I found the photograph first but then it turned out that it is a whole post with a video tutorial, too. Have a look at the Art Projects for Kids! Which, by the way, is a cool website that I will be visiting in the future!
The language
This is the second module of our course and I decided that I need to start introducing some of the natural world vocabulary, in order to be a little bit better prepared to talk about the artists to come. The first introductory set is rather modest and it includes: the sky, the grass, trees, mountains, houses, the river, flowers and leaves. We have also used this module as an opportunity to revise colours and numbers and to introduce the first two adjectives (big and small). Finally, we started to talk about what ‘I like’ and ‘I don’t like’.
The artist
Our artist of the day who introduced all of that to us was Isaac Illich Levitan, the love of my childhood and my first artist ever. The album of his works is one of the very few books that I remember from my early childhood (apart from the storybooks, of course). It was there, on the shelf and I did spend hours on the carpet, leafing through it, back and forth, making up stories taking place among the birch trees, by the river, in the forests and in some ‘Sokolniki park’ which I found out about long before I set my foot in it. This, by the way, was also one of my first encounters with the foreing languages as the book was in Russian, English, French and German and these were my first exercises in comparative linguistics. At the age of 5 and 6.
Leviatan’s was what you might call a cameo appearance because I did not want to overwhelm the kids. We looked at the four seasons, looked for the new words in the paintings (‘Can you see a house?) and talked about the colours. We also started to sing ‘What’s your favourite season?’. Not a lot, but Isaac is definitely coming back, with the arrival of the winter and then the spring and the summer. With him, there will be Vivaldi, which would have been a perfect companion but I simply forgot about his existence. I am already looking forward to our winter-themed lessons.
Levitan in our ‘gallery’
The craft
try to make the leaf at home to figure out how complex it might be and how much time we will require, think about the stages
use the leaves throughout the lesson ie while revising colours and numbers or practising ‘I like / I don’t like’
check that the kids have all the materials necessary: a piece of paper, crayons, watercolours and water
draw the outline of the leaf veins, and patterns with crayons. It is ok to use the same colour but the final product is more interesting if different colours are used. I was considering introducing different patterns to make it more structured but, in the end, decided not to. We will introduce them on some other occasion, with Kandinsky, for example. If possible, I would use special paper for watercolours but in the online world it is not quite possible. Regular photocopying paper works well, too.
colour the leaf with the watercolours. It might be a good idea to start with the brighter colours and, for the sake of staging, ‘dictate’ which colour to use, leaving the kids a decision which section of the leaf to colour. The lines drawn with crayons will not be covered by the paint and they will be still visible and it is not really necessary to be too careful with painting. Not staying within the lines or even letting the colours seep or even leak into each other create a much more interesting effect. I haven’t really encouraged my kids to create a very ‘messy-on-purpose’ picture (not yet, anyway) but I am very reckless with how I use my paints, to show the kids that it’s ok.
finish with showing the leaves, call out the colours, talk about whose leaves we like.
I have cut out my leaves to be able to use them more easily and I was planning on telling the parents that the kids can do it after the lesson, when the paints dry completely. If I still had my classroom, I would put them up on the window.
I went into this lesson on my toes, slowly, cautiously, almost unwillingly. On the one hand, I was curious, as with all the Art project. On the other hand, I was just not so convinced. On the one hand, there was a new group of kids, I did not know their levels and we were supposed to try doing online what we did face-to-face before. On the other hand, I started to look for all the Miró animals and, randomly, I typed in ‘Miró and a toucan’ and found just that. And it made me burst into laughter, just because it there was an occasion when Joan Miró held a hornbill (aka almost a toucan). I knew I would do it all anyway, even if only to find out whether I can, but I was a bit anxious.
Our Gallery in Miro
The Before
Introduction of colours, a variety of songs, wordwall games and Miro games
Working on building the routine and getting used to the online format
Introduce the artist of the day and his arts. We focused only on the animals and on the colours. We ‘visited’ our MiroBoard Gallery and we tried to guess the animals and match Miro with photographs
And, finally, we tell and listen to ‘Elmer’ for the first time (I have actually only used the video, muted, and I told the story myself. We also included some gestures to involve the kids).
It is necessary to add that this year, due to the fact that we meet online with my Art Explorers, our classes have a slightly different format and we work on two-lesson basis. In lesson A we introduce the vocabulary and the artist, in lesson B: we revise and focus on craft and creation. The activities mentioned above were also executed over a period of two lessons.
