Art and entertainment

 

Shared by Laura Sáiz:

The firs type of activity are warmers, so I always ask them what I call “Introductory questions”. 

These questions can be of two different types: on the one hand, to know how they know about the topic we are going to study. 

On the other hand, these questions could be used to know about the specific contents we are going to deal with in the lesson. 

Sometimes, I just mix both types.

In a lesson about “Art and entertainment” I would ask them:

For the first type of “introductory questions” (the most general ones):

• What is culture? How do we express our culture?
• What is art?
• How many artistic disciplines can you name?
• Which is your favourite? Why?
• Which is your least favourite? Why?

For the second type of “introductory questions” (lesson-centred questions):

• Can you name any places in GB where art is exhibited or performed?
• Do you know any British artists? (in any art)
• Can you name any musical in the West End or Broadway?
• Why is Hollywood famous in the world of art?
• How much do you know about Hollywood?
• Do you know any artistic movement?
• Do you know what pop art is?

These second type of “introductory questions” are asked again at the end of the lesson. The students feel a bit awkward when they cannot answer them in the first lesson, but they feel really happy when they can answer all of the when we finish the lesson.

During the development of the lesson, I could use the following strategies in this “Art and Entertainment” lesson:

· A picture dictation to make them imagine some works of art, explained in the lesson. For instance: David Hockney’s My parents and me. Or Banksy’s Game Changer.

· Word association with art words.

· Through the cutting glass: We could choose a detail of one of the works of art and make it the logo of a company and we could create a slogan for it too.

And, in order to create a cross-curricular lesson, we could make a mind map/topic web trying to connect the contents of this lesson (art) with the contents from other subjects they are studying now.

As a conclusion, I would like to say I found the activities of this course extremely encouraging for me (not only for the students). I hope you like my activities and that they are useful, too.