Causes and Effects
Moline High School, Moline, Illinois
teach with jacob l awrence
Created by Trent Lamphier and Christina Shelton, high school social studies teachers
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Using primary
sources from
Lawrence’s life and
times enabled the
students to more
effectively discuss
and analyze the Great
Migration, the Great
Depression, and the
Harlem Renaissance.”
—Trent Lamphier and
Christina Shelton
Project description
The Causes and Effects project resulted from the Phillips
Collection’s partnership with Moline High School and the Figge
Art Museum. We attended a teacher training at the Figge led
by Phillips’ educators and were inspired to make connections
between The Migration Series and our American history
curriculum. We determined that Lawrence’s work was especially
relevant to our unit on the 1920s for 10th- and 11th-grade students.
Curriculum
connections: Language
Arts, Social Studies
Length: 4–5 sessions,
60 minutes each
Grade level: Tenth and
eleventh grades
We divided students into nine topic groups: poverty, farm
problems, racism, jobs, reasons to migrate, the journey
north, treatment in the North, the Harlem Renaissance, and
significance. Students received reproductions of The Migration
Series panels and facsimiles of primary source documents that
related to their group’s research topic.
For topics such as the journey north, jobs, and racism, students
created political cartoons, newspaper articles, letters from
migrants, and letters to the editor. Students interpreted and
created their own artifacts, which they presented to the class.
This project spurred lively discussions with students sharing their
perspectives.
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cause s and eff ec ts
Objectives
Students will:
••
Use primary sources and art from the 1920s
and ’30s to teach and share the causes
and effects of the Great Migration and the
Harlem Renaissance.
and interpret primary source
•• Analyze
facsimiles and create their own artifacts to
share with the class.
consider how Lawrence’s imagery
•• Critically
communicates the Great Migration’s and the
Harlem Renaissance’s cause and effects.
School profile
Moline is a midsize community that—along with
Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, and Rock Island,
Illinois—comprises the Quad Cities, a group of
neighboring cities straddling the Mississippi River.
Moline is located across the Mississippi from
Davenport, home of the Figge Art Museum. The
Moline School District has more than 18 schools
serving more than 7,000 students, 2,189 of whom
attend Moline High School. The school has a
diverse student population. Many of its students
are recent immigrants to the United States, and
collectively they speak 14 native languages.
and interpret Lawrence’s original
•• Analyze
art and its display at the Figge Art Museum
Teaching Kit resources
Materials
Primary sources: 2, 3, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 23, 24,
25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 45,
46, 47, 48
Sepia paper to simulate artifacts and charcoal
Visual resources: The Great Migration poster
pencils.
Other resources: Ida B. Wells: Crusade for
Justice, by Jenifer McBride (article); Poems:
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” by Langston
Hughes, “If We Must Die,” by Claude McKay, “I
Want to Die While You Love Me,” by Georgia
Johnson Douglas, and “How it Feels to be
Colored Me,” by Zora Neale Hurston; Songs:
“Ain’t Misbehavin,” by Louis Armstrong, “Minne
the Moocher,” by Cab Calloway, “Cotton Club
Stomp,” by Duke Ellington, and “Strange Fruit,”
by Billie Holliday
National standards of learning
teach with jacob l awrence
to understand how art can communicate
important social and cultural messages.
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Language Arts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11
Music: 6, 9
Social Studies: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10
Visual Arts: 4, 6
Step 4. Creating artifacts
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cause s and eff ec ts
Step-by-step teaching unit
Step 1. Introduction
Students read and hold a classroom discussion
on both Jacob Lawrence’s biography and
the overview of the Great Migration and the
Harlem Renaissance from the Teaching Kit.
Step 2. Cause and effect topics
Students are divided into nine topic groups
(two to four students each). Each group is given
a topic folder with an assortment of primary
sources from the Teaching Kit and elsewhere.
The folder also includes related reproductions
Teach with jacob l awrence
of The Migration Series’ panels. Each group
Teacher profile
Christina Shelton has been
teaching at Moline High
School for eight years. She
received her bachelor of arts
degree at Northern Illinois
University and her master’s
degree in education at
the University of Vermont.
Ms. Shelton has participated in the National
Consortium for Teaching about Asia Study Tour
to Japan, as well as the Educators to Saudi Arabia
Program, and the Korean Studies Workshop for
American Educators. Christina has also written
curriculum units associated with these rich travel
experiences. Ms. Shelton teaches American
History, Ancient Medieval History, and a current
events course entitled Problems and Issues.
analyzes the materials provided in the topic
folder.
Panel No. 13
Step 3. Interpreting works of art
Students analyze the meaning of panels from
The Migration Series. Each group creates new
titles for The Migration Series panels in their
folder. The group then develops a description
of each painting and hypothesizes the message
that Lawrence is communicating to the viewer.
