accompanied by a short biographical profile.
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian American Art Museum: Scenes of American Life
A stunning array of art from the Smithsonian American Art Museum depicting everyday life and work in America from American masters such as Edward Hopper, Jacob Lawrence, and Paul Cadmus. Use the right navigation to click through over 60...
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian American Art Museum: African American Masters
An interesting site that contains paintings, sculptures, and photographs by African American artists. Each piece has a short paragraph below it describing the artwork, and the message the artist was trying to convey.