Post-Show Activity: Monuments

Pair Share

Students discuss in pairs the following questions posed by the leader:

• What is a memorial?
• What are types of memorials?
• Why do people build memorials?

The teacher shows examples such as the Martin Luther King, Jr. Monument, Washington Monument, the Vietnam Memorial, Pablo Picasso's Guernica, a cathedral, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, or even a plaque that the school may have. Consider as well that Stonewall and the surrounding area have been designated as a National Monument. Discuss why society builds monuments or designates places as such.

Design a Monument

Divide class into four groups and distribute paper and colored markers. Each group is to design a monument. First ask groups to select a specific group, event, or cause which they want to represent:

• Civil Rights
• LGBTQ+ Rights
• Women's Rights
• Black Lives Matter

Guide students by questioning them about social movements, leaders, and notable places that relate to their cause. Allow ten minutes for discussion and 15 minutes to create the blueprint for the monument they will build. Each team depicts a version of their monument in tableau and shows it to the rest of the class.

Next, ask groups to devise proposals to convince the panel of judges that their monument is most needed today. Allow ten minutes to prepare the proposal presentation. Each group presents their proposal and blueprint to the rest of the class, who represent the panel of judges. Once all proposals are heard, the class collectively decides which monument to build.

Discussion Questions

• Which monument was most faithful to their cause? Why?
• Do you think everyone in your community would support the monument you designed? Why or why not?
• What do monuments tell us about the society that created them?

Tableau

Conclude by dividing the whole group in half. Each half creates the selected monument. Share monuments so that participants can evaluate the work using a See? Think? Wonder? protocol.

• Return to the Post-Show Activities Menu

Material on this page revised from an activity by Lyn Peticolas, John P. McEneny, and Jeff Kennedy; edited by Nancy Swortzell, 1997