The photo of the materials sent before the lesson
The While
Get all the materials ready (a glue stick, a marker, a piece of white A4 paper, some coloured paper or pieces of colourful pages of newspapers and journals), send the list to parents ahead of time
Check that everyone has everything (‘Show me your paper’, ‘Show me your glue’ etc)
Show the kids your coloured paper, call out the colours.
Ask the kids to show you theirs, call out the colours.
Show the kids how you tear off a strip of each colour, show them a ready bunch. Wait for them to get theirs ready.
Draw the elephant step by step. Start with the body, then the legs, the tail, the head, the trunk and the ear (by the way, the full shape of an ear is here only to help the kids visualise the elephant, a part of it will be covered by the coloured paper). Show each step to the camera and let the kids copy. Ask them to show you the paper after they have finished each step. Put the marker away.
Open the glue, spread the glue all over the elephant, evenly, while holding the paper to the camera. Close the glue and put it away.
Tear off a piece of one of your colourful stripes, glue it on the elephant, and then a few more. Invite the kids to do the same (‘Now you’). After a while ask them to show you their copies or ask what colour they are using, only to check how they are doing.
Continue until the elephant is ready.
Take the marker again and draw the eye, a small black circle. This way the creation will be easier perceived as an elephant.
Put up your elephant for the kids to see. Ask them to show you theirs.
The drawing. In one piece and in the puzzle version
The After
Introduce your elephant and describe it: ‘This is my elephant. He is green, blue, yellow and black’.
Ask the kids to do the same.
Watch Elmer, the video again, and, as before, pause and re-enact it with your elephants.
We finished with singing ‘Walking in the jungle’, with our elephants, too.
Comments
I am really happy with how the activity went. Initially, I was worried that preparing the elephant will be too difficult for my kids (but they all could follow me in drawing the elephant, step-by-step, with pauses and modelling) and that preparing the patchwork will be very time-consuming but the magic happened here, too as the kids quickly realised that they were in charge of managing how big the pieces of our ‘patches’ were. The older ones were more dilligent and more accurate with the smaller pieces whereas the younger ones opted for bigger pieces and we all finished at the same time. The patchwork part took about 5 minutes. Only one of my students needed more time (as she does every time) and for that reason we started to watch the story without her elephant to give her a little bit more time. She was watching while finishing and she introduced her elephant and it worked very well.
Overall, the amount of language produced was not quite on the amazing side but this was only our third lesson of the course and I am happy. Last but definitely not least, my kids were happy and very proud of themselves and their patchwork, Miró elephants. There is definitely more to come.
This is a lesson I taught with the older YL which started in unit 1 of the National Geographic coursebook, Life that we are using with the summer courses for teens. If you are interested in the original lesson, you can find it in the coursebook, in the second edition.
My brain tends to walk its own ways so pretty quickly it became aparent that much as it is inspiring, we have our own plans (btw, I am really looking forward to teaching the rest of the unit). Since I have already put together bits and pieces that were inspired and dedicated to Andy, this lesson was a step further, to take Andy into the classroom with the older students, too.
So, Andy.
Two pretty girls in puffs posing for the camera in the studio. Blonde and brunette in stockings look confident in front of the camera, hugging each other
Colour. Two pictures aka introduction
Two illustrations (see below). Students work in pairs or small teams and discuss the questions below. Afterwards, they compare the ideas as a class.
Talk about these pictures.
Are they similar or different? What is similar? What is different?
Do you like them? Why?
How do they make you feel? Would you hang them in your bedroom or in your house?
How do the artists use the colours in both pictures? Which one do you prefer?
Would these pictures still be interesting in black and white? Why?
Colours. New idioms aka new language
Students work in small teams. They match the the idiom in the sentence with the meaning.
Check the answers as a class, additional clarification.
Students go back to work in pairs. They come up with the examples to illustrate each idiom and tell mini-stories.
A mini-lecture on Andy Warhol and the way he used to work (Marylin Monroe and the Cambpell Soup)
The whole class works on eliciting the associations with one of the colours, in our case it was grey. The teacher shows some of her associations with the colour. The students try to guess the rationale behind each of the ideas.
The students prepare for the main speaking task: they write the numbers 1 – 10 and they notes about at least three associations for each of the colours
The students work in pairs or small groups. Each of the students presents their associations for the partner to guess the colours and afterwards they explain their choices.
During the feedback session, the students share the most interesting or the most unexpected associations.
Any photograph can be used to accompany Andy’s Marylin. I have used the one that we had in the coursebook, one of a scene from a traditional Indian wedding. Today, if I taught this lesson again (or when I teach this lesson again), I would like to use even a wider range of colour such as a painting by Kandinsky, a a painting by Rothko, a storybook illustration, a child’s drawing etc.
