Lesson Plans and Pre-visit Guides

Current search results within: Grade, High School

• Shiva—Creator, Protector, and Destroyer (Lesson Plan)

  Inspire students to interpret, communicate through, and personally connect with art through an in-classroom examination of a powerful sculpture in the Museum's Indian art collection and a self-portrait activity.

• Take It to the Afterlife (Lesson Plan)

  Delve into daily life and the afterlife in ancient Egypt, as well as strategies for visual analysis and interpretation of art, through viewing questions and a sketching activity in the Museum's Egyptian galleries.

• The Art of Africa (Pre-visit Guide)PDF

  Introduce students to the heritage of cultures south of the Sahara through works of art imbued with social, religious, and political significance. Use this guide's collection overview, gallery map, tour-planning guidelines, background information, discussion questions, suggested works of art, and resource list to make the most of your trip to the Museum.

• The Art of Ancient Greece and Rome (Pre-visit Guide)PDF

  Introduce students to Greek and Roman art from the Neolithic period to the time of Constantine the Great, representing virtually every medium in which ancient artists and craftsman worked. Use this guide's collection overview, gallery map, tour-planning guidelines, background information and themes, discussion questions, suggested works of art, and resource list to make the most of your trip to the Museum.

• The Art of China (Pre-visit Guide)PDF

  Introduce students to the primary ideas, values, and traditions of one of the world's oldest continuous civilizations, as reflected in one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of its art in the West. Use this guide's collection overview, gallery map, tour-planning guidelines, background information and themes, discussion questions, suggested works of art, and resource list to make the most of your trip to the Museum.

• The Art of Industry (Lesson Plan)

  Use viewing questions and a debate activity to investigate the relationship between art and community values, techniques artists use to convey ideas, and strategies for interpreting an American painting in the Museum's Modern and Contemporary galleries.

• The Art of Medieval Europe (Pre-visit Guide)PDF

  Introduce students to the art of the Middle Ages, notable for its expressions of beauty, complexity and importance of meaning, and establishment of new standards for technical achievement. Use this guide's collection overview, gallery map, tour-planning guidelines, themes to consider, discussion questions, suggested works of art, and resource list to make the most of your trip to the Museum.

• The Arts of Japan (Pre-visit Guide)PDF

  Introduce students to the range of styles, formats, and subjects that have characterized Japanese art over the centuries. Use this guide's collection and gallery overviews, tour-planning tips, recommendations for engaging students, suggested themes and works of art, and list of resources to make the most of your visit to the Museum.

• The Battle of David and Goliath (Lesson Plan)

  Illuminate strategies for conveying stories through images in the classroom with viewing questions about a large silver plate in the Museum's Medieval collection and an illustrating activity.

• The Burghers of Calais (Lesson Plan)

  Convey the interpretive significance of pose and expression in the visual arts—in the Museum or the classroom—with viewing questions and a story-writing activity inspired by a nineteenth-century French sculpture by Auguste Rodin.