Young woman at a window by Salvador Dalí

 

Shared by Inmaculada Montero:

Young woman at a window by Salvador Dalí

This activity is meant for 3rd ESO as a kind of revision of different tenses or for 4º at the beginning of the academic year.

Half of the class will sit turning their backs to the screen and the other half facing it. These students will try to describe the painting as detailed as possible so their mates can make a clear picture of it. They won´t say the tittle, in case some may know it, to make it more challenging.

Once they have done it, all students will look at the painting and they will tell us if this is what they had imagined. If not, they will explain their own version.

After that, we will start working on it together:

Do they know the tittle?

Who painted it? What do you know about the painter?

What kind of painting is it?

Colours, clothes, what the weather is like, feelings.

Then we will start the GUESSING: Students will be working in 2 or 3s although nowadays it is difficult!

What is happening? 

What can she see? 

What time of the year, day is it? 

How does she feel?

What has previously happened? 

What is she thinking about?

What is going to happen?

After making up their own stories, we will listen to the song "Sitting on the dock of the bay" by Otis Redding. It is a song I frequently use at the beginning of the course as a way to revise all tenses. Students will answer these questions:

Are there any similarities or differences with the painting by Dalí? Which ones?

Can they guess the story behind the song?

What is going to happen next?

As an extra activity I would ask some students to make their own drawing (Young woman at a window) to be displayed in the classroom with the story they have invented. 

I would also ask other students to do the same with the song: reflect on their own painting what they see in the song.