The lesson was taught online so the craft / creation component had to be limited to a speaking task. I was tempted to use a variation of the craft activity we used with my younger students but it was simply impossible.
The aim of this post is the following: by the end of the post, the readers will be more familiar with the concept of connecting the EFL with the elements of Art Exploration and the appropriate craft activities.
As a source of potential inspiration for anyone who might want to try it.
The group
The kids for whom this course has been designed were a group of preschoolers, aged 4 – 6, who are and were part of a greater project at MAMM with Fun Art Kids and I was responsible for the English language slot. I taught them from October 2021 until February 2022 and we had lots of creative fun in English. I used to joke that these classes were the reason for me to wake up on Tuesdays.
My students were beginners and for many of them, if not for all, those sixty minutes of English were the only real exposure and the only real lesson and, despite the fact that it is not a lot of time (at all) we made progress that I was really happy with.
The format
The whole idea behind the Kids in the Avangard programme was that children should be given an opportunity to experience art and all the many ways of creative communication, through music, through dance and movement, through theatre, through visual arts and through English. The programme was run in module, each with their own theme (colour, shape, line etc) and within those modules the kids would participate in lessons that were separate entities devoted to an artist, an artistic movement etc. At the same time, kids work on a performance which takes place at the end of the ‘term’.
It was not easy to nest the English classes in that format but it was not possible. The main idea is that the English classes in which we deal with the beginner students (or a mixed ability group), it was impossible to aim for a very content-rich input and some adaptations had to be made for that. What I decided to do is to focus on giving the kids a good basis of English, including the vocabulary and structure from the pre-A level (although not necessarily not synonymous with and not in the order of the ‘typical pre-school curriculum’) and to combine it with the introduction to the world of the world Art and related craft activities. Just like in the case of all the other classes of the programme, our lessons were connected but each of them was a separate module, too.
The format of the lessons followed a typical EFL pre-school lesson with the hello circle, revision, new material introduction, movement and table time and it was supplemented with and built on songs and stories, too.
The palette of ideas
In the chart below you can see the content and the ideas for some of the lessons I ran as part of the course. In many ways it was an experiment, this whole course and, overall, it was a very successful experiment, the kind that makes you shout out ‘I want more of that!”. However, it was an experiement and, naturally, some lessons were more effective than others, and some ideas better than others.
In the chart below, I have decided to include those that I have tried and tested and loved, as those that I can strongly recommend, ready to use almost. All the misshaped ones will be worked on and developed and presented at a later date, when I have improved them a tiny little bit at least. But, in order to be honest and to share the experience as it was, I have also decided to include some of the things I have learnt by making the mistakes I did make. All of those you will find in the final section of this post aka What not to do.
Thegallery
KleeGoncharovaKandinsky, Malevich, El Lissitzkyvan GoghWarhol De CosterMashkovMonet
Thenot-so-successful sideof theexperiment
The time allowances: either because it is a brand new thing for the kids (aka the entire course) or because it is a new element to the everyday class routine, the students need time to figure things out, to learn how to navigate around it and to make it familiar. Once they do, the whole programme will be a lot more effective and enjoyable. Don’t be upset if it is not an instant success.
The high expectations regarding the content and the input: the main aim of this programme is not to provide the kids with any substantial input on the artist’s life and career. Instead, they are supposed to be given an opportunity to be exposed to the world art and to interact with it.
Kids will produce the language, however, it is most likely to happen during the English language part of the lesson (introduction of the new vocabulary, practice, language games)
Each lesson has three separate objectives (language, Art and craft) and it is perfectly natural that only one of them will be given priority in a lesson and that English and the language production will not always be the main focus. If these classes are taught as a part of the general English course, then it is assumed that they will be balanced with the regular, more productive English lessons. In case of a separate course, this aspect (and potential parents’ expectations) are even easier to manage by outlining the course objectives beforehand.
Many craft activities look good on paper but they might not be easy to implement and to manage in a group of pre-schoolers. Trying, trialling and testing (aka making it first at home, before the lesson) is the best way to avoid and to get ready for at least some of the potential problems.
Time is on your side. Fnding a strong link between the three elements and preparing a coherent lesson gets easier with time. And more and more enjoyable.
There are plenty of things that can be done just with the simple resources such as markers, crayons or watercolours and paper but don’t forget that there is a lot more that can be done! Experimenting is fun!
Why?
