Lesson Topics: art, appreciating art
Skill Focus: Listening, Speaking, Vocabulary
Approximate Class Time: 1.75 hours
Lesson Plan Download: discussing-art-advanced-lesson-092024.docx
Lesson Overview:
- Note to Teachers: One key lesson activity has students discuss famous artwork. Links are provided in the document along with the titles and artist names. If you don't teach with a computer, I recommend you load these images on a smartphone or tablet for use in class.
- After warm-up questions, students preview nine vocabulary items contained in the YouTube video "How to Talk about Art" featuring Jerry Saltz. As the title suggests, the video gives suggestions on how to talk about art at galleries. The video is 2:59 in length.
- The video is followed by comprehension and a vocabulary-matching activity. After vocabulary matching, students form discussion questions with the target vocabulary.
- There are two debate topics related to art. This is followed by an activity in which students practice Jerry Saltz's strategies for talking about art. Links for four famous paintings are provided, and students discuss them with each other.
- The lesson has two role-play activities. The first is between tourists in New York. One student wants to go to the Museum of Modern Art while the other wants to drink beer. The next activity has business owners discuss the value of buying art for their office.
- After famous quotations, the lesson ends with a review of vocabulary before presenting some final discussion questions.
ADVANCED (C1/C2) Lesson on Talking about Art
Warm-up-Questions
- Do you consider yourself an artist? If so, in what sense?
- What kinds of art do you like? What kinds of art do you dislike?
- Do you enjoy visiting museums or galleries? Why or why not?
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This lesson plan was created by Matthew Barton of EnglishCurrent.com (copyright). Site members may photocopy and edit the file for their classes. Permission is not given to rebrand the lesson, redistribute it on another platform, or sell it as part of commercial course curriculum. ChatGPT was used to generate answer keys and some famous quotations. For questions, contact the author.
Comprehension Question Answer Key
- ...
- Saltz recommends talking about art like you would talk about anything else, without trying to sound overly intellectual.
- Creativity is the survival mechanism of our species.
- He suggests asking how the art was made, when it was made, and what other art looked like at the time.
- He advises people to look at a lot of art, keep working, and connect with others who are trying to be creative.
- He means that even abstract art often contains some recognizable or representational elements.
Vocabulary 1-Philistine, 2-Abstract, 3-Commune, 4-Critic, 5-Species, 6-Gore, 7-Figurative, 8-Survival mechanism, 9-Pointy-headed
[1] https://maryannehawes.com/10-questions-to-ask-yourself-about-a-piece-of-art/