In addition to the themed lesson materials, the Box folder also contains the following:

• An instructional How-To video demonstrating how to use the augmented reality app for YOU BE MY ALLY
• Notes to accompany or expand upon the introductory slideshow presentations
• A repository for educators to submit their own materials as they’ve adapted and implemented the K-12 Curriculum in their virtual classrooms, including examples of student work

Please note you must log in either with your UChicago credentials or designated password to access the Box folder. If you are a K-12 instructor without access through your institution and would like to use these materials in your teaching, please email Bridgette (bdavis14@uchicago.edu) and Heather (hglenny@uchicago.edu).

Grades K-5: Early learners engage with key terms of art practice (medium, conceptual art, message), as they learn about Jenny Holzer and the major themes of Holzer’s work that remain relevant to their lives today. Students learn how they themselves can use the YOU BE MY ALLY app.
Grades 6-8: Middle school students consider the recurring themes in Holzer’s artwork as a precursor to her latest project. Slides promote critical thinking about art and technology in modern life, and builds anticipation for using Holzer’s AR app.
Grades 9-12: Students will critically engage with questions that Holzer poses in each of her major artworks throughout her career. The slides model the high level of analysis expected of students as they experience YOU BE MY ALLY.

Grades K-5: Students define allyship and consider what it means to be an ally and how this differs from being a collaborator or a friend. Holzer’s artwork jumpstarts conversations on learning from others, amplifying voices, and speaking up when you see injustice in the world.
Grades 6-8: Middle school students will think more deeply about their role as allies in their respective communities. College Core texts and artwork by other conceptual artists like Judy Chicago usher in thinking on the role of art within movements for social justice.
Grades 9-12: Core texts and related artworks challenge students to analyze Holzer’s work in the context of our current moment. Students engage skills that approach complex issues like political allyship and representation during the Movement for Black Lives, #MeToo,and other social justice movements with both online and in-person forms of activism.

Grades K-5: Students will define and name dimensions of context (time, place, culture, author’s identity, and audience) and how removing a quote from its original place in a text can change its meaning. Students will think about the significance of place and site-specific artworks, and Holzer’s work will come alive through activities honoring important places in their communities.
Grades 6-8: Students will think critically about Core text quotes in their original context and as resituated in Holzer’s work. They will identify some relevant echos from the original context that resonate now, and also describe differences and conflicts between the author’s use and the current time, place, audience, and Holzer’s identity.
Grades 9-12: Lessons engage Holzer’s site-specific works and the significance of the locations she has chosen in the South Side for YOU BE MY ALLY. Students will analyze the relationship between the original context of the authors and texts and their ‘projection’ into the current context.

Grades K-5: What does it mean to cite a work of art or writing, and what might prompt someone to leave something anonymous? Students consider what it means to share your identity, and why some authors and artists might leave their work anonymous.
Grades 6-8: Students investigate their own assumptions about identity and authorship. Prompted by excerpts from Core texts, students will describe how one can both relate to and diverge from their past, their place, and their identity.
Grades 9-12: Using related contemporary examples, students will debate the politics of authorship and citation as it relates to Holzer’s own artistic decision-making. Lessons prompt higher-level analysis of identity and representation.

Grades K-5: Students consider what it means to have power and authority in society. Holzer’s artwork introduces the concept of a literary canon or collection of “masterworks,” and prompts students to think of an inclusive canon for their own class or community. Students will create and suggest their own canon–the texts and other media they would suggest to friends or classmates as necessary to learn and enjoy.
Grades 6-8: Students are invited to turn an analytical eye to institutions of power. Through Holzer’s past and current artwork, students understand how power is expressed through language, style, art, and curricula.
Grades 9-12: Holzer’s project encourages students to consider the establishment of literary canons as social constructions that often sustain modes of discriminaton and systemic racism. They will identify problems of canons, or set curricula, and will evaluate solutions used to address these problems with a critical eye. They will ask what is gained and lost via a shared canon? Who should share it? Why or why not?

K-5: Students consider Holzer’s use of public messages and learn about the differences between public and private art. Students will practice identifying who the audience of a text, artwork, or public message is, and will consider the audience(s) for their own writing.
6-8: Students examine Core text excerpts to identify audience and public engagement. Holzer’s trucks and app serve as the springboard for deeper questions on the relationship between public art and political action.
9-12: Using Holzer’s current and previous work, students explore the efficacy of art as a vehicle for promoting social change. Related topics include the flexibility of language, code-switching, and public messaging.