If you are still wondering whether to start including art in your EFL lessons, please have a look at this earlier post and here you can find a great website with lots and lots ideas for art activities.
Dear reader! I hope you are here because you have been in search of ideas for a lesson on Art and English for primary school children. If so, you are in the right place! I would like to share with you a lesson that I taught a few months ago as a part of my Art Explorers programme. I would like to start with some blowing my own trumpet in an attempt to inspire you and to think ‘I want one ofthose!‘
our group of Art Explorers was a mixed-age, a mixed-level and a mixed-ability group, with some pre-A, some A1 and some A2 children and we were all united in art. Everyone was involved, everyone was producing as much as they could and everyone had fun.
the kids who took part were the members of five different groups at the school and it was the first time they had a chance to interact with each other, in English.
the children had a chance to revise and practise English, to find out about Andy Warhol, to talk about feelings, emotions and associations and to exercise their creativity in the craft task.
it worked very well as an introduction to our Art Explorers programme
it was relatively low-key as regards the preparation and craft materials as we used the simplest things available: a powerpoint, a handout, a few sets of vocabulary flashcards, a few sets of watercolours, paintbrushes and cups.
it lasted 60 minutes but it could easily be adapted to 45 or 90 minutes, depending on the needs of the group and the age of the students.
We said hello, introduced ourselves and we had a small ‘get to know each other’. Each pair of students got a pile of flashcards (food, toys, sports, colours, animals etc). The students were supposed to pick out one card and to ask each: Do you like…. There was a model question and answers on the board, together with ‘because’ which the older students were already familiar with in order to encourage more developed answers.
Stage 2: Colours and emotions
We revised the emotions and a set of the basic adjectives was displayed on the board as a point of reference. Afterwards, we revised the colours and I introduced the idea of associations. The key word here (‘associations’) is actually quite similar to its counterpart in the kids’ L1 but I decided to use even a simpler structure ‘Green is a happy colour because…’
The kids were put into pairs, for another speaking activity and they were comparing their own associations related to each of the colours. At this point we did not use the flashcards. Instead, eaach pair got a set of markers and they were asked to discuss all the colours in the set. Afterwards we compared our ideas.
Stage 3: The artist of the day
We moved to the TV room to meet the artist of the day. At this point I was using the powerpoint which you can find in the attachments.
First of all we looked at the photo of Andy and the kids said as much as they could, about his appearance and character. Only later did I introduce him properly, albeit briefly – as artist, from the US, a very creative person.
I showed the kids a few paintings and asked what they thought of them. They were using the simplest structures of ‘I like’ and ‘I don’t like’ and, in the case of the older and more advanced students, to provide a rationale for their views.
The Campbell soup was especially interesting. First of all, because we compared it to the local brand of ready made food that the kids could relate to and it was a huge surprise that such a usual item can become an artifact. Second of all, this particular painting was how we transitioned into the theme of the day: how the same item, represented in different colours can create different associations.
Stage: The colours and the emotions
We looked at the photograph of Marilyn Monroe and one of the most famous paintings by Andy Warhol and at the similar painting of Mickey Mouse. We worked as a group and we talked about the different emotions related to different versions of Marilyn and Mickey Mouse and how they made us feel. I wanted to keep it open class in order to give the students a chance to hear as many different versions and ideas as possible to show them that the same painting can generate a great variety of emotions.
Stage: Let’s create
I told the kids that we are going to try to express our emotions and that we are going to be like Andy Warhol. I added that to Andy, Marilyn and Mickey were important symbols because he was American and that we would use some other symbols. At this point, the kids were already shouting out the name ‘Chebourashka’:-)
We went back to the other classroom. Everyone got a handout (see below) and a pencil or a marker. First, we all decided what feelings and emotions we wanted to represent and we labelled all the sections of the handout.
Afterwards, I gave out the painting materials and we sat down to work. The kids were given time to paint and I was painting my own and monitoring and chatting to the kids and asking the follow-up questions.
Stage: Tell me about your Chebourashka
The kids worked in pairs and told their partner about their pictures and the emotions they represented and, whenver possible, provided rationale for that. In that particular lesson, we only had enough time to talk to one partner but, in theory, there is a lot more potential and it is more than recommended for the kids to swap pairs and to talk to as many peers as possible.
Stage: Goodbye
We finished the lesson with cleaning up, with a round of stickers and with a song.
