Meridian Minutes

(1 -2 weeks) – These are three page curricular units that are designed to be completed in one to two weeks, assuming a focus of two or three periods a week. The resulting media work – video or audio – is never longer than 60 seconds and often just involves one or two shots.

The Meridian Minutes challenge the students – working in pairs or in teams – to ‘play’ with assigned content in an unusual way, resulting in a short presentation piece that is often designed to teach the other students.

Each Meridian Minute:

Introduces the creative curricular prompt;
Identifies the targeted skill sets;
Lays out a step-by-step process for classroom execution; and
Concludes on the educational value.

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2022 — 2023 Meridian Stories Competitions

History

Historical Paintings and the Stories They Tell - A Dramatic Re-imagining

One critical source of historical knowledge comes from the period illustrations. Each illustration – from portraits to battle scenes; family gatherings to famous moments in history – when analyzed, reveals telling details about attitudes, status, traditions, emotional states, fashion trends, and, above all, in the pre-photographic age, what people really looked like, famous and otherwise. In this Challenge, you will select a picture from a time or moment in history that you are studying and bring to life one, two or three characters from that illustration. As they figuratively step out of the frame, they will tell us the story of the picture. The stories may be based on historical knowledge if the illustration is meant to document a seminal historical moment, or made up, based on your research into the period about what these people might be …posing for, or doing later that afternoon. The best place to start this Challenge may be with a visit to …your nearby art museum.