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Catchy Title: Dear Theo
Theme/Topic of Lesson: Vincent Van Gogh's Letters to His Brother
Time Commitment: Two 90-minute blocks
Subject Area(s):
Arts
Language Arts
Grade Level(s): 9,10,11,12
Standards Alignment:
Class Challenge Question: What can we learn about Vincent Van Gogh's life and its influence on his art through the letter he wrote to his brother Leo?
Overview:
Are the events in an artist's life revealed through their works of art? In this study of Vincent Van Gogh, students will compare the artist's works with his own words as written in his correspondences to his brother Theo. Vincent, born March 30, 1853, was the first of six children of Theodorus and Anna Van Gogh. Vincent began his schooling in Zundart, his hometown in the southern Netherlands. He attended two boarding schools before moving to Paris in 1869 to become an apprentice art dealer. After a failed ministerial career, Van Gogh decided to become an artist. In Paris, he was influenced by the emerging Impressionist movement and his painting began to reflect more color and light. From the time he entered The Hague until his premature death, Vincent maintained a seventeen-year correspondence with his younger brother, Theo. The majority of the 874 letters that exist were correspondences between the two brothers. Many of Vincent's letters reveal details of his life and contain sketches of his paintings as well as background information about the circumstances surrounding the subjects. Also evident in his writings is Vincent's awareness of his mental anguish and struggle to work between episodes of illness. Some scholars believe that Van Gogh suffered from a form of epilepsy that caused his erratic episodes, the most famous being the time that he mutilated his own ear with a knife. But what also emerge from his writings are his passion for art and his pursuit for excellence in spite of the lack of recognition he received during the time he lived.
In this lesson, students will create a digital multimedia "biographical sketch" of Vincent Van Gogh based on his correspondence with his brother Theo Van Gogh. They will
select 5 works of Vincent's art to represent events in his life. They will include text with each piece that demonstrates how it relates to Van Gogh's life based on his letters to Theo. The biographical sketch may be presented as a Web site, non-linear PowerPoint presentation, slideshow, Flash animation, QuickTime movie, or any other presentation that digitally incorporates graphics, text and sound (suggested but not required). Students should have a basic understanding of at least one of these applications. Students will need access to computers with an Internet connection and at least one form of multimedia software such as PowerPoint, Hyperstudio, Macromedia Flash, Adobe Premier, QuickTime, etc. The presentation may be created by students as individuals, or in pairs or teams depending on the desires of the teacher and the equipment and software available.
If the multimedia projects are presented to the class as a whole, an LCD projector would be advisable. If a computer lab is available, then students could set up their completed works in a "Gallery Walk" format so that students could view all of the presentations as though they were in an art gallery.
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Writing
(K-12) | Maryland Content Standards Indicators
Students produce informational, practical, persuasive, and narrative writing that demonstrates an awareness of audience, purpose and form using stages of the writing process as needed (i.e., pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing and publishing). | | Writing
(9-12) | Maryland Content Standards
Students produce informational, practical, persuasive, and narrative writing that demonstrates an awareness of audience, purpose and form using stages of the writing process as needed (i.e., pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing and publishing). | Maryland State Indicators
3.12.4.1
write to express personal ideas in plays, biographies, short stories, autobiographies, and other writings that
- develop the narrative elements with concrete sensory details and language
- purposefully include such elements as allusions and different points of view
- effectively pace the presentation of action to accommodate tone and mood
(CLG 2.1.1, CLG 2.1.2, CLG 2.1.3, CLG 2.2.1)
| Technology research tools
(Gr. 9-12) | ISTE Technology Standards
5. Technology research tools
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Students use technology to locate, evaluate, and collect information from a variety of sources.
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Students use technology tools to process data and report results.