Teaching English through has been something that I have been playing with for quite some time now and it started in the most selfish of ways, namely, I simply wanted to bring my favourite things to class. You know, have these beautiful Georgia O’Keeffee’s skyscrapers hanging by the whiteboard or practising prepositions of place not with the description of the classroom but of everyone and everything in one of the Chagall’s villages. My favourite things, nothing else.
I wanted and I did. Only once I started (and once I started to read about it, to research it, to experiment with the younger and the older, and to read even more and to reflect), I realised that there is a lot more to it, for me and for my students.
Somehow, once you start, it is difficult to stop because new ideas and new projects emerge and there is a lot to write about. This is not my first blog post about combining Art and EFL so if you interested, please have a look here (How to see a city through Art), here (How to hear Stravinsky, although the format can be adapted to any piece of music) and here (How to read storybook illustrations, a lesson not for kids) or here (if you are interested in using realistic and not realistic visuals with children).
With this post, I have decided to take a more organised approach to teaching English through Art, going a little back to the basics, to tell you why you might even want to think about it.
A bit about me and my background
My name is Anka, I am a teacher of English as a foreign language but I am also interested in Art. My first degree is in History and as a part of that adventure many years ago I did have a privilege in taking two terms of History of Art with one of the most amazing teachers ever but I still consider myself only ‘a human interested in the visual arts’, not a professional.
First and foremost I am a teacher of a foreign language and the main aim is always teaching them vocabulary and grammar, the four language skills development and, sometimes, exam preparation. However, I do believe, that there is always room for a bit of Art, here and there, smuggled, hidden and used to develop the language skills.
At the moment, I am taking part in three different projects which, to some extent, involve Art Etc.
my regular classes at BKC IH Moscow, classes which have a clear focus, a curriculum, a coursebook in which I use Art Etc to supplement what we do, for variation
my Art Explorers lessons, a bonus, free-of-charge once a month class for the students of our branch, a project that we are launching only this month
Kids in the Avant-Garde, a cooperation between BKC IH Moscow, Fun Art Kids and the Multimedia Art Museum in Moscow, which gives the kids a chance to express themselves creatively in a variety of ways.
In the long-run, I would like to share here some ideas and activities which we used in all of these projects, but before we get there, here are some of the reasons why including Art in the EFL lessons is a good idea. Let’s go.
The alphabet book based on the animals from the paintings at the Tretyakov Gallery
Teaching English Through Art: all the reasons why you should at least consider it (in a rather random order)
Paintings used in regular EFL lessons as flashcards to introduce or to practise the language are a wonderful tool and a source of variety, to compliment the drawings, cartoons, illustrations and photographs. They will be especially appropriate while teaching animals, clothes, transport, activities, food, the city or the natural world.
Using painting also means exposing children to different styles in Art will help develop their visual literacy skills, even without any special lessons on the theory or the artists’ biographies.
Teaching English through Art with younger children, preschoolers or primary, usually involves some creative activity. This gives the children an opportunity to interact and to experiment with a variety of artistic materials such as paints, watercolours, crayons, fingerpaints and techqniues, for example collage, prints, scratch art and so on.
Kids, of the age, are learning to make decisions, choosing their own composition, lines and colours, not only attempting to become a five or a fourteen-year-old Walhor, Mashkov, Goncharova or Rousseau but personalising it and owning it every step of the way.
Since this creative activity is only an add-on in the regular English classes, it might help children discover a talent and interest in the artistic world, something that might not become obvious otherwise.
Just like any content-and-language-integrated lessons (CLIL), also the Art lessons give the students an opportunity to use the language to access other subjects and areas of knowledge and, especially in the case of the older learners, to see the real purpose of learning a foreign language
Interacting with the world art can be a springboard to discussions which generally generate a lot of language for the students, in relation with their level of English. Since ‘all ideas are good ideas’ (one of the mottos of our classes) and since all interpretations are welcome, students feel free to express themselves and to share what they think.
Art lessons especially lend themselves to learning and practising the language of expressing and asking for opinion, agreeing and disagreeing, talking about associations, possibilities and hypothesis.
Somehow (and this bit is really beyond me) during the Art lessons students, juniors and teens alike, are more likely to use the beautiful English. All of a sudden they realise that there are other adjectives than ‘beautiful’, ‘nice’ or ‘interesting’ and so the language they produce is of a much higher quality than what they normally during the conversations about the everyday topics.
Art can supplement lessons on practically any topic and they will help to ensure that the curriculum and the programme is diverse and engaging.
All of these are simply my reflections based on what I have observed in class. The real research will follow.
If you are interested you can continue reading here:
7 Amazing Benefits of Art for Kids That You Might Not Know Of from the artfulparent.com
Bonus titles: lots and lots of resource books – in the photos accompanying this post.
