Shared by Mª Pilar Montejo:
After Katherine’s inspiring talk, I have used some of her ideas in some of my lessons. This is one of them:
Having already worked in class the use of modal verbs and the reported speech, I showed my students some portraits, most of them women, as March is said to be “momen’s month”. They were all paintings from different centuries, so that they could choose the one they liked or inspired most. The task was divided into several parts:
1. Look at the portraits very carefully and try to guess as much information as you can: personal evidence, her job and what she had just been doing before the artist painted her.
Beware that you are speculating, so you might use modal verbs such as might, could, can’t, must, may.
Example:
-This woman must be in her thirties
-She can’t be a fishmonger
-She may be rich.
2. Now it’s time for “reality”: Imagine you could interview one of these women. Choose one painting and write down at least five questions which can provide you with the real information for your previous speculations.
Make direct questions as if you were speaking to her. Don’t forget to ask the woman about what she had been doing immediately before she was painted by the master of the work of art.
Example:
-How old are you?
-Do you live alone?
-What were you doing when the painter arrived?
3. Look at the painting you chose very carefully again and ask her your written questions. Try to “listen” to what the woman on the painting is telling you: she should be informing you about who she is, where she is from, which her job is, what she was doing before the painter surprised her… Write down her answers close to your questions before you forget them!
Example:
-“I am a painter myself”
- “I come from the USA”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lisabeth_Vig%C3%A9e_Le_Brun
Marie Louise Élisabeth Vigée Lebrun, Self-portrait, 1782
4. Finally, this is your homework for next class: with the information you have just got from the painting, you are going to write a short article for our school website. Use the reported speech to write about who the woman in the painting was and what she was doing when the artist surprised her and painted her.
Lady Lilith, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1867
5. Extra-work: You can search on the Internet for some information about the artist who painted the portrait of the woman you “interviewed” in class. Write a short biography of the painter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Bia_de%27_Medici#Bia_de'_Medici
