STANDARDS TARGETED THROUGHOUT CURRICULUM (PDF)

MATERIALS

Suggested Reading:
1. Spanish Civil War: Encyclopedia Britannica
2. Picasso's 'Guernica': 10 Facts You Didn't Know About the Famous Painting
3. Picasso, 'Guernica'
4. 'Guernica' as Art Activism

Suggested Video:
Spanish Civil War: The Telegraph

Supplies for Protest Panel:
1. Low Tech Activity: Canvas, paints, magazines, scissors, glue
2. High Tech Activity: Digital assets organized in folders

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

1. ​What are effective ways to promote reform?

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

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

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. ​Generate questions to learn more about the Spanish Civil War

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

3. Make predictions and gather details based on a text

4. Interact with digital storytelling as a learning tool

5. Articulate the value of experiencing diverse art and culture

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

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

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

LEARNING OUTLINE

• ​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

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

1. 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

2. 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.

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

4. 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

1. 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".

2. 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

[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

Procedures:

Spanish Civil War: The Telegraph

Spanish Civil War: Encyclopedia Britannica

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

Picasso, 'Guernica'

Reading / Pre-viewing

1. 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."

2. 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

1. 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

1. 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

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

2. 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.

3. 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)

4. 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?

5. 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."

6. 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

Procedures:

1. 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?

2. 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.)

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

4. 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

5. 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:

   1. Zoom (breakout rooms)

   2. Canvas (discussion forums)

   3. Flipgrid (create and share student videos)

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

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

   6. 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