There is more to come!
Happy Teaching!
P.S. A request!
It is very simple.
I would like to know a tiny little bit more about my readers. There are so many of you, popping in here, again and again, and the numbers of visitors and visits are going up and make my heart sweel with joy. But I realised I don’t know anything about my readers and I would love to know, a tiny little bit more.
There are many roads that lead to Rome which here will be a synonym of a good lesson. Sometimes it is boredom, when the teacher cannot even bear to look at the coursebook and the official educational materials. Sometimes it is the students, when they bring their world with them, when they learn quickly or, why not, when they don’t behave in the way that we would dream of. Sometimes, it is a random resource, a storybook or craft materials, that you really (really!) want to use.
Sometimes, however, you also find yourself in the middle of a film, Off the Record, a documentary on Laurent Garnier, the DJ, and you gasp because you find out how among all the other things cool that he has done and does, he also takes part in music lessons in a small school, somewhere in a French village, and there, with teens, he explores the meaning of different music styles, he gives them a chance to experience different kinds of music and he guides them into translating these impressions into visual art…
I gasped because I could not decide which reaction I should go for first. Shout out loud ‘Laurent, I love you!’ (just because he finds time to do something for his community and because of all things, he chooses to teach)? Shout out ‘Laurent, me, too! We do it, too!’ (because we entertain ourselves with my students with a similar exercise, albeit on a much smaller scale, when we play the Musical Challenge)? Or shout out ‘Pause the movie, for a moment, for heavens’ sake! I am being flooded with ideas and I need time to take notes!’ Because the Musical Challenge I have put together, good as it was as a warmer or a speaking activity, turned out to have a lot more potential and it be a brand new direction and at the same time an opportunity to combine teaching English through Art that I have been toying with for years now, craft and project work that, I was sure, could help me generate lots and lots of English. What’s not to like?
Crumbs # 19: Teaching English Through Music: Igor Stravinsky
The notes below constitute the outline of a 45-minute lesson I taught during the summer to my primary students aged 8 – 9, of a strong A1 / YLE Movers level whose speaking and listening skills are closer to A2 / YLE Flyers. I had only two students on the day so we did all of the activities whole class.
Revision
A revision game: adjectives – opposites, with the wordwall cards and then a miming game (one of the students choosing the word to mime for the other kids to guess). Another option are the present tenses or the verbs that the kids might need for storytelling.
Russian fairytales
Illustrations of the four traditional stories : About the Fisherman and the Goldfish, the Three Pigs, The Hen Ryaba and The Firebird
Kids turn turns to retell the stories. There is no pre-teaching of any vocabulary, the teacher feeds in the words on the go.
Kids choose their favourite story and talk about their favourite Russian story
Listening number 1
Teacher shows the photograph of Igor Stravinsky, introduces him briefly
Teacher tells the students that he wrote music for one of the four stories
Teacher plays a short piece of the Firebird (for example 38’40 – 40′) and asks the students to guess which of the stories the music could illustrate
Feedback, teacher tells them that the music they heard is called ‘Firebird’ and that it is one of the most popular pieces of modern music.
Listening number 2 / Art
Teacher gives out the template and tells the students that it is a cover of a record / CD with Firebird and that they they are going to design the cover and the illustration.
Teacher says that they are going to listen to another piece of music and draw what they hear. Teacher tells them that perhaps it will be for people who don’t know the story of the firebird, who don’t know Russian fairytales at all and that we need to help them understand what kind of music they might hear.
‘All ideas are good ideas’ is the motto of all of our creative projects, it is good to bring that up again.
Teacher puts the drawing materials and ideally there would be a choice of pencils, markers, crayons, finger paints, watercolours etc. Each student can choose their own.
Teacher plays the final piece of the Firebird (40′ – 46′) and the students are creating their piece. The length of the listening can be extended, either a longer piece can be chosen or the another excerpt can be added, depending on the group and their involvement.
If possible, the kids can be involved in discussing what the music might be illustrating. The Firebird is very energetic and varied, there is a lot of potential for that.
If there is time, kids can prepare two covers, based on two different excerpts from the suite.
Presentation
Kids take turn to present their album covers. They can use the following questions as framework: What is there in your picture? Why? Do you like the music? Why? What are you thinking about when you are listening to it? Kids can either ask each other these questions or use them to prepare a discourse.
All the album covers are displayed on the walls. If there is time, the group can listen to the chosen excerpt again.
Feedback and error correction.
