URBAN VS. RURAL COMMUNITIES
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART PERMANENT COLLECTION TOURS
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Overton Park
Lesson Plan | Grades 2 - 5
Learning Standards ................................................ 3
Goals of the Tour Experience ..................................4
Objectives Established with Bloom’s Taxonomy ....... 5
Classroom Preparation ........................................... 6
Teacher Resources ................................................. 7
Pre-Visit Vocabulary ............................................... 8
Classroom Activities .............................................. 9
Contents
(Above) Jules Dupre, French, 1811-1889, Pastoral Scene, 1870, Oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Morrie A. Moss 59.29
(Front Cover) William R. Hollingsworth, American, 1910-1944, Spring on Farish Street (detail), 1941, Watercolor, Brooks Memorial Art Gallery purchase 42.5
Lesson Plan
Grade Level: 2nd - 5th grade
Number of Students: 60 maximum
Suggested TN State Standards in Visual Art
Standard 1.0 Media, Techniques, and Processes:
Students will understand and apply media, techniques, and processes.
Standard 3.0 Evaluation:
Students will choose and evaluate a range of subject matter, symbols, and ideas.
Standard 4.0 Historical and Cultural Relationships:
Students will understand the visual arts in relation to history and cultures.
Standard 6.0 Interdisciplinary Connections:
Students will make connections between visual arts and other disciplines.
Suggested TN State Standards in Social Studies
Grade 2: 3
Grade 3: 7, 11, 12, 13, 23, 39
Grade 4: 15, 59
Grade 5: 2, 31, 61
Suggested TN State Standards in English Language Arts
Speaking & Listening
Grades 2-5: CC.1, CC.3, PKI.6
Learning Standards
3
4
Tour Objectives
Goals of the Tour Experience
Students will identify, discuss, and compare urban and rural communities and the various roles
that individuals serve in each.
Students will:
• Dierentiate between the characteristics of rural settings and urban settings in artwork.
• Discuss how a rural community’s needs and values dier from an urban community’s needs
and values and how this can be observed in art.
• Correctly identify examples of urban communities and rural communities by recognizing
visual clues in various artworks.
Mario Bacchelli, Italian, 1893-1951, Panama Club, Beale Street, Memphis, 1950, Oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas B. Davis 65.50 © Estate of
the artist
5
Objectives Established with Bloom’s
Taxonomy
The learner will:
Remember Use existing knowledge to dene the terms rural and urban.
Understand View landscapes, cityscapes, and discuss the characteristics of each.
Discuss the terms community and culture.
Apply Classify images as either urban or rural communities and identify the
characteristics of each.
Analyze View portraits and genre scenes depicting individuals in urban and rural
communities and discuss the roles and characteristics of people in those
settings.
Evaluate Discuss how a rural community’s needs and values dier from an urban
community’s needs and values and how this can be observed in art.
Create Design a cityscape using corrugated paper to discuss texture and
perspective.
6
Classroom Preparation Prior to Visit
Introduce students to the suggested vocabulary list on page 8. Discuss the terms and help
students identify examples of each.
Review teacher resources and classroom connections. Consider ways of implementing
them in your teaching prior to your museum visit.
Review museum guidelines with students and chaperones.
http://www.brooksmuseum.org/school-tours#MuseumGuidelines
Discuss the museum visit with your students and share your own expectations for their
behavior.
William Christenberry, American, 1936-2016, Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee, 1971, Chromogenic coupler print, Gift of Charlotte and Joel Bernsen 86.34.6
7
Websites:
Rural, Urban, and Suburban Background Information
This quick overview provides teachers and parents with concise information to use when
teaching students about dierent types of communities.
https://educators.brainpop.com/lesson-plan/rural-urban-and-suburban-background-
information-for-teachers-and-parents/
Brooks E-Museum
Access digital images and information about artwork in the Brooks permanent collection.
http://emuseum.brooksmuseum.org/
Suggested Reading:
1. Country Kid, City Kid by Julie Cummins, ISBN: 0805064672 [grades 2-5]
2. A Day in a City by Nicholas Harris, ISBN: 1580137970 [grades 2-5]
3. A Year at a Farm by Nicholas Harris, ISBN: 1580137989 [grades 2-5]
4. The City Kid & the Suburb Kid by Deb Pilutti, ISBN: 1402740026 [grades 2-5]
5. Living in Rural Communities by Kristin Sterling, ISBN: 0822586142 [grades 2-5]
6. Living in Urban Communities by Kristin Sterling, ISBN: 0822586126 [grades 2-5]
Teacher Resources
8
Pre-Visit Vocabulary
Studying and discussing the vocabulary below, prior to your visit, can help ensure that
the museum visit will be of benet to your students. Please use your discretion when
determining the grade-appropriate content for your class.
