Monuments and memorials often tell only part of the story of a historical figure or moment. As monuments are often literally set in stone, traditional narrative and teaching about them is also often set in stone—static and one-dimensional. This toolkit is meant to help you bring local monuments to life by engaging your students in learning and teaching about the full story behind a given monument.
This activity can be an in-class exercise or a field trip to a local monument, depending on time and resources available.
Option 1: Research and Field Trip
Research
If your area has a local or national monument nearby, have your class do research into the history of that monument, including:
- Who and/or what does the monument celebrate?
- When was the monument built?
Then have students dig a little deeper:
- Who supported or financed the monument’s construction?
- Was there any opposition to the monument being built?
- Who is telling the story? Was anyone left out of the story?
- Looking at this monument from a different perspective, do we view this event or person differently today than people did when the monument was planned and built?
- Were other groups involved in the relevant event but not represented in the monument—for instance, women, people of color or working people?
After your students have conducted this research, have them discuss whether there is a hidden history or untold part of the story of the monument that they think should be told to others.
If so, have them identify one or two key points they would want visitors to this monument to know—for instance, about a group of people who played an important role in this event or person’s life, yet are unrepresented in the memorial. Or does this monument ignore the honored person’s role in systems of inequality like slavery or the taking of native people’s lands.
Field Trip
After students have identified the key points they would like visitors to know about this memorial, have them prepare a variety of methods for educating visitors about the monument. Examples include:
- posters with a key phrase explaining the hidden history of the memorial
- fliers with additional information about the memorial that students found during their research
- a rehearsed scene related to hidden history of the monument for visitors
- a reenactment of a character related to the hidden history of the monument
Option 2: Research and Redesign
If there are no relevant monuments nearby, or if time and resources do not allow for a field trip, modify this activity to be an in-class presentation.
Research
Instead of researching a local monument, have students look up national monuments related to a current lesson. Using the same guiding questions above, have students do research into this monument.
If they discover a hidden history or find that the memorial leaves out crucial voices, have them design a new, alternative monument or redesign the existing one. Preparing to redesign or create a new monument could include:
- identifying untold stories, unheard voices in the original memorial
- identifying the key messages or stories that a new or redesigned memorial should tell visitors
- identifying visual ways to present those stories and messages
- creating designs for the new or re-envisioned memorial (This could be done in a variety of ways, such as by drawing on paper, creating a 3-D structure or describing the new memorial in prose.)
In-Class Presentations
This activity can be done in groups, with each group researching and redesigning a different monument. You could have each group display its monument in the classroom, have students do a gallery walk to see their peers’ work, and then have each group report on their findings and redesign.
You also could request permission to place the redesigned memorials in the hallway or other public area of the school in order to share the lessons learned by your students.
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