BOUNDLESS DIGITAL CURRICULAR RESOURCE
GUIDE FOR EDUCATORS
Mead Museum of Art Approach to Teaching and Learning
In the Mead’s educational programs, students will connect our conversations around art to the big questions in their own lives, current events, histories, lived experiences, and imagined futures. Through experiential and art-centric programming, we believe that students can build skills in critical thinking, empathy, and world-building across differences.
We encourage students to look closely, ask questions, consider new and varied perspectives, share their observations, connect to their classroom learning, and let their thinking evolve and grow. The visual literacy skills learners practice in the museum help them critically engage with the various images, media, and narratives in their daily lives.
WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW?
Background
This digital curriculum draws on themes and objects presented in the Boundless exhibition. With only a few exceptions, the artists and objects included in the curriculum are from Native communities in the Northeastern United States. These artists each bring their own cultural knowledge and personal experiences to their works, allowing for a cohesive yet diverse presentation of information and perspective. Through the lessons students learn from each of the artists/works, they can build and expand their dialogue about the boundless nature of culture and place.
Approach
The Boundless digital resource is structured, but not scripted. Designed in layers, we hope educators will find ways to scaffold various information and content to best fit specific classroom and educational needs. Educators could choose to use the content in a more linear order and focus on each section over multiple days. This resource can also function broken down into smaller pieces that fit into a more condensed timeline or as support for existing curriculum used in the classroom. The digital curriculum includes all the information teachers will need to use these lesson ideas. While links to outside videos, websites and suggestions of where to find additional information are often provided, the curriculum is entirely contained in this website. Everything you need is right here!
Understandings
This digital tool connects to curriculum across subjects. Through using this resource to learn about the stories of various objects and their makers, students will be able to develop personal meaning and construct new understandings that cut across curricular lines. These understandings include:
- Thinking critically—Students are tasked with analyzing, interpreting, and communicating ideas about the art and objects included in this resource. By doing so, they must think critically about the information presented to make meaning for themselves.
- Self-reflection: Some of the inquiry questions in this resource ask students to consider big ideas from their lived experiences. They must evaluate their own conceptions and attitudes about the subject and put those personal experiences or beliefs into context with the art.
- Encourage a perspective shift – Students will likely find new ways to interpret and connect with the art and objects once they’ve learned about the artists and the motivations behind their work. Students will begin to explore different perspectives and points of view for creating and understanding.
- Connect to relevant issues—Many of the works included in this resource highlight and are informed by important issues, such as climate change, stereotypes, access to resources, and community, to name a few. These topics are fundamental to the artists’ efforts to convey meaning in their works and pertinent to the lives of youth today.
- Evolve and grow thinking—The information presented through this resource provides students and teachers with an opportunity to expand their understanding of the diverse and enduring nature of Native peoples’ cultures and communities. By helping to move beyond basic stereotyped imagery or discussion, students can develop empathy and understanding of complex histories and move beyond a rudimentary way of thinking.
Application
This resource consists of four overarching themes, each of which functions independently but also provides a fuller narrative about the Boundless exhibition when used together. We offer a fundamental introductory question for each theme to encourage students to think critically and self-reflect as they connect with the topics.
- What does place mean to you?
- What traditions are important to your family?
- Who do you feel most connected to in your life?
- How do the stories you tell help you feel connected to your communities or cultures?
Each theme – Place, Continuance, Kinship, and Storytelling – provides four objects or images for consideration. The objects are paired with a theme-based question to help students better connect with and understand the content they are learning about. By examining objects more closely, hearing the perspectives and opinions of the makers, and learning about the critical roles of these objects in Native communities, students will ultimately come to understand the idea that culture is boundless.
Using object questions:
The object questions could be used in the classroom for a larger group discussion or individual student responses. The objective is for the questions to build on one another in ways that will allow students to connect to their own lives and experiences or encourage them to reflect on their perspectives about others.
Take a look through each of the thematic sections and see what you’re drawn to. For instance, is there one object from each theme that speaks to you? Find those and group them together to steer classroom discussion. Jump around! While linear in layout, the design of this digital curriculum can take many shapes, depending on what works best in each classroom.
Continued Reflection
We encourage you to ask your students to revisit their original thoughts/answers to the inquiry questions after they’ve spent time learning about each theme through the objects and artist perspectives presented. In this way, they could begin to recognize how their outlook can evolve and help them grow their thinking.
INQUIRY QUESTIONS BY THEME
PLACE:
What does place mean to you?
These works all have a specific connection to place and the materials that come from there. The artists depict images of animals and people or use natural materials that link them back to the homelands of their ancestors. Place matters because it connects Indigenous people to the past and the future.
CONTINUANCE:
What traditions are important to your family?
Continuance is the attribute to endure or remain in existence. To maintain and continue stories, traditions, and ways of life, Indigenous people persist in finding ways to connect their cultural systems into their lives each day.
KINSHIP:
Who do you feel most connected to in your life?
Family is defined in many ways. It can mean sharing characteristics or origins through a common lineage. It could be having a close connection to others through a shared bond. Within many Indigenous communities, kinship is a deep connection that might go beyond direct family members or relatives. The lineage of ancestors plays a consistent role in how they see the world and shape their lives.
STORYTELLING:
How do the stories you tell help you feel connected to your communities or cultures?
Storytelling is integral to indigenous cultures. Stories communicate knowledge, information, values, history, and memories. Stories can be told in many ways, including orally, visually, and through music. The long history of intellectual richness and imagination among Indigenous artists and authors is founded on narrative. They can be for entertainment, education, or cultural preservation. It is one of the ways that the enduring cultures and diverse viewpoints of Indigenous peoples help to express personal and cultural life experiences.
Boundless K-12 Curriculum
* YouTube links to audiovisual materials shared by other creators are included in the curriculum. For more information, including for captioning and transcripts of the suggested audiovisual materials, please contact the audio/video content creators.
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