Norman Rockwell And An American Utopia

ESL 086-07

Introduction

Norman Rockwell once said, “I paint life as I would like it to be.” * By examining his paintings, we can get an understanding of what he thought an “ideal” America would be like. In this unit, we are going to try to discover Rockwell's American Utopia and compare it to the American Reality of today.

*(See http://www.normanrockwell.com/about/quotes.htm to read the whole quote.)

Task

In this unit we will look closely at some of Rockwell's paintings to see what they tell us about the America he wanted to live in. We will compile a picture of that America and compare it to what we see around us today.

Procedure

Part 1

We will begin this unit by learning something about Norman Rockwell. Who was he? When did he live? Was he a successful painter? All of these questions and more will be answered when you look at these biographies of Rockwell.

http://www.nrm.org/page37

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/rockwell_n.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Rockwell

http://www.literarytraveler.com/literary_articles/norman_rockwell.aspx

After looking at these sites, choose one and write a 100-200 word summary of it here. Make sure you cover the main points in the biography you choose. and include he URL of the biography you are summarizing. You will not be able to include all the details included in the original article, of course. Also, please try to choose a biography your classmates didn't choose.

Part 2

Now we will look at the paintings of Norman Rockwell. There are many places on the Internet where you can find some of them. I would suggest these sites because they have so many pictures on them.

http://www.normanrockwell.com/artwork/gallery.htm
http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/art.asp?aid=15

http://www.normanrockwellvt.com/prints.htm

Choose 5 of his paintings and write a brief description (approximately 50 words) of each. Be sure to include the name of the painting and the URL of the site where you saw it. Be sure to choose paintings your classmates haven't used.

Post your descriptions here.

Part 3

Now we are ready to compare Rockwell's American Utopia to the America we see every day. The actual requirements for this assignment are found in Writing Assignment #2.

When you are done with your first draft, upload it to Writing Assignment #2 in Moodle. I will grade it as it is, and you will have the right to revise and edit it as many times as you want before the final due date of February 15. Each time you resubmit it, I will grade it again. When you have revised it for the last time, you will post it to the class blog.

Evaluation

Your grade for this unit will be based on two things: the writing assignment and your completion of all the earlier tasks in this project. The writing will be graded separately according to the rubric. in Moodle. The project tasks will be graded according to this rubric:
Biography (4 points possible) :

  • Submitted an incomplete yet too long summary to the wiki. It was lacking at least 2 elements: reference, major points, appropriate length. - 1 point
  • Submitted an incomplete summary that was missing major points in the original article but had the reference and was the appropriate length. - 2 points
  • Submitted an incomplete summary with the reference and all major points but lacking appropriate length. - 3 points
  • Submitted a complete summary with reference and of appropriate length. - 4 points

Description of 1st painting (4 points possible):

  • Made an incomplete description of the painting. It was lacking at least 2 elements: reference, complete description and/or title. - 1 point
  • Made an incomplete description of the painting. It was lacking 1 element: reference, complete description and/or title. - 2 points
  • Made a complete description of the painting. It was, however, very weak in its description. - 3 points
  • Made a complete description of the painting that addressed all requirements well. - 4 points

Description of 2nd painting (4 points possible):

  • Made an incomplete description of the painting. It was lacking at least 2 elements: reference, complete description and/or title. - 1 point
  • Made an incomplete description of the painting. It was lacking 1 element: reference, complete description and/or title. - 2 points
  • Made a complete description of the painting. It was, however, very weak in its description. - 3 points
  • Made a complete description of the painting that addressed all requirements well. - 4 points

Description of 3rd painting (4 points possible):

  • Made an incomplete description of the painting. It was lacking at least 2 elements: reference, complete description and/or title. - 1 point
  • Made an incomplete description of the painting. It was lacking 1 element: reference, complete description and/or title. - 2 points
  • Made a complete description of the painting. It was, however, very weak in its description. - 3 points
  • Made a complete description of the painting that addressed all requirements well. - 4 points

Description of 4th painting (4 points possible):

  • Made an incomplete description of the painting. It was lacking at least 2 elements: reference, complete description and/or title. - 1 point
  • Made an incomplete description of the painting. It was lacking 1 element: reference, complete description and/or title. - 2 points
  • Made a complete description of the painting. It was, however, very weak in its description. - 3 points
  • Made a complete description of the painting that addressed all requirements well. - 4 points

Description of 5th painting (4 points possible):

  • Made an incomplete description of the painting. It was lacking at least 2 elements: reference, complete description and/or title. - 1 point
  • Made an incomplete description of the painting. It was lacking 1 element: reference, complete description and/or title. - 2 points
  • Made a complete description of the painting. It was, however, very weak in its description. - 3 points
  • Made a complete description of the painting that addressed all requirements well. - 4 points

Conclusion

Now that you have completed these tasks, you should have a good understanding of Rockwell's idea of an American Utopia and how it compares to the reality of America today. We will now move on to different Utopian ideas.


ESL 086-07
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