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Students evaluate and select new information resources and technological innovations based on the appropriateness for specific tasks.
| ISTE Technology Performance Indicators
Routinely and efficiently
Routinely and efficiently use online information resources to meet needs for collaboration, research, publications, communications, and productivity.
| Technology problem-solving and decision-making tools
(Gr. 9-12) | ISTE Technology Standards
6. Technology problem-solving and decision-making tools
| ISTE Technology Performance Indicators
Routinely and efficiently
Routinely and efficiently use online information resources to meet needs for collaboration, research, publications, communications, and productivity.
| Technology communication tools
(Gr. 9-12) | ISTE Technology Standards
4. Technology communication tools
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Students use telecommunications to collaborate, publish, and interact with peers, experts, and other audiences.
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Students use a variety of media and formats to communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences.
| ISTE Technology Performance Indicators
Routinely and efficiently
Routinely and efficiently use online information resources to meet needs for collaboration, research, publications, communications, and productivity.
| Technology research tools
(Gr. 9-12) | ISTE Technology Standards
5. Technology research tools
-
Students use technology to locate, evaluate, and collect information from a variety of sources.
-
Students use technology tools to process data and report results.
-
Students evaluate and select new information resources and technological innovations based on the appropriateness for specific tasks.
| ISTE Technology Performance Indicators
Select and apply technolo
Select and apply technology tools for research, information analysis, problem-solving, and decision-making in content learning.
| Technology communication tools
(Gr. 9-12) | ISTE Technology Standards
4. Technology communication tools
-
Students use telecommunications to collaborate, publish, and interact with peers, experts, and other audiences.
-
Students use a variety of media and formats to communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences.
| ISTE Technology Performance Indicators
Select and apply technolo
Select and apply technology tools for research, information analysis, problem-solving, and decision-making in content learning.
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Learning Objectives:
The Students will:
- analyze primary source documents to create a biographical sketch.
- examine Van Gogh's paintings and select paintings that they feel represent key
events in his life. - demonstrate their learning by creating a digital multimedia presentation.
Assessment
Individual students will be assessed on their final project with the Webpage/Multimedia Project Rubric handout. It is important that the students are given the rubric before they begin their presentations so that they can use the rubric as a guide and checklist while working.
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Resources
| Print Materials | Van Gogh's Van Goghs Kendall, Richard. Van Gogh's Van Goghs. Washington: National Gallery
of Art, 1998. | | Video(s) | Van Gogh's Van Goghs Produced By: WETA, Jackson Frost
The video may be purchased at The Image Exchange. | | Internet Sites | Dear Theo An online resource created specifically to supply the Student Task directions and resources needed to complete the "Dear Theo" lesson. | | http://www.pgcps.org/~region5/vincent.htm | | American Memory Web site - The Historian's Sources This online lesson introduces students to primary sources -- what they are, their great variety, and how they can be analyzed. The lesson begins with an activity that helps students understand the historical record. Students then learn techniques for analyzing primary sources. | | http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/psources/pshome.html | | Art Museum - Van Gogh's Van Goghs This searchable site provides a short biography of Van Gogh's life and career while including an archive of sketches, photographs, letters and other materials for its visitors. | | http://www.artmuseum.net/vangogh/gateway.asp | | Van Gogh Museum One of the highlights of the site is the ability to virtually explore the online art gallery either alone or interactively with others online. | | http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/ | | National Gallery of Art - Van Gogh's Van Goghs This site includes a virtual tour of the Van Gogh exhibit that was on view at the Gallery 4 October 1998 - 3 January 1999. The tour is enhanced with audio clips and additional information about each piece of work displayed. | | http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/vgwel.htm | | The Vincent Van Gogh Gallery This comprehensive Web site houses Van Gogh's complete artistic works (paintings, watercolors, sketches, etc.) and the complete letters. The works are categorized by date and subject matter. Also included is news of upcoming and past exhibitions. The site is endorsed by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. | | http://www.vangoghgallery.com/ | Van Gogh and Gauguin - The Studio in the South The Art Institute of Chicago has created on online tour of this special exhibit that compares the works of the two contemporaries. This site is not necessary for the lesson but is a good
supplementary source. | | http://www.artic.edu/aic/exhibitions/vangogh/slide_intro.html | | Dear Theo An online resource created specifically to supply the Student Task directions and resources needed to complete the "Dear Theo" lesson. | | http://www.pgcps.org/~region5/vincent.htm |
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Materials
Per class- Computer with Internet access
- VCR and monitor or Compact Disc player
- Video Projection Device and screen
- Van Gogh's Van Goghs video
as determined by instructor- Computer with Internet access and multimedia software such as PowerPoint,
Hyperstudio, QuickTime Movie, Macromedia Flash, or Adobe Premier
installed.
