Guernica

“La pintura no ha sido hecha para decorar los apartamentos. Es un instrumento de guerra ofensiva y defensiva contra el enemigo.”

— Pablo Picasso

Art as a form of protest

Who doesn’t love talking about Picasso’s iconic Guernica with their Spanish students? This topic is a personal favorite of mine for several reasons. First, I love the painting, its history and its enduring message, which is still relevant today, so many years after it was painted. Second, it lends itself beautifully to an interdisciplinary approach, including collaboration with history and art teachers.

If that’s not something that happens easily at your school, you can at least guarantee interdisciplinary content in your own classroom while teaching this unit! Last but not least, this unit explores historical and cultural content related to the painting and then, as in every topic I teach, students have the opportunity to bring the learning back to their own context and to use what they have learned to create and showcase an original work of art.

Their artistic effort leads back to the fundamental question posed in this unit: how can art be a powerful form of protest?

So, without further ado, here are all the content details, materials and activities.

Project details

  • Level: Intermediate (Level 3), Advanced (Level 4, 5), IB SL, HL

  • Inquiry Question: How can art be a powerful form of protest? (¿Cómo puede ser el arte una forma poderosa de protesta? )

  • Authentic Materials: Painting Guernica, National Geographic article on Guernica, Blog Post by an Argentinian blogger, Museu Picasso web site

  • Language Structures Emphasized: Verbos como gustar, participios pasados used as adjectives.

Final Project: Creation and presentation of an original work of art that highlights an issue/cause of student’s choosing.

Content and Language Learning Objectives:

  • Describe the historical context of the bombing of the town of Guernika and how that motivated Picasso to paint this painting

  • Analyze the images of the painting using past partciples, and how the images bring to light the horrors of war

  • Use “verbs like Gustar” to express emotions within the context of a work of art: interesar, fascinar, horrorizar, etc.

  • Compare and contrast the Spanish civil war with the American civil war to arrive at an understanding of the causes of civil wars

  • Navigate a museum website in Spanish to make a plan to visit the museum and a particular exhibit

  • Create an original artwork to highlight a chosen cause and explain how it is a powerful form of protest

Materials & activities

If you choose to teach the entire unit, like I do, be aware that it is quite long – about 6-8 weeks depending on the level of your students and how fast or slow you need to go. You can also choose just those parts that you like and leave out the rest. The unit is divided into three main sections:

Historical context

This is where students learn about the bombing of Guernica – the what, where, who, how and why of the event that occurred there. This five-question format is a good one to use for any historical event and you’ll see below how I use it in this context.

Description, analysis and opinion (of the painting)

Here we explore the symbolism of the various images in the painting by reading an original blogpost by an Argentinian blogger. I also present other analyses of the painting so students understand that art is subjective and can have many different interpretations. Students form their own opinions and express emotions related to various details in the painting.

Picasso

A little background on Picasso, his art and versatility through a virtual visit to the Picasso Museum in Barcelona or Málaga. This leads into students’ own art projects which can be varied. I let students know that I am more interested in the thoughtfulness of the artwork rather than its artistic value per se. I don’t want non-artistically inclined students to feel disheartened by this project and so the guidelines are very broad: it can be digital, a collage, a photograph, a sculpture, a painting, a drawing etc.

As a culminating activity, we look at the relevance of Guernica in modern-day Spain – the importance that this painting still holds for the people of Spain and what it represents for them – through a look at the anniversary celebrations that took place in 2016 in Madrid.

Introduction and Activating Background Knowledge

1. Generating vocabulary and curiosity

I use a See, Think, Wonder thinking routine. Divide the painting into 5 parts: el caballo y la bombilla, la mujer que huye, el toro y la mujer con el bebé, el soldado muerto and la casa y la mujer en llamas. Print out each part separately and add in the questions: what do you see in this image, what do you think is happening and what questions do you have about what you see.

In small groups have the students work on one part of the painting by answering these questions. Provide students with the vocabulary they may not know as they ask for it and make a list of the words on the board. Have each group share out their thinking as you project each image and write their questions somewhere visible so you can return to them later. Once everyone has seen the various images and heard each other’s responses to the questions, reveal the entire painting.

