Shared by Sara Entisne:
My activity was inspired by Catherine's first session, when we discussed the picture by Jan Van Eyck: The Arnolfini Marriage.
I was teaching animals and comparatives to my 1º ESO students by that time, so I thought the painting would be suitable for teaching similes in English. We all use similes with animals in our speech, as for instance, "as wise as an owl", "as sly as a fox" or "as free as a bird".
Then, I showed the picture to the class and started describing what they saw. Then, we moved on to symbolism like the oranges or the dog. I must say that I was surprised when I realised how mature and knowledgeable they seemed to be about medieval art and symbols.
That speaking activity led to the introduction of comparatives of equality and associations we make with animals, like the ones I mentioned before. I taught the structure (as...as) and they came up with many others that are used in Spanish.
Finally, we listened to the song "Everything at once", by Lenka. This song helps a lot when it comes to teaching similes, as the singer expresses her wish to achieve many qualities in life (strength, freedom, bravery, etc.) by means of this kind of comparative structures. They enjoyed it a lot!
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