Per Student- Student WebPage/Multimedia Project Rubric (View)
- Storyboard Template (View)
Vocabulary
- Impressionism - A theory or style of painting originating and developed in
France during the 1870s, characterized by concentration on the immediate
visual impression produced by a scene and by the use of unmixed primary
colors and small strokes to simulate actual refl
- Primary Source - actual records that have survived from the past, such as
letters, photographs, articles of clothing
Procedures
In this lesson, students will use electronic archives to create a biographical sketch of artist Vincent Van Gogh. First, they will draw inferences about the artist himself by critiquing one of his self-portraits. They will then compare their inferences with information presented in a 10-minute video clip taken from Van Gogh's Van Goghs. The teacher will then discuss the student task while referencing to the Student Web Site/Multimedia Presentation Rubric. Students will create a digital multimedia "biographical sketch" of Vincent Van Gogh based on his correspondence with his brother Theo Van Gogh. They will select 5 works of Vincent's art to represent events in his life. They will include text with each piece that demonstrates how it relates to Van Gogh's life based on his letters to Theo. The biographical sketch may be presented as a Web site, non-linear PowerPoint presentation, slideshow, Flash animation, QuickTime movie, or any other presentation that digitally incorporates graphics, text and sound. All of the resources needed for students to complete the task are on the Dear Theo Web site. The culminating activity will include a Gallery Walk so that students may view their peer's multimedia presentations.
If the lesson is used with serious art students, then the recommendation is that students complete their presentations individually because the lesson is designed to call on student's personal interpretations. Obviously, a lab setting would be required for students to complete this lesson individually. However, based on the needs of the class and availability of equipment and materials, an instructor decide the lesson would be better facilitated with students assigned to pairs or groups of no more than four. In this case, the number of computers required would depend on the size of the groups.
1: Vincent and Theo: An Artist and His Brother, Companion and Patron
Daily Challenge Question: What can we learn about Vincent Van Gogh's life and work through his letters to his brother Theo?
Set-up Directions:
To introduce the lesson, the teacher will have the portrait of Vincent Van Gogh entitled "Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear" displayed as students enter the classroom. The portrait may be projected onto a screen via an LCD projector or show through a television connection. If possible, the portrait should be displayed without any textualclues as to the artist, title, or subject. The portrait can be found at: The Van Gogh Gallery Web site. The teacher should also have a KWL chart ready on the board and may wantto create a KWL handout for the students or have them use a piece of paper folded into three sections. The video Van Gogh's Van Goghs should be cued to the painting of "The Yellow House" in the beginning and just before the narration of Vincent is saying "If Gauguin were willing to join me..." The teacher should either bookmark the sites to be used in the research section or create a hotlist or use the Dear Theo site. Copies of the Storyboard Template and the Student Website / Multimedia Presentation Rubric should be prepared for each student. The teacher should be prepared for students to work on the Internet and PowerPoint at the end of the lesson.
