Contemporary Chicago 1936-2000
Teacher:
Deanna Seltzer, Louis B. Nettelhorst Elementary School
Suggested grade/s: 7
Illinois
Learning Standards
English Language Arts 1, 2, 3, 5
Fine Arts 25, 26
Estimated time: Four 50-minute periods
Mural/s addressed
Rudolf Weisenborn, Contemporary Chicago,
1936, oil on canvas, Louis B. Nettelhorst Elementary School
Objectives
Children produce stories, poems, and drawings
about Weisenborn’s 1936 mural and make a comparable collage
about Chicago in 2000.
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Key terms
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Materials
- sketchbook or journal
- pencil and/or colored pencils
- glue
- posterboard
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Procedures
- Have students look at the mural and create
a list of mural details (without discussing how these details
are related), e.g. man with anvil, plane, water, cube, circle,
sphere.
- Ask students to use this list to write
a descriptive paragraph about the mural. Encourage them to consider
how the mural details work together to convey action and meaning.
- Have students sketch a scene from the mural.
- Ask students to write a free-style or structured
poem about this scene.
- Homework: Have students collect images
and text from magazines and other printed or computer-based
sources that express "their" Chicago.
- Ask students to create a posterboard collage
based on the theme "Chicago 2000." Hang collages together
as mural panels for a "Contemporary Chicago Class Mural."
Evaluation
Base students’ achievements on their
written and creative work.
Follow-up
Take students on a field trip to other public
murals depicting Chicago, such as:
- Marcus Akinlana’s The Great Migration,
at the Elliott Donnelley Youth Center, 3947 S. Michigan Avenue
- Henry Varnum Poor’s Louis Sullivan
and Carl Sandburg
at the Uptown Post Office, 4850 N. Broadway
- Harry Sternberg’s History of Chicago,
at the Lakeview Post Office, 1343 W. Irving Park Road.
Have students write their thoughts and experiences
in a journal.
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