Step 4. Creating artifacts
Each group creates at least two artifacts
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(primary sources) that relate to their topic, such
as newspaper articles and letters.
Title:
Description:
Step 5. Student planning
Students plan how they will teach the class
about the cause of effect related to their topic
using their newly made artifacts and panels
from The Migration Series.
Message:
A Ray of Hope
Dead cotton plants, a bird-shaped
cloud, along with the sun shining to
the North.
Not only is the cotton dying,
diminishing their income, but life
in the South is full of racism and
poverty for African Americans. While
the North provides better social and
economic opportunities.
Step 3. Interpreting works of art
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cause s and eff ec ts
Trent Lamphier has been
teaching at Moline High
School for eight years. He
received his bachelor of
arts at the University of
Wisconsin at Eau Claire
and his master’s degree at
St. Ambrose University in
Davenport, Iowa. He has been teaching history
and social studies for 15 years in Illinois, Iowa,
and Wisconsin. In 2006, the National Board of
Teachers certified Lamphier as a Master Teacher.
Lamphier, his wife Lesley, and their four children
enjoy traveling to historical places throughout
the United States. Lamphier has written and
continues to write curriculum at the high
school and university level. He currently teaches
American History and Advanced Placement
History at Moline High School.
Students view The Migration Series at
the Figge Art Museum to deepen their
understanding of art within a historical context
and to understand how artworks function to
communicate meaning visually.
Step 7. Student presentations and
peer assessment
Student groups present their topic and its
related causes and effects using The Migration
Series and their artifacts.
teach with jacob l awrence
Teacher profile
Step 6. Museum visit to the
Figge Art Museum
Step 4. Creating artifacts
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Step 7. Student presentations and peer assessment
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cause s and eff ec ts
Rubric for assessment
Names
Hours
Group no.
JL Captions
20pts
Artifacts
40pts
Presentation
30pts
Participation
10pts
Total Points
100
Teach with jacob l awrence
Cotton-field workers, film still from The River, 1936–37.
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Impact statement
made a big impression on our students. It was
Using primary sources from Lawrence’s life
a song that many had sung as elementary
and times—such as the playbill from the
Apollo Theatre, the railway map, and musical
selections from the Teaching Kit—enabled
the students to more effectively discuss
and analyze the Great Migration, the Great
Depression, and the Harlem Renaissance. One
song in the Teaching Kit, “Rock Island Line,”
students (Rock Island is one of the Quad Cities
and the line ran through the region). Now they
connect the song to a specific historical period,
and the song’s meaning is more profound.
One topic that particularly resonated with our
students we identified as “farm problems,” as
Moline has a long history as an agricultural
community.
We decided students should make facsimiles
Museum profile
of primary sources, “artifacts.” Students created
The Figge Art Museum grew out of the Davenport
Museum of Art, which opened in 1925 as the
first municipal art gallery in Iowa. Today, the
collections have grown over ten fold and include
more than 3,500 paintings, sculpture, and works
on paper, from the 16th century to the present.
In 2003, the museum began its relocation to a
building in the heart of downtown Davenport
overlooking the Mississippi River. It was renamed
the Figge Art Museum. The new building and
new name represent significant changes. The new
facility allows the collections to be permanently
on view for the first time in the museum’s history,
with space designed for traveling and educational
exhibitions. The new building triples the size
of the previous facility, with half of its public
spaces dedicated to education and public service
purposes.
newspaper articles reporting on the droughts
TWJL_Booklet.indd 24
and boll weevil epidemic that swept across
the South at the time of the Great Migration.
Students also created political cartoons,
newspaper articles, letters from migrants, and
letters to the editor. Students were able to
analyze, interpret, and create their own artifacts
to share through classroom presentations. It
was fascinating to hear their discussions and
unique perspectives as they created their
final projects. Students were able to use their
higher-order thinking skills and presentation
skills when teaching the class about a specific
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cause s and eff ec ts
Student voices
Step 6. Museum visit to the Figge Art Museum
Interpretation of Panel No. 19. “We named it
‘Current of Change.’ In the picture, there are two
water fountains on opposite sides of a river. The
message is that there is obvious segregation, but
the land each person is on differs. The African
Americans are on the ‘bad land’ with little grass,
while the white person is on plentiful land with
a beautiful background. It would be difficult for
the African Americans to get across to the better
life because the river’s current would sweep
them away. However, both fountains are getting
water from the very river that separates them.”
—Courtney Green
cause or effect of the Great Migration. Through
teach with jacob l awrence
these presentations, students were able to link
the impetus to the Great Migration and how it
affected the South, the North, and the migrants
themselves.
The project became all the more meaningful
when students visited the Figge Art Museum
and saw Lawrence’s paintings. For some
students, it was their first visit to an art
museum. They were able to get so much more
out of looking at the paintings, once they had
the words, music, and historical context with
which to understand them.
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Panel No. 19
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