Danielle Gwin

Lesson is based on the NYT article written September 2025. The journalist references a Harvard professor that has her students spend 3 hours with a chosen art piece. While that isn't ideal for a high school class, this lesson is a modified version that has students spend one hour of uninterrupted time with the Las Meninas art piece. You can introduce the piece with a ten minute video on Smarthistory.org or with your own information. The students then spend the first 30 minutes recording "stream

Students will choose an architectural work that they have studied in class (or research on their own) and use the visual and contextual information from the building to create a fictional ghost story. The visual and contextual wording on the worksheet aligns with the analysis necessary for AP Art History students, but this could be used in a non-AP art history class as well. This is a great activity for the fall/Halloween that allows students to be creative while showcasing their knowledge of sp

Power point, posters and worksheets that go over Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus River Valley, and Chinese River Valley. Two worksheets are provided- one more guided than the other.

In this multi-part lesson, students will complete several steps to learn about the Benin Wall Plaques, which are a part of the AP Art History curriculum. Students will first complete an "Anticipate" worksheet before researching the piece, observe formal aspects, investigate the piece on their own, and then write a reflection. Lesson plan guide, worksheets, and investigation links included in the purchase of this lesson.

This web quest will guide students through learning the 4 photography pieces in the AP Art History curriculum. The google doc has SmartHistory embedded links to use to read about the four pieces. Students will then fill out relevant vocabulary and questions over each of the four readings. Then, students must show mastery of content by also attaching a photo that they took themselves that embodies the ideals of the artist and art piece they just learned. I posted this assignment using my School'

This interactive activity can be used for each unit or as a multi-unit review. Assign each student a unit or content, and then allow the student to choose a work within that. Allow student to refresh themselves on the piece and then use the power point and worksheet together to let students speed date! Students will basically be the embodiment of their chosen art piece. This is a great way to dive more in-depth to the art pieces and for students to get to know the pieces in a different way while

This interactive activity can be used for each unit or as a multi-unit review. Assign each student a unit or content, and then allow the student to choose a work within that. Allow student to refresh themselves on the piece and then use the power point and worksheet together to let students speed date! Students will basically be the embodiment of their chosen art piece. This is a great way to dive more in-depth to the art pieces and for students to get to know the pieces in a different way while

This is a fun end of the year activity that I created for my students. Much like many high schools have seniors vote on superlatives, I had my students pick any pieces from the 250 that they thought fit the superlative title and then give a 2-3 sentence justification explaining why they chose the piece that they did. After I got all worksheets turned in I tallied all the votes and made a power point to show my students- they loved it! This is a great way to show mastery of content from the ent

This worksheet is a great extension or review lesson of the four river valley civilizations. Students must recall the shift from hunting and gathering to farming, the characteristics of a civilization, and specific aspects of each of the river valley civilizations.

This worksheet can be used as a review of Ancient Near Eastern, Egyptian, and Greek Art. Students need to define vocabulary, compare pieces to one another, and annotate works of art.

This is a project I gave my students after the AP exam in May as something fun to do in class. Students will pick an art piece from the 250 to recreate in their own way (painting, photo recreation, food, etc.). Then they will introduce their classmates to a new artist that they have researched. All of this will be presented as one Google Slides product.

Power point over the stages of an empire and a worksheet to accompany.

to accompany the power point under the same name

This lesson has a short reading over both the Zhou and Han dynasties and a worksheet for students to fill out based on the readings.