Teacher Presentation & Motivation:
When the class begins, students may be given a few minutes to look at the portrait entitled "Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear" to answer the question, "What do you think that this portrait reveals about its subject?" Students may discuss their thoughts in pairs and then as a class. The teacher may ask if any student knows whom the portrait is of and who painted it. The teacher would then reveal that this is a self-portrait of by Vincent Van Gogh painted in January 1889. The teacher may then ask what background information students have pertaining to the artist and, in particular, determine whether or not they know why his ear is bandaged in the portrait. The teacher may write the following heading for a 3-column KWL chart on the chalkboard What I Know About Van Gogh, What I Would Like to Know About Van Gogh, What I Learning About Van Gogh. Have the students fill in the first column.
Tell the students that we are going to continue to research Van Gogh's life and that they should write down new items as they discover them.
Activity 1 - Van Gogh's Van Goghs
The teacher will then show a segment from the video Van Gogh's Van Goghs. As background information, the teacher might explain that Van Gogh and artist Gauguin were planning to set up an artist colony in the south of France and set up living quarters in the town of Arles. The teacher should make students aware that the narrations of each of the artists that they hear in the video come from later correspondences of Van Gogh and Gauguin.
Focus for Media Interaction
Focus for Media Interaction: The focus for media interaction is a specific task to complete and/or information to identify during or after viewing of video segments, Web sites or other multimedia elements.
While viewing the video segment, the focus for media interaction is that students should listen for a possible explanation about an event in Vincent Van Gogh's life that might relate to the painting "Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear." Also, they may listen for what significance the painting of "The Yellow House" has for the life of Vincent Van Gogh.
Viewing Activities
What will your students be responsible for while viewing this piece of multi-media or video?
Ask the students to look for an event in Vincent Van Gogh's life that might relate to his painting of "Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear" and to discover why that painting was important to his life.
Begin the video segment as the painting of "The Yellow House" is beginning to be displayed and just before the narration of Vincent is saying "If Gauguin were willing to join me..."Stop playing the video after the photograph of the Tabac shoppe and the narrations has completed with the words "the two of us will always be friends."
Students will briefly discuss the additional information they have learned about the artist's life as revealed through his painting using the information they recorded in the KWL charts they completed during the viewing. The students may be directed to write down questions they have about Van Gogh's life in the second column of the KWL.
The teacher will then review the importance of using primary sources in learning about the life of an individual and the general times in which people lived. The teacher will tell students that they will gather information about the life of Vincent Van Gogh by reading some of his letters to his brother Theo and by viewing some of his works of art. All of the resources they will need to access will be on the Internet. After exploring these resources, students will create digital multimedia presentations to demonstrate their learning. The teacher will remind students that the presentation must include at least 5 paintings with text to explain how the painting illustrates an event or time in the life of
Vincent Van Gogh. At this time, the teacher should distribute the Student Website/Multimedia Presentation Rubric and clarify any questions that the students may have about the expectations of the project.
Activity 2 - Vincent's Art and Letters - Valuable Primary Sources
This activity will focus on gathering information about Vincent Van Gogh through his letters to Theo and his works of art. The teacher should encourage students to obtain information about the artist's life based on the letters rather than biographies written by others so that they may draw their own conclusions. Students should also consider using quotations from Vincent's writings when designing the text for their presentations.
Focus for Media Interaction
Focus for Media Interaction: The focus for media interaction is a specific task to complete and/or information to identify during or after viewing of video segments, Web sites or other multimedia elements.
The focus for media interaction is for the students to obtain information about Van Gogh's life from primary sources accessed on the Internet.The teacher will direct students to the online resource site for this lesson entitled Dear Theo. This site lists the online resources as hot links and reiterates the student tasks so that students may easily access the information they need from any online computer.
Viewing Activities
What will your students be responsible for while viewing this piece of multi-media or video?
As per the student task described on the Web site above, students are required to explore both Van Gogh's artwork and letters to compile a biographical sketch. The following Web site contains a chart, which lists the date of each letter written to Theo, links to the full text transcribed into English, links to paintings referenced in corresponding letters and annotates key phrases in most letters. This combined information is very helpful in allowing students to access information quickly without having to read a lot of text that does not pertain to their own particular research. Their research should focus on the following biographical information: personal events that influenced his works, opinions and theories on art, personality traits, and the influence of his social environment.
