About This Lesson
Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware offers mentor art for teaching students about artistic license.
Mentor texts have long been used to model writing techniques. Mentor art can likewise be used to inspire, teach, and refine student writing. Mentor art has the added benefit of addressing diverse learning styles and providing visual support to language learners. Consider introducing your students to the concept of artistic license with Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware. In this lesson students analyze how the the painting’s depiction of the crossing is different than the account in the history journal. Then they consider how Leutze’s alterations make the scene more dramatic, inspirational, and symbolic.
