A Street Scene

Date:

Form:

The theme of the lesson: A Street Scene

The form of the lesson:

The type of the lesson:

Equipment: White board, cassette/CD, flash cards, individual cards.

The aims of the lesson:

Educational: To read an extract from a museum brochure to identify relative pronouns, relative clauses and to check guesses, to practise using relative pronouns and relative clauses, to write definitions using relative clauses, to ask and answer questions about interest in art.

Developing: To develop skills of students, logical imagination and attention at the lesson.

Up Bringing: Bring up the culture of speaking, communication of working in groups.

Procedure:

I Organization moment

Warming-up      - Good afternoon boys and girls.

                            - How are you?

                            - I’m glad to see you!

                            - Who is on duty today?

                            - Who is absent!

                            - What date is it today?

                            - What day is it today?

II Presentation

Grammar

Defining relative clauses, with relative pronouns who, which, that, whose and where, do not usually create problems for students. The only difficult issue is omitting the relative pronouns who, which and that in some clauses. The pronouns can be dropped if the relative clause has its own subject, different from the word it describes, e.g. / loved the dress (that) she was wearing - she is the subject of the relative clause, which describes the dress. The other way of looking at omission of the relative pronoun is that it is omitted when it is the object of the relative clause; in the example above, she is the subject of the clause and the dress is the object.

Background

Camille Pissarro /'pi:saereu/ (1830-1903) was born in the West Indies and ran away from home to Venezuela to become an artist. Eventually, he was sent by his parents to Paris in 1855. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Academie Suisse. There he met other painters like Monet and Corot. Pissarro participated in all of the eight impressionist exhibitions in Pairs (1874-86). His son Lucien Pissarro (1863-1944) was also a painter.

The picture is in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, though it has been claimed by US citizen, Claude Cassirer. Cassirer claims the painting was looted by the Nazis in 1939. However, the museum claims that the painting was bought legitimately in 1975.

The Thyssen has an excellent website: www.museothyssen.org (in English and Spanish) and you can make a virtual visit. Rue Saint Honori. Effect of Rain is on the first floor of the museum in Room 32. There is an audio description and commentary of the painting.

Exercise 1

■ If you have brought some magazine pictures or postcards of paintings, give each group of students one of these to look at and describe, revising the language they used in the Warm-up.

■ In their groups, students look at the painting on page 122 and read through the questions. Tell them not to look at the text yet but just to talk about the painting itself and try to answer the questions.

■ Students work in groups or as a class and say if they like the painting or not, giving their reasons.

Exercise 2

■ Students read the extract from the museum brochure and check their guesses from Exercise 1.

Answers 1 Impressionist style; Camille Pissarro 2 in Paris; after 1893 3 People and carriages are busy in the street just after it has been raining.   4 not bright

Presentation

Exercise 3

■    Look at the list of relative pronouns with the class. Individually or in pairs, students read the text and underline the relative pronouns. Go round and monitor the activity, checking that students are identifying the relative pronouns correctly.

■    Check answers by asking students to read out the words immediately before and after each relative pronoun.

■    Students complete the rules with the relative pronouns. Students can compare answers in pairs before checking answers as a class.

Answers a who, that  b that, which   с whose  d where

Exercise 4

■Read through the example descriptions with the students. Point out that the relative pronouns in brackets are omitted in the sentences in the text.

■Students look at the text again and find and read out more relative clauses.

Answers exhibitions which were held, the place where he started. Monet, whose work, painters that were younger, urban views of Paris which were painted, Paris streets that people find uj| but which are so silvery, activity that is going on, visual effect that comes from

Exercise 5

■ Students look at the examples in Exercise 4 again and say al we can leave out the relative pronouns who, that and which.

Answer b when it comes before a noun or a pronoun

■ Refer students to Grammar Summary 15, page 144 to study at home and bring any queries to the next lesson.

Practice

Exercise 6

■    Read aloud the instructions. Point out the three steps in this exercise: first to circle the relative pronouns, then to underline the relative clauses and finally to put brackets around the pronouns which are not necessary. Look at the example and do the second item on the board with the class.

■If you feel that your students may have difficulty with exercise, check their answers after each step.

Answers

2(whose)works were sold for over $10,000 each   3(who)you were talking to  4(that)we saw   5(who)design new buildings in Warsaw   6 (which) was telling you about 7(where)we met

Exercise 7

■    Read the instructions with the class. Point out that the relative pronoun that is not a choice in this exercise.

■  Check answers by asking individuals to read out the sentences.Option

■    Students look again at the text in Exercise 7. Working individually, students write a similar text (about six to eight sentences) about their own preferences regarding pictures (paintings, drawings, photographs, posters, etc.). Tell them they can invent information if they wish. Remind them to use relative clauses where appropriate. Go round and monitor the activity, pointing out any errors to be corrected.

■  In groups, students can then read each other's texts.

Exercise 8

■    Read through the instructions and example sentence with the class.

■     Elicit suggestions for the second sentence, omitting the relative pronoun, e.g. I enjoy watching films I've seen before/animals appear in.

■    Students complete the exercise working individually. Go round and monitor the activity.

■    Students then read their sentences to their partners.

■    Some of the students can read their sentences to the class.

Exercise 9

■    Read aloud the example definition. Elicit a definition for composer from the class, e.g. A composer is a person who writes music.

■    In pairs, students write their definitions of the objects, people and places. Go round and monitor the activity.

■    If there are any problem definitions, ask students to read them to the class and see which definition the class thinks is the best.

■    Students can look up the words in a monolingual dictionary and see how they are defined there.

Exercise 10

■    Students read the example definition. Then, each student thinks of three more jobs, places or objects and writes their definitions. Go round and help students if necessary.

■    In pairs, students read each other's definitions and try to guess the words. If they cannot guess the word after reading the definition, allow them to ask three questions to see if they can guess it. If they still cannot guess the word, the other student gives the answer.

Exercise 11

■    Read through the instruction with the class. Ask two students to read out the example item.

■ Elicit two or three more sentences about famous people from your country. Tell students the people can be alive or dead. Write prompts on the board, if you wish, e.g. Не/She is the man/ woman who wrote/played/built/designed/invented/ discovered/went/sang/was .... Ask students what they can say if they do not know the answer, e.g. В: I don't know. Who was it? (A: It was Fryderyk Chopin.)

■     Students work individually writing five to six sentences. If you wish, set this for  homework so that students can check their facts. Remind them to make a note of the expected answers. Go round and check students' sentences and point out any errors to be corrected.

■In pairs, or students take turns to test their partner's knowledge. Go round and monitor the activity but do not interrupt fluency.

■ In turn, each student chooses one of their sentences to test the class.

Exercise 12

■Read the example question with the class and elicit suggestions for the second question. Point out that in items 2 and 4, the questions may or may not need a relative pronoun. If necessary, students can look back at Exercise 5.

■Students complete the questions. Go round and check that the relative clauses in the questions are correct.

■Students work in pairs, asking and answering their questions. Tell them to remember their partner's answers so they can tell the class afterwards. Go round and monitor the activity, making a note of any general problems to go over with the class later.

■If there is time, extend the activity so that each student interviews three or four other students in the class and notes down their answers in a chart or table.

■In turn, students tell the class about their partner's taste in art and report any interesting or surprising facts about their partner's replies.

III Conclusion

-          Summarizing

-          Marking the students

-          Giving homework