When I do school visits, I often play a game where I ask the kids to guess the history of the person from the portrait. I ask them things like: What do you think he/she is thinking at this moment? What is the meaning behind some of the surrounding objects? (Can they find some of the hidden objects?) What time period did he/she live? And then I tell them the story behind the person.
Kids love to play art detective and it's a great way to introduce a historical figure that they might not be familiar with. And when it comes to interpretting art...there really is no wrong answer. I think Jean-Baptiste Belley is a great candidate for this excersise.
3 comments:
I'm about a one semester away from having my 8-12 History teaching certificate and i love this idea and will try to use it... assuming that i can find a history job that's not also for a coach too...
There's an engraving of the Chevalier St. Georges that is really nice.
Ann - good luck on your certificate. I always wanted to be a teacher but it's too late to go back to school now.
Thanks Elizabeth. that's a good one too. Wikipedia has some of the most famous painting of him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevalier_de_Saint-Georges
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