Community A group of people living in the same locality and under the same government,
or a group of people having common interests.
Setting The scenery, properties, or background, depicted in a work of art.
Rural Relating to or characteristic of the country or country life.
Urban Relating to or characteristic of the city or city life.
Industry Businesses and factories that produce the goods required by society. Typically
incorporates both man power and machines or technology. Industry inspired
many people to leave farms and move to cities in the early 1900s.
Cityscape An artistic representation, such as a painting or photograph, of a city.
Landscape An artistic representation of scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers,
and forests.
Genre scene An artistic representation of subjects and scenes from everyday life, ordinary
people and common activities.
Portrait An artistic representation of a specic person, a group of people, or an animal.
Portraits usually show what a person looks like as well as revealing something
about the subject’s personality.
Costume A style of dress, including clothing, accessories, and hairstyle, especially
as characteristic of a particular country, period, or people. A set of clothes
appropriate for a particular occasion or season.
Attribute An object that is associated with and serves to identify a character, personage,
or oce. For example, a crown is an attribute of a king.
9
Classroom Activities
Activity 1 | Language Arts Connection
Use the following writing prompts to start a classroom discussion about rural and urban communities. Prompt students
to be specic in their writing. Please provide grade level expectations for your students writing.
• Think about rural and urban communities and the various roles in each.
• Describe your community in detail. What role do you want to serve?
• What do you want to be when you grow up?
• Where do you want to live? Why?
Suggested Common Core Standards in Language Arts
Writing
Grades 2-5: 2, 5, 8
Activity 2 | Science Connection
Landscapes and cityscapes can be used to discuss weather, climate, plants, and animals. Use the Brooks eMuseum
(link: http://emuseum.brooksmuseum.org/) to display several of the images from the list below. Ask students to share
observations about what they see. Next, discuss what type of climate is present. Ask students to make predictions
about what kinds of animals and plants might inhabit the area. Students can also discuss the similarities and dierences
between plant and animal life in urban and rural communities.
• The Grand Canal from the Campo San Vio by Canaletto
• Pastoral Scene by Jules Dupre
• Le Pont D’Argenteuil by Alfred Sisley
• Mid-Summer by George W. Inness
• The Hen and Hawk by John Stewart Curry
• The Gleaners by Burton Callicott
• City Lights by Jack Levine
• Door and Bed by Dogon
Suggested TN State Standards in Science
Grade 2: Inq.1, T/E.1, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 5.1, 8.1
Grade 3: Inq.1, 2.1, 3.1, 5.1, 7.3, 8.3
Grade 4: Inq.1, 3.2, 8.1, 8.2
Grade 5: Inq.1, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 6.1, 8.1
Alfred Sisley, French, 1839-1899, Le pont d'Argenteuil (The
Bridge at Argenteuil), 1872, Oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. and Mrs.
Hugo N. Dixon 54.64
George W. Inness, American, 1825-1894, Mid-Summer,
ca. 1874-1876, Oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Morrie A.
Moss 59.14
10
Classroom Activities
Activity 3 | Social Studies Connection
Lead a classroom discussion based on the historical information provided below about two works of art in the Brooks
permanent collection: Minute Men by Archibald M. Willard and Spring on Farish Street by Williams Hollingsworth
History behind Minute Men by Archibald M. Willard
(link to digital image: http://emuseum.brooksmuseum.org/view/
objects/asitem/items$0040:544#.WYo1BCD8FpM.twitter).