How it went and what I learnt
In short: we loved it.
The kids produced a lot of language throughout the lesson (the teacher is happy).
The kids loved the fact that they could talk about the stories they knew and that they could paint (something that we rarely do). They seemed to enjoy listening to the music, too.
Observing how their ideas are born and shaped was a fascinating experience for the teacher, too. The first impulse was to draw a bird made of fire but, as they listened on, the other, better, more individual and special things began to appear. And they kept working on them, as the music led them.
Afterwards, they talked a lot about their pictures and the creative process. Normally, I ask if I can take the final product, if it is ok to photograph it or to put it on display. This time they were the ones to ask whether I was going to put them up on the noticeboard. It was a lovely moment.
The thing that surprised me most and that was the biggest challenge (or ‘challenge’) was the same thing that made the activity meaningful, motivating and generative, namely the fact that we used the Russian traditional stories as the basis. First of all, they had a lot to say about them and cutting corners (aka a short summary of the story) was out of the question. They wanted to tell me everything (as in: every little detail, significant or not). Second of all, because they were retelling the stories as they knew them, in Russian, they were very reluctant to give up on the beautiful, literary language for which they are not ready yet, in English and looking for those higher-shelf equivalents did get in the way and it did slow them down. Sometimes they were so unwilling to abandon the beauty that they used Russian. It was touching and it was beautiful and I still have not decided what I can do about it and how I can overcome this ‘problem‘ in the future. Because, of course, I want more!
What you can see in the pictures is a beautiful birch tree Daria and a tsunami, to which a sunrise was added, as an afterthought, a few notes later belongs to Antonina. Mine is the sunset which, lame as it is, I am quite happy with because only now did I make a connection between the firebird and the sun. Let it be.
Happy teaching!
P.S. Why Stravinsky? Apart from the fact that “Firebird’ is one of my favourite music pieces ever, it happened so that a few months ago, I used him as a reference with my young teens and their brains just went blank. They had never heard of him. Naturally, I decided to fix that. I rather like the idea that in about twenty years from now, my kids will hear the name Stravinsky in the conversation and their first association will be ‘Yes, we had this lesson once with our English teacher, Anka…’
Malevich and his Black Square are next in line, for the same reason.
There are eight students in the group with whom I trialled this lesson. They are about 12 – 14 years old and we are now finishing the A2 level. The inspiration for this very lesson (apart from my own personal obsession with storybooks and storybook illustrations) was one of the reading tasks that we did cover, taken from Prepare 3 2nd edition by Cambridge University Press in which we discussed books and everything we read in general. The thing that really inspired me to put together this lesson was one of the follow-up questions asked on page 104 and it went: Do you think that books with illustrations in them are just for the little kids? and, which came as a surprise, this was the question that generated a real discussion.
Almost at the same time, I received a delivery from a bookshop with as many as eight new storybooks and that basically was it. I wanted a new lesson, a different lesson.
The teacher brings up (or brings up again, as in our case) the topic of illustrations and drawings in books in general. Students discuss in pairs or teams.
Are the illustrations and drawings only for the little kids?
Are the photographs only for adults?
What do the teenagers like then?
The teacher regroups the students, to make sure that each student has a new partner. The students, now in new pairs, report what they have discussed. Afterwards, the teacher asks each pair ‘Do you have the same opinion as your partner?’, this way summarising the entire discussion so far.
Where’s my baby? by Julie Ashworth and John Clarke
Setting the context
The teacher shows selected illustrations and the titles of the storybooks to be used in class. I have used the covers but these might not always be appropriate. It might be a better idea to choose one of the illustrations from the story. The students discuss the following questions:
What can you see in the picture (on the cover page)?
What can the story be about?
An open class discussion follows. At this point the teacher does not reveal anything about the plot of any of the stories. The students will be able to figure it out for themselves in one of the later stages of the lesson.
I’ve seen Santa! by David Bedford and Tim Warnes
The storybooks selection
When I taught this lesson for the first time I used the following coursebooks
I’ve seen Santa! by David Bedford and Tim Warners from Little Tiger: I have chosen this because they are cosy and warm, something that might be an example of typical, obviously beautiful storybook illustrations which are there only to accompany the text.
Where’s my baby? by Julie Ashworth and John Clark from Longman. This book is a good example of a basic framework chosen to tell the story. All the pages are basically the same scene: Mr Monster Officer and Mrs Monster looking at yet another monster baby. The baby is the only element that is changing from page to page, as the officer’s confusion and Mrs Monster’s desperation grow.
