“Sad but gentle, yet clear and intelligent” is how Vincent Van Gogh referred to his 1890 Portrait of Dr Gachet. This activity exploits the fact that Van Gogh actually painted two easily-distinguishable versions of Dr Gachet. It addresses language that may be used for picture descriptions (present continuous, present simple, there is/are) as well as question forms.
- Language level: Elementary; Pre-intermediate (A2)
- Learner type: Young learners; Teens; Adults; CLIL
- Time: 45 minutes
- Activity: Dictation; Making questions
- Topic: Art
- Language: Present simple; Present continuous; Question forms
- Materials: Images
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Lesson plan outline
- Show your learners the first portrait of Dr Gachet. Ask them if they can identify the artist and find out what they know about him.
- Tell students a bit about the painting.
* Van Gogh painted it in 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise, 17 miles from Paris.
* It is one of the last paintings he did in his life.
* Dr Paul Gachet was a French physician who treated the artist during his last weeks.
* Van Gogh described the portrait as “Sad but gentle, yet clear and intelligent”.
* It is housed in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris - Remove the picture from your students’ view and tell them that you are going to carry out an observation test. Tell them that you are going to dictate a number of statements about the painting. Some of these statements are true and some of them are false. During the dictation, if a student thinks that a statement is true, he or she should write it exactly as you say it. If on the other hand the student thinks that it is false, he or she should amend it accordingly. Demonstrate with the following example:
- Once all statements have been dictated, allow everyone to share and compare their answers. Offer corrections wherever necessary.
- Your students will want to see the painting again in order to find out how well they did. You are now going to play a trick on them: Rather than show them the image that they have already seen, show them the second version.
- If nobody notices the discrepancy, tell your students that they have all failed the true observation test and ask if anyone can tell you why. Once it has been established that you switched pictures, your students will want to see the original version. Tell them that although you are not going to show it to them, you are willing to answer any questions about it. Have your students pre-prepare the questions that they are going to ask about the original version of the painting.
* Is Dr Gachet wearing a green hat?
* Does he have blue eyes and a moustache?
* Is there a flower in his left hand?
* How many buttons can you see on his coat? - Answer your students’ questions but only if they have been constructed correctly.
- Let students see both versions, and decide which one they prefer. This can give rise to discussion while they identify differences in mood, colour, etc between the two versions. Alternatively, the two versions could be used to explore comparative adjectives.
Sentences for dictation:
* Dr Gachet is wearing a green hat.
* He is resting his head on his right hand.
* He is looking directly at us.
* He has blue eyes and a moustache.
* You can see three buttons on his coat.
* The table is bright red.
* There are two yellow books on the table.
* There is a flower in Dr Gachet’s left hand.
* He looks unhappy (subjective of course and open to argument)
Note that for this step, your students will have to convert all of their statements into questions. Elicit or demonstrate how this is done with one or two examples before allowing your students to do the rest on their own or in pairs. Example questions:
Thank you Jamie. Your material is really useful, and clever. I am going to use this lesson in a few hours with a student of mine who loves art. I teach via Skype and your material is really great.
Thanks, really thank you. Nika.
Hello Nika
I’d be really interested to hear how you get on and how you adapt the activity for online teaching. Online teaching is something that I am starting to do myself and one day I may include an “online box” for each lesson plan on this site to give ideas for adapting the activities to that context.
Thanks for the comment
Jamie :-)
Hallo, Jamie.
Sorry for replying so late!
Basically what I did (and I do) is using the opportunities that Skype offers with the “shared screen” option. I also use IDroo, a great tool because it allows me to invite more than one student. I followed your guidelines for leading the lesson, and thanks to the shared screen she could see my monitor. So I showed her the first portrait page, then via Skype dictated her the questions. [I use Wordpad, too, to enlarge the document to all-screen size, and when we have to work just on text. But IDroo merges into Skype perfectly, and it's much more interactive. Also, http://typewith.me/ works well, with more students.] I had previously prepared a Wordpad document with the questions written down, so I showed them to her and she corrected her dictation. Then I asked her which statement was true and which one was false. I skipped the conversion of statements into questions, on the contrary I wanted to focus on her trying to describe the painting, but I showed her the pdf with the second portrait. While she was telling me her sentences I simultaneously typed in the Wordpad doc what she was saying in a separate window (Skype allows you to share the whole or just one part of the screen). Then , together, we revised what she had said and by highlighting her mistakes I encouraged her to correct them, and she spotted all of them. I can send you the file to show you what I did) She was very active, you need to create a great interaction, because the student is far away. In the end, she was very happy with the lesson. I would like to tell you so much more, Jamie. If you’d like you can write me at my e-mail address and I can tell you my very brief experience (I am not a “regular” teacher) :) Thank you so much for you reply, Jamie!!! I have been following you since the beginning and also joined your webinar some months ago….. Hope to meet you some day . Nika. Sorry for my bad English…I am Italian.
Nika
Bad English? Where? I didn’t see any :)
Thank you very much for taking the time to write. This is really valuable. It also makes me think how useful it would be to see online teachers screen cast their lesson plans. I’ll be starting with some online classes in the Autumn. Let’s see how it goes. I might be getting in touch for advice.
Thanks again
Jame :-)
Hi Jamie
Do you care if I present your idea as an activity for a CLIL course I am going to give as a tutor? The students have to visit your web-page for downloading the examples.
I hope you do not mind :-)
Nico
Yes Nico
Please do that. Make use of the site in any way you like. That’s what it is all about. And adapt the activity in way that you feel works for you. Good luck! Will be interested to hear about the results.
Jamie :-)
Hi Jamie, I’ve used this lesson a few times with adult classes, it works really well. It’s good fun and teaches some great language and it’s always really funny when the students realise you’ve played a trick on them! I’m a massive fan of all the lessons on this website. Thanks a lot!
Thanks for your comment Max
Really glad you enjoyed the site. And happy to hear that you enjoy playing tricks on your students. It’s the way forward!
Jamie :-)
Hi Jamie,
I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your work. Your lessons are excellent. I’ve used them several times already and I have to tell you that your work saves lots of my time! Thank you :-).
Alicja
Thank you Alicja
Really appreciate your comment. It’s really good to hear that teachers are making good use of the site.
Jamie :-)
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