Title: Heritage of antiquity

Lesson plan elaborated by: Katarzyna Maciejak

Topic:

Heritage of antiquity.

Target group:

1st‑grade students of a high school.

Core curriculum

Core curriculum (old)

I. Receipt of statements and use of information contained.

2. Self‑education and access to information. Student:

1. searches for literature useful for the development of various issues; selects it according to the indicated criteria (in library resources it uses both traditional book collection as well as multimedia and electronic records, including the Internet);

2. uses dictionaries and lexicons, including etymological dictionaries and symbols;

II. Analysis and interpretation of cultural texts.

1. Initial recognition. Student:

1. presents his own experiences resulting from contact with a work of art;

4. Values and evaluation. Student:

2. sees national and universal values present in literary works and other cultural texts;

Core curriculum (new)

I. Literary and cultural education.

2. Receipt of cultural texts. Student:

5. recognises and characterizes the main styles in architecture and art; ZR

6. reads non‑literary cultural texts using the code proper in a given field of art;

III. Creating statements.

2. Speaking and writing. Student:

1. agrees with other people's views or polemicizes with them, substantively justifying their own opinion;

2. build a statement in a conscious manner, with the knowledge of its language function, taking into account the purpose and the addressee, keeping the principles of rhetoric;

3. in accordance with standards formulates questions, answers, evaluations, edits information, justifications, comments, a voice in the discussion;

4. in the interpretation presents a proposal to read the text, formulates arguments based on the text and known contexts, including personal experience, and performs a logical argument for the validation of formulated judgments;

IV. Self‑study. Student:

1. develops the ability of independent work, inter alia, by preparing various forms of presenting their own position;

2. uses multimedia sources of information and makes their critical evaluation.

General aim of education

Uczniowie poznają najważniejsze przykłady starożytnej architektury i rzeźby oraz potrafią wskazać cechy sztuki antycznej.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Learning outcomes

Student:

• knows the characteristics of ancient art and understands the concept of classicism;

• recognises the most important works of ancient architecture and sculpture and can point their authors;

• uses vocabulary related to ancient art.

Methods/techniques

• activating

  • discussion.

• expository

  • talk.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. Students, using the resources of the Internet and other source materials, gather information and curiosities about: which museums in Poland and in the world have particularly valuable collections of antique art? Students should prepare notes, for example in the form of a table, in which they take into account: the place and name of a museum or gallery, and examples of works belonging to their collections.

Introduction

1. The teacher states the subject of the lesson, explains the aim of the lesson and together with students determines the success criteria to be achieved.

2. Selected by the teacher or willing students present their homework, presenting world collections of antique works.

Realization

1. Students in pairs, using information prepared before the lesson, invent an event that would help promote on the internet the offer of any museum that has collections of antique art and encourage its visit.

2. Brainstorm. The teacher writes the key word on the board: HARMONY. He/she asks students to give the associations. Then, together, they wonder what is the relationship between the word and the theme of today's lesson. They complete the notes, if necessary.

3. Students discuss in pairs about the ancient architecture in the modern city. Leading questions: Should we renovate antic buildings? Is it possible to integrate antic architecture into modern city?.

4. Students in pairs solve the Exercise 3.

5. The students consolidate the acquired information, discussing it with their nearest neighbors („tell your neighbour” method).

6. Features of antique sculpture. Analysis of interactive illustration and joint discussion of features based on examples from exercise 5.

7. Individual work. Students choose one example of antique sculpture depicted in abstract or derived from materials brought to the lesson. They form a description of the sculpture in which they refer to ancient principles.

Summary

1. The teacher chooses one student by random method and asks him or her to explain in own words the meaning of a given word or concept learned during the lesson.

2. The teacher asks: If there was going to be a test on the material we have covered today, what questions do you think would you have to answer?
   If the students do not manage to name all the most important questions, the teacher may complement their suggestions.

Homework

1. Listen to the abstract recording at home. Pay attention to pronunciation, accent and intonation. Learn to pronounce the words learned during the lesson.

2. Invent and develop - for any gallery with collections of antique art - an event that would help promote this museum and encourage you to visit it.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Heritage of antiquity

Classical Antique works continue to amaze the beholders with their artistic qualities, and for centuries have served as reference points for many of the world’s greatest artists. The humanist values of Antique culture that manifested in disciplines such as philosophy, poetry, and visual arts constitute a durable element of the European civilization. The classical ideal of beauty, rooted in the principles of rhythm, harmony, symmetry, and balanced composition, remains the aesthetical norm for many people when viewing modern works of art.

The temples were the most important form of Ancient Greek architecture. They were – unlike Christian churches, which are merely a place of worship – home to deities. The main room was the rectangular cella, where the statues of worship were situated. It was surrounded either by a single or double columnade supporting the architrave (a horizontal part of the entablature with the frieze and the mantlepiece) and the dual‑pitched roof. The upper part of the front of the temple featured a pediment. The style and the proportions were decided by the architectural order that determined its composition, the type of ornaments, and decoration motifs. The rules and the character of the three classical Greek orders – Doric (the oldest one – raw, monumental, with simple ornaments and heavy proportions), Ionian (lighter in proportion, featuring rich sculpture), and Corinthian (the youngest and slimmest one) – have been described by the first‑century Roman architect and engineer, Vitruvius, in his treaty “De architectura”.

The Greek temples embodied the classical ideal of beauty understood as a mixture of harmony, symmetry, and rhythm. Their perfect proportions were the effect of mathematical calculations and the application of the canon: formulae and rules of construction. The basic measure of the canon was the triglyph – a vertical, rectangural plate appearing on the Dorian friese alternately with sculpture‑adorned metopes. In the words of Kazimierz Michałowski: “All an architect would need was one measure: that of the width of a triglyph, and the type of the temple to be built, i.e. whether it would have 6 (hexastyle) or 8 (octastyle) columns in the elevation of the facade, in order to calculate independently the width and height of the temple, the sizes of the particular metopes, etc.” The peak of Greek architecture (and, at that, one of the most famous and beautiful buildings in the world) is the Parthenon – the Dorian temple of Athena. It was erected in the times of Pericles by the architect Ictinus, the builder Callicrates, and Phidias, who designed and partially sculpted its rich interior decorations. Another pinnacle of Antique architecture is another of Athens’ Acropolis temples – the Ionian Erechtheum. It is famous for its unique Porch of the Caryatids, which features sculpted, woman‑shaped pillars instead of traditional ones.