Mr Noisy and the Giant by Roger Hargreaves from Mr Men and Little Miss Magic. This might be a good example of simple and uncomplicated, illustrations that might have been drawn by little children.
Perfectly Norman by Tom Percival from Bloomsbury. This is a gem of a book where the story is told through the words and by the visuals, both of these being separate entities in their own rights, complementing each other.
A Child of Books by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston from Walker Books Ltd. This title is unique, like all the books by Oliver Jeffers and here a story of the importance of books is told and illustrated by pictures made of words (which are also the quotes from the classic child literature, all titles acknowledged in the inside covers).
Perfectly Norman by Tom Percival
Vocabulary
We have looked at some of the vocabulary related to storybooks that the students might need in the following stage. In a way, for my students, it was the follow-up on the vocabulary presented in the coursebook, and for that reason I decided to include the following: cover, text, illustrations, writer, illustrator, reader, character, background, details, plot, dark, bright, easy, complex, drawn, printed, painted.
The students were working in pairs, matching the definitions with the terms, follwed by a whole class feedback and an exercise in which we talked together about one of the books, using these words. For this exercise it is best to choose the title that is the biggest in size so that it could be comfortably demonstrated by the teacher and seen by the students. By discussing the storybook together, the teacher can also guide the students and ask some follow-up questions, to model what the students will be requested to do in the following stage. One or two questions from the set below can also be used.
A Child of Books by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston
Discussion
The students work in pairs or groups of three. Each team gets one of the storybooks and a set of questions to discuss, based on what they see in the storybook. The teacher sets the time limit and when the time is up, the students exchange the storybooks and the procedure is repeated until all the teams have had a chance to look at all the books.
We worked in four teams and we used about 5 minutes per book.
The questions the students were asked to answer were as follows:
Please describe the book using the key words.
Look at the illustrations only. What is the story about? Can you ‘read’ the story only by looking at the illustrations? Why? Why not?
Look at the text (some or parts). What is the story about? Do you like it?
Do you like the illustrations? Are they simple or complex? Beautiful or ugly? Dark or bright?
Do the illustrations make you feel happy / sad / angry / bored / ? Why?
After all the students have looked at and discussed all the storybooks, the teacher asks them to answer the following questions
Which book has got the best illustrations? Why do you like them?
Which book has got the worst illustrations? Why don’t you like them?
The teacher monitors and helps to keep the discussion going. A whole class discussion follows. The teacher may highlight the main points, as outlined above (the storybook selection) but, really, the main aim of this kind of a lesson and this kind of a discussion is the opportunity for the students to look and to draw their own conclusions and formulate their own opinions. There are no correct or incorrect answers and interpretations.
Mr Noisy and the Giant by Roger Hargreaves
Conclusions
This was the first lesson of this kind with this particular group. It was obvious that, at the very beginning, some of the students did not feel very comfortable with expressing their views and even with formulating them. However, even as we went through the task, it all got easier, with the second or third book and they were all involved in the discussion. It was great to see how they ventured out into evaluating the illustrations and uncovering their meaning for themselves.
Their answers in the final survey on the favourite set of illustrations were also unexpected because of them could not really make up their mind and they chose two, very different books: the more conventional ‘I’ve seen Santa!’ and the more unusual ‘Perfectly Norman‘.
All in all, I did decide to give myself a pat of on the shoulder for that lesson and I am already planning the next one. Maybe it will be devoted to storybooks, maybe not.
If you, dear reader, have any storybooks lying around and no idea for a lesson, here is your lesson plan!
Bonus: an easier start
I have written the post and only then did I realise that, perhaps, not all the teachers will feel perfectly comfortable and ready to enter the world of the storybook illustrations at a full throttle, especially if they have not dealt with this approach to language teaching.
Storybook illustrations can be used on their own, as visuals, only slightly different visuals, as an alternative to photographs or YL scene illustrations. In this case, the teacher can choose any storybook illustrations, in no connection to the story itself or the entire book.
The teacher gives them out and uses them as the basis for one of the following exercises
YLE Starters, Movers, Flyers speaking such as answering questions about pictures, talking about differences
PET speaking picture description
FCE or CAE speaking (compare the pictures and answer the questions)
some of the ideas I shared in my post on using illustrations to develop speaking skills ‘All you need is…a picture’
This way the students (and the teacher) will get introduced to the storybooks illustrations and using drawings will be a lovely and an interesting alternative to the visuals that we usually encounter in our lessons or coursebooks. I promise that it will make a difference! And, on top of everything else, you will be developing your students’ visual literacy!
