Based on Aminah's work, these lesson plans encourage students to research, document, and honor their own ancestors, families, and communities and those that are different from their own. The integrated lesson plans support learning outcomes in the arts, social studies, and language arts and can be adapted to elementary, middle, and high school grade levels. They have been developed by the education department of the Columbus Museum of Art and the teachers who serve as advisors to the Web site.
Embellish - make beautiful with decoration
Family tree - an illustration that shows the relationships between members of an extended family
Hogmawg - Aminah Robinson’s mixture of mud, pig grease, dyes, sticks, glue, and lime that she uses in her two- and three-dimensional work
Memory Map - Aminah Robinson’s art based on her memory and research of a particular place
Metaphor - a figure of speech that compares unlike things (the heart is a drum)
Middle Passage - the period between the 1500s and 1860s when millions of Africans were forced into ships and brought to the Americas as enslaved people
Pattern - a design system based on the planned relationship of parts
Primary sources - actual records that have survived from the past, such as letters, photographs, articles of clothing; sources created by people who actually saw or participated in an event and recorded that event or their reactions to it immediately after the event.
RagGonNon - Amianh Robinson’s word for a complex work of art that is never finished
Sankofa - from the Akan; the African concept of learning from the past
Secondary sources- Accounts of the past created by someone either not present when the event took place or removed by time from the event.
Simile- a figure of speech that compares unlike things using like or as (the heart is like a drum)
Spiritual - genre of American Folk Music about the suffering, longing, and religious passion of African Americans during slavery times and its aftermath
Symbolism - using an object to stand for another object or idea
Texture - the way something would feel if you could touch it
Two-dimensional- having height and width; flat
Three-dimensional - having height, width, and depth or the appearance of having them
Storyline - a story based on a particular timeline of events
Unwritten Love Letter - Aminah Robinson’s drawings and mixed media art on envelopes that she has steamed opened and dyed
To download the hi-res versions of these Aminah works right click the link and select "save target as" or "save link as."
