Materials for the lesson

  A copy of a famous painting that represents people, preferably children, so students find more interesting and attractive to describe them. For example the painting: ‘Madame Charpentier and her children’ of Pierre-Auguste Renoir

http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/438815

Black oil pastels

4 Coins

In the beginning of the school year, the students, guided by the teacher, create a ‘Bank of Words’: small boxes, each one corresponding to a different part of speech.  During the school year, after studying different kind of texts or grammar, the students choose known and  unknown words, copy them on  pieces of papers and depending on which part of speech these words belong to, they put  them in the corresponding box. In that way, the ‘Bank’ is enriched progressively.

For example, after reading a text of literature, full of words that are adjectives, the students add them into the box of ‘Adjectives’. They may also put  them in alphabetical order or classify them according to other particular criteria.

This ‘Bank of Words’ is a useful tool and  may serve different pedagogical objectives. If it does not exist,  then the teacher may create a small one  for the needs of this lesson. After studying the painting, he/she chooses some parts of speech for example: adjectives, adverbs, nouns, prepositions and creates corresponding  boxes. He/she     puts words into these boxes that are largely   related to the painting.

Layout of the classroom

 Desks and chairs are placed in a way, to facilitate the work of students in small groups.

Phase 1

 The teacher  covers the hole painting with black oil pastel color    and hangs it on the wall.

 He/she says that the police found  a stolen painting covered with black color and asks for the help of art-conservators to clean carefully the painting  and reveal what there is behind the black color. The experts should inform the public about the painting. They should  describe  and evaluate  it.

The teacher shows the tools of art-conservators: the coins and the boxes of the ‘Bank of Words’. The coins serve to remove the black oil pastel color while the ‘Bank of Words’ to find words to describe the painting.

The students are divided into small groups of four art- conservators. Each group gets a number.

Phase 2

With teacher’s signal, the group 1 scratches a part of the painting, using the coins and removes the black color. With teacher’s signal, the group stops working.

Suppose that the group reveals Madame Charpentier’s daughter. The teacher asks all groups what they see. Each group should write a simple sentence.

For example: We see a girl.

The group 1 choses randomly   one box  of  the ‘Bank of Words’ and pulls a word out of this box. All groups observe the colorful details of the painting (the daughter for instance) as art-conservators would do and  add it to their sentence making the necessary changes. If a group can not use this word, the group 1  pulls   another word out of this box.

Let’s say that the chosen box is ‘Adjectives’. One group may use the adjective ‘well dressed’, another one ‘blond’ etc..

The group chooses   box totally 4 times. Every time, the groups make  changes to their own sentence in order to incorporate an appropriate new word.

The same procedure is repeated with   all groups. Then the next group, in its turn, uncovers a part of the painting,  all groups start writing a new sentence. Finally, the groups write 4-5 long sentences that describe the painting.

Phase 3

Each group gives a title to the painting.

Phase 4

All art-conservators  present  their work.  The teacher checks if all works respected the rules. The  students make remarks, find differences or similarities, express their feelings, if they liked the painting or not and why and discuss  about the richness of  ways to see and describe an artwork.

Phase 5

The teacher provides more information about the famous artwork, the creator, the art  movement to which the artist belongs. Finally, he/she reveals the original title and a little secret concerning  Madame Charpentier’s  children.