A day at a virtual art gallery
In this 2-hour lesson the students will have to use some already known vocabulary
but in a context that they haven’t used it before, along with some new vocabulary.
They will work together to categorise words based on their function and finally use
the target language to critique their chosen paintings.
Age: Teenagers/Adults
Level: B1+ - C1
Time: 2 hours over two lessons
Outcomes:
• To develop the students’ conversation skills
• To develop the students’ ability to talk about art
• To develop the students’ ability to critique paintings
• To develop the students’ vocabulary
We aim to improve every teacher’s life, by reducing their workload without them
sacrificing their teaching goals
1. Artwork critique Model - Flipped learning option
a. Send your students the following video https://youtu.be/iLjytjy8p94 of a professional
critiquing an artwork. Ask them to identify any:
i. Topic-specific vocabulary used in the video e.g. still life, surrealist process
ii. The topics that the professional covers e.g. The artists’ influences, the
technique used etc.
iii. This will help your students understand of what is expected of them when
critiquing a painting.
2. Gallery walk – Lead-in
a. To get students into a critique mood, print out a few different paintings and stick them
on different places around the classroom. In pairs, give your students a post-it note
for every painting they need to talk about.
b. They have ten minutes to go around the classroom. Write a short description of the
paintings on the note, and then stick it note next to the picture.
c. Online alternative! In the lesson before this, tell your students that they will need to
bring a painting from their wall (hopefully they will have one!) and describe it for
about a minute.
d. This is to activate their schemata. Also, by creating a written record – post-it note- the
students will be able to see their progress at the end of the lesson.
3. Tell your students to create a table with the following 6 categories
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Tone
Texture
Shape
Size
Colour
Atmosphere
4. Dictate the following words to them and instruct them to put under the right category. Do this
activity in pairs to help your weaker students. Dictate the words in random order.
a. Tone
i. Contrasting
ii. Dark
iii. Shadowy
iv. Light
b. Texture
i. Rough
ii. Fine
iii. Smooth
iv. Silky
c. Shape
i. Geometric
ii. Angular
iii. Curvaceous
iv. Irregular
d. Size
i. Life-size
ii. Monumental
iii. Miniature
iv. Grand
e. Colour
i. Bold
ii. Vibrant
iii. Vivid
iv. Pale
f. Atmosphere
i. Tranquil
ii. Joyful
iii. Gloomy
iv. lifeless
We aim to improve every teacher’s life, by reducing their workload without them
sacrificing their teaching goals
5. Dictionary skills and practise with the Target language:
a. Divide your class into groups of three or four depending on your class size. Assign
each group 3 of the previous categories. Each group must find a definition for every
word in their categories.
b. Give your students and A3 size paper. Using the A3 paper, they will create a ‘match
the word to definition activity’ with the words and the definitions they have found.
c. Check and give feedback throughout this stage.
d. When the students have finished ask them to swap papers and complete the
exercises.
6. Critiquing paintings
a. Share with your students the following link of the British National Galley
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/visiting/virtual-tours/google-virtual-tour
b. Your students have 15 minutes to navigate around the National Gallery and critique 3
paintings using the target language. Ask them to take a screenshot of the painting
they chose.
7. Follow-up/homework
a. Your students can create short 3-4-minute presentations in which they describe the
painting they chose from the previous activity.
8. Feedback stage
a. You can give feedback in a few different ways. For this lesson I prefer peer-feedback
because I want to keep my students engaged during the presentations. You can ask
each group to record mistakes by categories (grammar, words and phrases,
pronunciation, appropriacy). You can follow this up with a whole classroom
discussion.
Grammar
Words and phrases
Pronunciation
We aim to improve every teacher’s life, by reducing their workload without them
sacrificing their teaching goals
Appropriacy