You may have a short discussion about what students think this is (you may get some funny or weird responses!) and you could also work on reinforcing the vocabulary at this point by sorting the words you have on the board and others from the painting into different categories such as “animales”, “cosas”, “personas”, “emociones”, etc.

2. Imagining an event

This is an idea that I have borrowed from Meghan Zingle’s class as shown in the Annenberg Learner video library of language lessons. I love how she lets students have some fun with the painting before revealing the more serious aspect of it. So, this is how it goes: have students name all things that they can in the painting and write down the words on the board. You could categorize them together into various categories such as animate objects, inanimate objects to give students some practice with them,. Also introduce some new words that they don’t know. Once students have a vocabulary list they will use the entire image as the depiction of an event that occurred in their town/city where they live. They will imagine what might have happened to provoke what is happening in the painting. They pretend to be news anchors who are reporting on what happened the day before in our city. They make up a script and present it to the class. You’ll hear everything from a party gone horribly wrong, to vandalism in the school building, to the outbreak of war between two countries!

3. Reading about the real event

Once the laughs are over, it’s time to read about what really happened. This National Geographic article is perfect as it has many pictures and also abundant use of past participles which we will come back to later. Students read and fill out a graphic organizer to record the events. The mood is a little more somber now as students explain what happened in one sentence that answers the questions: qué ocurrió, dónde y cuándo ocurrió, cómo ocurrió y por qué ocurrió.

La pintura en el museo Reina Sofía en Madrid

The stage is now set to delve deeper into the bombing of Guernica and begin to understand the figures and icons in the painting.

Delving into content

1. El Bombardeo

At this point, I dwell on the story of the bombing a little more to introduce and practice some verb structures and vocabulary. I focus on four verbs: bombardear, morir, destruir and atacar. We practice preterite conjugations in context as well as the noun forms of these verbs. I use two activities explained below:

Context and history

On this Powerpoint presentation on El bombardeo, I use the pictures to provide some background knowledge and to review the events that occurred. The four verbs should be displayed or written somewhere visible so students can refer to them and use them while describing. I then use this worksheet to do a quick grammar review in context, thus reinforcing both structures and content.

Apply the structures to your own context

This is a fun activity to get students to use some creative, open-ended language. I write out the four verbs on large index cards and then I group the verbs into combinations of two (e.g., destruir and atacar together) and ask the students make up a quick, 4-6 line conversation with a partner using the two verbs creatively in a personal or topical context. They come up with all kinds of funny and serious four-line exchanges, ranging in context from a sports game to an incident in school to a current news event. It’s a great way to make them see that even though the content we’re studying is historical, the language they’re learning is applicable and real.

2. Reading about the real event

As I want to give students a sense of the history, causes and consequences of the war, all my activities build up to an activity in which students compare the Spanish Civil War with in my case as I currently teach in the US, the American Civil War. But you could take any other war that makes more sense in your teaching context. The aim is to make them think critically about the origins and fallout of war in general and apply that approach to current world situations.

This lesson is structured to be a “three Ps” exercise – one that integrates Products, Practices and Perspectives, in this case relating to Spanish culture. The product here is war (specifically the Spanish Civil War and why it was waged). The perspective that I want to highlight is that of the Spanish people and their fierce commitment to the freedom and democracy which they lost for 40 years during Franco’s dictatorship. The practice is the celebration of a work of art as an iconic symbol of freedom from oppression for the people of Spain. I do this by looking at the anniversary celebration of Guernica, which took place with great fanfare in 2016.

3. Analysis of the painting

In this part of the unit, I want my students to develop the understanding that art can be a representation of culture and that it is subjective. There are many interpretations of a work of art, and we all have different emotional responses depending on our own preferences. I also want them to begin to understand how art has been used in various cultures, including their own, as a means of protest, and how it can be impactful when used as a medium for political discourse. They do this by studying the symbolism in Guernica.

Un esbozo del toro hecho por Picasso

After teaching the facts of the war (which I won’t discuss in detail here, but I am happy to share additional teaching materials if you drop me a note via this site), I focus on a comparison activity between the American and Spanish Civil Wars. Since I teach this unit to mostly 10th graders and above, they are usually well-versed with the American Civil War and are able to do this activity by jogging their memory a little. Depending on how much “jogging” they need, I sometimes assign a homework activity where they have to look up information and answer these questions. This can help them be better prepared for this comparison activity. Using two different graphic organizers, students lay out the historical facts, which they then use in a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the two wars.

