Title: In an art gallery

Lesson plan elaborated by: Magdalena Trysińska

Topic:

A visit to a virtual art gallery, or how to talk about art.

Target group

4th‑grade students of an eight‑year elementary school

Core curriculum

I. Literary and cultural education.

2. Reception of cultural texts. Student:

8) understands the specificity of cultural texts being part of: literature, theater, film, music, visual and audiovisual arts).

II. Language education.

2. Diversity of language Student:

7) adjusts the way of expressing himself/herself to the intended purpose of the utterance.

III. Creation of utterances.

1. Elements of the rhetoric. Student:

1) participates in a conversation on a given topic (...);

4) selects the information.

2. Speaking and writing. Student:

1) produces consistent utterances - description.

IV. Self‑study. Student:

3) uses the information contained in various sources, collects information, selects information;

5) uses general dictionaries of Polish language, including special dictionaries, and a glossary of literary terms;

9) develops the skill of effective use of information technology and Internet resources and uses these skills to present his/her own interests.

The general aim of education

Thanks to the visit to the virtual gallery, students will develop the ability to talk about works of art in their native and foreign languages.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• cultural awareness and expression.

Learning outcomes

Student:

• explains the meaning of the words: artist, gallery, landscape, still life, portrait;

• describes what a museum is, what a gallery is and what you can see in it;

• uses vocabulary related to “work of art”;

• notices art specificity of a painting;

• describes a selected painting;

Methods/techniques

• problematic: directed conversation, didactic discussion;

• differentiating: film, picture gallery;

• programmed: using the computer, using an e‑textbook;

• practical: practical classes.

Forms of work

• uniform collective activity;

• individual activity.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Before the lesson

One week before the lesson, the teacher asks all students to look at the pictures hanging on the walls in the house, and write the title, the author. Eager ones can photograph the picture, draw it or find it on the internet. Students should bring their paintings on pendrives or drawings to the lesson.

Introduction

1. The teacher defines the purpose of the classes and explains that during today's classes students will have the opportunity to go to a virtual museum to meet art. It is a great pleasure to admire paintings, photographs and drawings that show us the world in a fascinating way.

2. At the beginning the students wonder who the artist is (tasks 1‑2 in the abstract). They write down their associations with the word “artist”, talk about who the artist is and what he creates; they wonder whether everyone can become an artist. They justify their opinion.

Realization

1. Modern galleries. The teacher displays the photographs (gallery no. 1 in the e‑textbook). Students can see that the last picture also contains a modern shopping mall. The teacher encourages students to present their homework: the author, the title of the work. It may happen that children will prepare information about the author. Then the teacher asks questions:

• Do images only hang in houses?

• Where else?

• What is the name of the museum, where only pictures are presented?

• Have you ever been in the picture gallery?

• How are the paintings in the gallery presented?

• Does the word GALLERY have other meanings?

This is the time for the students to express their opinions.

2. The teacher invites students to visit the virtual gallery. Displays a film which is a record of a virtual tour of the exhibition of the Gallery of 19th Century Polish Art of the National Museum in Krakow – Castle in Niepołomice. After the presentation, the teacher talks to the students about what they have observed. Example questions:

• What artistic techniques have you noticed that were used by the artists?

• What are the themes (what do they present) of the works in each of the galleries?

• What are the common features of the paintings in each room?

• Why do you think the works were arranged in this way?

• Which painting did you like the most? Why?

3. Creating a gallery of students' work. The teacher asks students to present their works – illustrations to a selected poem in the e‑textbook. Students show their pictures to others, while trying to describe them briefly, e.g.

• My picture illustrates the poem ...

• I painted on it ...

• This association is associated with ...

From the works brought, you can make a class gallery. You can also organize a vernissage at the school combining an exhibition of paintings and recitation of poems.

4. An alternative task for talented students. Presentation of the Khan Academy film discussing the Jan Vermeer's painting („Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring”). To facilitate reception, he or she can distribute transcripts to students (attachment to the script). After watching the film, students solve a test checking the degree of understanding of the recording (exercises 7‑11) and perform exercises 12‑13.

Summary

The teacher asks questions inclining students to summarize, e.g.

• What is still life?

• What characterizes the landscape?

• Why do we go to the gallery?

• What different associations of the word „gallery” do you know?

Homework

Find a reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's “Mona Lisa” painting in any source. Prepare a short description of the painting.

Attachment

transcription of the film: Johannes Vermeer, “Girl with a Pearl Earring”

[Voiceover] We're in the Mauritshuis in the Hague, and we're looking at probably their most famous painting. This is Vermeer's „Girl with a Pearl Earring.”

[Voiceover] Well, I would say not just their most well‑known painting, but maybe one of the most well‑known paintings generally. - But only recently.

[Voiceover] True.

[Voiceover] It's a painting that really seems to have ascended in the late 20th century, and it's interesting how our society picks out certain paintings for fame and that people really fall in love with, and perhaps it's because this was the centerpiece of a film, this was the centerpiece of a novel, and perhaps because we know so little about the painting.

[Voiceover] And it's interesting that this is sometimes referred to as the Dutch Mona Lisa. In both cases, we have bust‑length portraits of women in rather indeterminate backgrounds. Now, we should be careful here, because this may look like a portrait to us, but, in fact, it's not a portrait. The Mona Lisa is, though, for a long time her identity wasn't known. Now, we are pretty confident we know who the Mona Lisa was. But, in this case, this is not a portrait.

[Voiceover] This is known as a tronie, that is, a representation of a character, of a particular type of person. The way that we have, for instance, in modern American situation comedies, you have the villain, you have the hero, you have a certain type of person.

[Voiceover] And we think this is a exotic type, because of her turban and her clothing seems foreign, and also that rather over‑sized pearl earring.

[Voiceover] And the way that we see her from the side, but she turns towards us, and so there's something momentary, there's something very alluring, that we're not addressing her directly.

[Voiceover] And it's a lot like the Mona Lisa. In both cases, we have gazes that seem enigmatic. What are they thinking? Who are they? What is our relationship to her? They're both paintings that really open up possibilities for interpretation with no one correct answer.

[Voiceover] So much so that somebody was able to produce an entire novel based on this single painting that we know so little about. What we do know about this painting, though, is that it's technique is really quite extraordinary. The subtlety of light is stunning, in the way in which the reflectivity of the pearl is cast against the darkness of her neck.

[Voiceover] The softness of her features and also the harmonies of those blues and golds.

[Voiceover] Now, we know that Vermeer worked very slowly. Some art historians have suggested that he only produced perhaps two or three paintings a year. And that his technique was really painstaking. And we can see that in the care in which he's creating form out of light.

[Voiceover] But it's so momentary, just like we look at Dutch landscapes and we have a sense of the passage of time as the clouds move across the landscape. Here we have that same sense of a figure who's just turned her head and is about to speak with us or is about to engage us, but we don't know what about.

[Voiceover] And that our eyes are just in the process of focusing on her as she meets our gaze. And so we are complicit in this moment. And I think the subtlety of color and the subtlety of light, the intimacy here, all of that, allows us to register this very personal moment, and perhaps this is why this painting is so beloved.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

In an art gallery

Let's visit a virtual museum to meet with art. It is a great pleasure to admire paintings, photographs and drawings showing the world in a fascinating way!

Check what you remember from the video. Indicate the correct answer.