I rarely share lesson ideas as I’m quite critical of what I do but I just came across an activity that may be worth sharing as it’s from my early days of experimenting with IT, student-centred teaching and content.
Background
I taught a Culture class last year in a computer lab (laptops) and so devised lessons that enabled the students to immerse themselves in international culture. My aim was to bring the world to them or rather transport them via the net into the wider world.
The aim of this course was to broaden students perspectives according to the government anyhow. Apparently they had decreed that students were so into their studies that they learnt nothing else.
Anyhow, here is what I did. any thoughts would be useful.
Procedure
1)Each student writes a definition for ‘art’ and then swaps them and reads them out.
2)The class discusses and comes to some agreement on a definition(s)
3)Teacher elicits great examples of art and why they are so
4)Groups discuss the favourite types of art and museums
5)Pairs tour different galleries using
http://www.googleartproject.com/
6)Pairs create their own collection
7)Teacher builds phrases for tour guides and visiters using some of the examples below.
8)Pairs team up and give guided tours around their galleries
9)The teacher creates a class collection using his laptop with 1 choice from each group but they must explain why it is worthy of inclusion.
Useful language
A. The guide
As you can clearly see here…
This painting is typical of…
What strikes you about this piece is that…
This particular piece is…
This work represents the artist’s…
Many people’s first impression is….. however, later on you realize that..
B. The visitor
That’s interesting. I think that…
Interesting point but I would add…
Hmmm. I hadn’t thought of that before.
Questions to bring new ideas:
What do you think about . . . (her exploitation of vivid imagery)?
Have you considered . . .
What about . . .