Graphic organizers: American and Spanish Civil Wars. Venn diagram template to compare and contrast.

Once students have done this, they can use the information from the Venn diagram in several different ways depending on what skill you’d like to focus on. Some suggestions are:

  • Use the information from the Venn diagram to write a paragraph on the general causes and consequences of war citing specific examples from either one.

  • Choose one of the wars and write a paragraph describing its causes and consequences.

  • Write 10 sentences that use comparatives and superlatives to compare and contrast the two wars.

  • Imagine you are writing an article for the school magazine about the causes and consequences of civil wars. You are interviewing your history professor for information on the Spanish and American civil war. Use the information from the Venn diagram to have a conversation between the professor and the student.

There are three main parts to this section of the unit:

  • I use a simple See-Think-Wonder thinking routine to get students to think about the different images in the painting. I print out closeup details of the painting, attach them to these questions and have students work in groups to answer the questions. You can have all groups do all the images, or ask each group to analyze one or two images. Here is a list of vocabulary I use so students can learn the words they need to describe the images in the painting. This is also where I introduce past participles and how they are used both as adjectives and with the verb haber, because it fits in well right here! The different parts of the painting have titles that are quite commonly used to describe them and each one has a version of the past participle, for example, mujer arrodillada, soldado tumbado etc. By now the students have seen these images and should be able to do an image and word association activity such as this one which can then be used to focus their attention on past participles. You could do a pop up grammar explanation of how participles are used both as adjectives and with haber and use this worksheet to help them practice this concept in context. Once they have this essential vocabulary and introduction to grammar, they are ready to explore the symbolism in the painting and connect it to historical events.

    I use an article written by an Argentinian blogger that explains the various images in the painting, but I also point out that this is just one person’s interpretation of the painting. We then try to think of other interpretations, now that students are aware of the context of the painting. Here is the link for the article: http://www.eltallerdejazmin.com/2012/07/mi-analisis-del-guernica.html and the worksheet that I use to help students organize and understand the ideas. It is important to review reading strategies before students begin to read so they know that they don’t have to understand every word in order to grasp the main points of the text.

  • This is where I teach verbs like gustar. Apart from expressing opinions on Guernica, I also use various other famous and not-so-famous works of Spanish and Latin American art to elicit opinions. I use this presentation to introduce various works of art and I encourage the students to express their opinions, but only after I’ve made them learn and practice some ‘feeling’ verbs besides gustar using this presentation. I do this as an oral activity, but it can be structured however you like.

    As a culminating activity, I have my students do a guided and prepared conversation somewhat in the style of an information gap activity. This brings together everything that we’ve learned about the painting and is a good check to see how students are doing in terms of understanding. Here is the script I use.

  • This is a mini-project that will prepare students for the final project of the unit, as well as help them to make connections with works of protest art from their own cultures. This is also where student choices and personal connections to material play a very important role. Students always make the effort to find a work of art that resonates with them in some way or the other – a cause that is dear to them or an issue that is personal – and then they become excited to discover and present this work to the rest of the class. It is important that they talk about how and why this piece is an impactful work of art. I have been amazed by the quality and content of these presentations, which have also opened my mind to so many issues that I was not aware of. This is definitely one my favorite parts of the unit. Here are my guidelines for this project which include a description of the task, a rubric and a student listening sheet.

Final Project/Assessment

In this unit’s final project, students create an original work of art in any medium that they like – painted or drawn by hand, a collage of images, a series of photographs they have taken – that highlights a current cause/issue of their choosing. They complete a writeup on their artwork and give an oral presentation to the class. I make sure they know that they will be evaluated not on the artistic quality of the piece but the organizational quality of their research and presentation and how well it conveys their message. Here are my guidelines for this final project.

This is a long unit I know, but I hope the materials have been useful. Use as much or as little as you like in whatever works best for your classroom. And please feel free to contact me with any questions on how to use these materials. I would also love to hear your feedback, and if you feel so inclined, please subscribe to my website!

Let’s connect

I hope this information was helpful! I would love to connect with you if you have any questions. Please feel free to submit the form below with your query and I will respond as soon as possible. I also have a few additional materials to share, if you want more!