The American Revolutionary War was a war between the Kingdom
of Great Britain and the British colonies of the new United States of
America that took place between 1775 and 1783. Great Britain wanted
the colonists to pay high taxes to the British government, which
the colonists believed were unconstitutional because they didn’t
have representation in the British Parliament. After many struggles
between the two governments, the American colonists declared
their independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776. The war for
independence was hard-fought, but nally ended with the colonists’ victory in 1783.
Much of the war was fought against the British by colonial men known as Minutemen. These ordinary citizens formed
a network of soldiers who were able to jump into action on a moment’s notice, which is what gave them their name.
The minutemen were generally young, healthy men without much, if any military training. They were not given ries
or uniforms, and instead wore their own clothing and carried their own guns.
History behind Spring on Farish Street by William Hollingsworth
(link to digital image: http://emuseum.brooksmuseum.org/view/objects/asitem/items$0040:2301#.WYo1IOYvBR8.
twitter).
Artist William Hollingsworth was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1910.
Though he studied art at the Art Institute of Chicago, he returned to his
hometown after graduating in 1934. He began making drawings and
paintings of scenes from the segregated neighborhoods of Jackson,
particularly the bustling area around Farish Street.
The street and surrounding community have a rich and vibrant history.
In its heyday, Farish Street was the hub for all the educational, social,
political, religious, and entertainment activities for Jackson’s African
American community. Residents could nd everything they needed,
including ve-and-dime stores, dress shops, orists, doctor oces,
a hospital, legal services, nice restaurants, funeral homes, a movie
theater, churches, a furniture store, community centers, and beauty
shops. Thus, it was a thriving, self-contained community.
Today, the Farish Street Historic District is the only African American historic site listed on the national register that
was built by former slaves whose great-great grandchildren still work and live in the area. Farish Street takes its name
from Walter Farish, a former slave who was instrumental in establishing the community.
*Information about the Farish Street Historic District was gathered from the Farish Street Heritage Festival’s website: http://www.farishstfestival.
com/index.php/history
Archibald M. Willard, American, 1836-1918, Minute Men, ca. 1895, Oil on
linen, Gift of the Paul and Elissa, Cahn Foundation 2003.12
William Hollingsworth, American, 1910-1944, Spring on Farish Street,
1941, Watercolor, Brooks Memorial Art , Gallery Purchase 42.5 © Estate
of William Hollingsworth.
11
Grades 2-3
Draw a Venn diagram on the board with two sets. Label the left set “Minute Men: Rural”, then label the right set
“Spring on Farish Street: Urban”. As a class, discuss what they see in Minute Men and record these observations in
the left circle. Do the same for Spring on Farish Street in the circle on the right. Complete this exercise by recording
similarities from both paintings in the section where the circles overlap
Suggested TN State Standards in Social Studies
Grade 2: 3, 18, 36, 37
Grade 3: 9, 23, 43
Grades 4-5
Prompt students to answer the following comparison questions either verbally or in writing. Please provide grade
level expectations for your students writing.
• Describe the setting of each work, what natural and man-made elements comprise each composition? Which
image depicts more “advanced” technology?
• Compare the characteristics of the landscape in each image. What kinds of wildlife and vegetation would you
image each landscape to host?
• Notice how the colors of Minute Men and the colors of Spring Time on Farish Street dier. Why would the colors
in an image of an urban community be brighter than the colors in an image of a rural community?
• What kinds of roles do you think the children depicted in each image play? How do the children and adults
interact in Minute Men; how do they interact in Spring Time on Farish Street?
• How does the mood of each image compare? Do the images reect happy, somber, excited, tense, scared
moods?
• There are more gures in Spring Time on Farish Street. Using what you know about the populations and housing
congurations of both rural and urban communities, why do you think that is?
• Noticing the body language of the people in each image, what sort of dialogue could you image is being spoken
between the characters in each?
• What is the impact of industry on rural communities? What is the impact of industry on urban communities?
Suggested TN State Standards in Social Studies
Grade 4: 18, 23, 24, 30
Grade 5: 8, 48, 49, 61
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Overton Park
1934 Poplar Avenue | Memphis, TN 38104 | 901 544 6200 | brooksmuseum.org
Red Grooms, American, b. 1937, Tennessee S Curve, 2001, Enamel on epoxy on Styrofoam, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art purchase; Morrie A.
Moss Acquisition Fund 2001.10 © Red Grooms / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