The Vincent Van Gogh Gallery
http://www.vangoghgallery.com/
The teacher may want to hand out the Storyboard Template handout so that students may write down the information they will use when they create their digital presentations. Alternatively, the teacher may want students to write their notes on a separate piece of paper and then organize them into the Storyboard Template. As students gather information, they should be reminded to look closely at the Student Website/Multimedia Presentation Rubric and to focus on the following sections: Storyboard Sheet, Organization of Content, Originality, Copyright and Documentation.
Activity 3 - Culminating Activity
One or two students may share a new insight or fact that they have learned about Van Gogh from his letters to Theo.
Wrap Up:
At the close of the lesson, the teacher should remind students that they should continue to refer to the Student Website/Multimedia Presentation Rubric as they develop their projects to be certain that they are meeting the goals of the lesson.
2: Completion of the Presentation and Gallery Walk
Daily Challenge Question: How can we best demonstrate what we have learned about Van Gogh's life and work through combined graphics and text?
Set-up Directions:
The teacher should have access to a lab with the Internet and PowerPoint available for each student.
Teacher Presentation & Motivation:
If necessary, the teacher may spend a few minutes in the beginning of class to reacquaint students with the Student Website / Multimedia Presentation Rubric paying particular attention to the sections that addresses Subject Knowledge, Graphical Design, Screen Design, Mechanics and Use of Enhancements.
Activity 1 - Vincent Van Gogh's Biography through His Paintings and Words
Students will complete their multimedia presentations. This class should focus on editing their presentations for accuracy of information and presentation, as well as the aesthetic look and feel of the project. The teacher should be on hand to discuss elements of Van Gogh's life with the students and technical issues with the student slideshows.
As the students begin finishing their projects, the teacher should take some time to discuss copyright and citing references with the students. If students have taken quotations directly from Vincent's letters, then the appropriate grammatical form should be used and references noted in the presentation. Students may select a partner and use Student Website/Multimedia Presentation Rubric to peer edit each other's projects.
Activity 2 - Culminating Activity
In a lab setting, students may display their multimedia presentations for a "Van Gogh Gallery Walk." If students have worked with partners or in teams, one student may stay with the presentation while the other(s) view their peers' projects, and then each group would switch roles. If the presentations are prepared individually, then students may still partner with a peer and become somewhat familiar with one another's work and take turns in the same fashion.
Wrap Up:
The students may take out their KWL chart and fill in what they've learned about Van Gogh in the last column. They may share some of their thoughts so that the teacher can fill in the class chart.
Enrichment Options
Parent-Home Connection
Parents may be invited to the class gallery walk so that they may view their children's presentations.
Field Experiences
Students may visit the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. or the Baltimore Art Museum where they can view original works by Vincent Van Gogh.
* Guest Speaker:
The teacher may contact a local art gallery, institute or school to inquire about getting a special speaker for the class.
Cross-Curricular Extensions
* Language Arts
Students may design a print version of their multimedia presentations by creating
originally bound books.
* Science
Students may explore the science of color and light. One available resource is:
The Science of Light - Light in Color
http://www.learner.org/teacherslab/science/light/color/
* Social Studies
Students may analyze the correspondence between Vincent and Theo Van Gogh to
get an understanding of what life was like in Europe during the mid to late 19th
century.
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As a reflective practitioner, note how this lesson could be adjusted after its initial implementation. How successful were the students? What did the assessment demonstrate about the students' learning? What skills do the students need to revisit? What
instructional strategies worked and what made them successful? What will you change the next time you use this lesson? Why?
Author: Susan Creamer
Modified by: Linda Laypoldt
Program: National Teacher Training Institute (NTTI)
Author's School System: Prince George's County Public Schools
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