© Getty Images
Introduction:
In this lesson, students will learn about the Troubles which happened in Northern Ireland. They will do this by looking specifically at the murals of that time and learning how to ‘read’ images by developing some basic visual literacy skills. They will also get the chance to reflect on more contemporary street art and design their own mural.
This lesson can be taught after the video lesson or by itself.
Learning Outcomes:
- Develop knowledge about street art/murals from Northern Ireland and understood why these were so important.
- Use basic visual literacy skills
- Design a mural.
Age and level:
Aged 13-17 with a minimum CEFR A2 level.
Time:
Approximately 60 minutes or a series of lessons by including the extension tasks.
Materials:
- Lesson plan
- Class presentation
- Student worksheet
- Task 1: Aims (5 mins)
- Slides 2-5 - Read out the aims of the lesson and get the students to guess, in pairs, what the missing words are.
- You may need to pre-teach mural by showing one of the images from the next slide and eliciting where the art is (walls/ streets/public spaces) and if they know any murals in their communities.
- Task 2: Lead-in (5 mins)
- Slide 6 - Set up the task by showing the students the 4 murals from Northern Ireland (refer back to the video if you have watched this as a class/for homework). Tell the students that there are 4 murals and one of them is different. They work in pairs/ groups.
- (They are all painted on the streets. The last mural is different because it is about peace, and therefore after the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement was signed)
- Task 3: The importance of murals / street art (10 mins)
- Slide 7 - Pose the question: Why is street art so important for our communities?
- In pairs/groups, students answer the 3 questions on the slide. Monitor well and help with vocabulary (impact, connect).
- Possible answers:
- We see street art in public spaces and communities. It brings people together as they share the same space and see the image(s) all the time.
- The murals are usually big and so they become very powerful.
- Anybody can paint them. There are no rules (like an art gallery). This means that the people of the community can express what is important to them.
- Optional: in feedback, put the answers they give you on the board for them to refer to in this next activity.
- They use their answers to answer the question: Why is street art so important for our communities?
- Then ask the students to discuss the final question on the slide: Why was this important during the Troubles?
- Before going to the next stage/slide, ask the class if we can read an image?
- Task 4: Develop visual literacy skills (5 - 10 mins)
- Slide 8 - Show and read out the ways we can read images. Reveal the 4 boxes and set up the task: 1 question from each box is in the wrong place. In pairs, they need to find the odd one out and place it in the correct box.
- Slide 9 reveals the answers. It’s important to tell the students that there are no right or wrong answers when talking about art and some of the questions can’t always be answered.
- Tell the class that they are now going to practise using these questions to talk about a mural from Northern Ireland. Split the class into Student A and Student B. Tell the students that they must keep their mural secret.
- Student As receive their mural (see Worksheet/Slide 12)
- Student Bs receive their mural (see Worksheet/Slide 11)
- Tell the students that there is useful information on their worksheet, but to also look very closely at all parts of the mural.
- Task 5: Useful language & task completion (5 mins)
- Slide 10 - Show the useful language on the board. Tell the students that sometimes they really don’t know the answer and have to guess, or say they don’t know. (This language is on the right side of the slide).
- The students carry out their task. Remember they cannot show each other.
- Task 6: Follow-on tasks (5 mins) OPTIONAL
- To conclude the above task, get the students to now show each other their murals (Slide 11 & 12) and answer the questions on Slide 13.
- Task 7: Further Practice (5 - 10 mins)
- Slide 16 - Introduce the modern-day murals found in Belfast.
- Students in pairs or small groups talk about the street art we can see today in Northern Ireland. They are not about the Troubles. What are they about? Students use their new skills to talk about the murals in pairs or small groups.
- Task 8: Creative Task (10-15 mins)
- Slide 17 - Students can work in pairs to carry out the task.
The resources in this series were developed by Sea Steele and Sarah Smith at eltonix
Further information
If you would like to know more about the Northern Ireland Peace Process before you teach and to help inform your lesson, you can go here:
- Year ’98: The Making of the Good Friday Agreement A five-part podcast series from the BBC exploring the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement
- What is the Good Friday Agreement? Information about the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement (source: BBC)
Other resources in the series
Click or tap on the title below to access the resources
Downloads
I like the way this lesson plan has enough time for students practices.