Spanish Civil War Propaganda

This lesson teaches students about the significance of propaganda in the Spanish Civil War, has them analyse as a class different propaganda and ends with their own creation of a propaganda poster. It also includes TOK connections.

In this lesson, a powerpoint is provided in which students will learn about what propaganda is and its key significance to the Spanish Civil War. As a class students will analyse different propaganda posters using a handout that has students address the OPCVL (origin, purpose, content, values and limitations) of each source. Students will also watch a peice of the Simon Schama’s Power of Art to highlight the importance of Picasso’s work during the Spanish Civil War.

Students will work together to analyse Spanish propaganda using a virtual poster gallery. They will be asked to analyse these posters to answer a variety of questions regarding the posters they see. The questions work to build their understanding of (1) Values and Limitations of sources (2) Bias in Propaganda (3) symbols, messages and slogans used to encourage support. Once students have a clear understanding of how propaganda was used in the Spanish Civil War, students will create their own propaganda poster.