I teach 10th grade English, which is really just an excuse to talk about books to a captive audience. During our last professional development, we came together and created a lesson that all of us could use to teach a particular standard (not important yawn borrrring).
The best part was we got to use a text and paintings about/by Frida Kahlo. I didn’t know much about her prior to teaching this, but she’s fascinating!
For the do now, to get the kids warmed up to the idea that images convey a message, we showed a selfie and asked what details they noticed and what was being communicated. This is best done with a person they wouldn’t be familiar with. It was interesting to see the gears turning that a Facebook pic could convey a message- I’m curious if any of them went home and edited any of theirs! It didn’t seem like an idea that they had considered before.
Later, we moved into analyzing the images. I modeled using the one with the moon and the half faces, and the kids worked together in a group to analyze the one where Diego is serving as Frida’s third eye. Then, we moved into working a text, titled “Frida Khalo’s Other Accident” by Lisa Waller Rogers. This text starts off with a quote from Kahlo- “I have suffered two serious accidents in my life, one in which a streetcar ran over me... The other accident is Diego”. The kids were immediately hooked into the tale of her relationship with Diego, and found some great quotes that allowed them to really analyze the text.
The fascinating part was the language they used to describe the relationship- toxic, unstable. They could recognize the warning signs from a young age. I’ve never been prouder.
Images are by Frida Kahlo and are from fridakahlo.org