of Banksy’s Elephant Language level: Intermediate; Upper intermediate (B1 - B2) Learner type: Teens; Adults Time: 20 minutes + homework Activity: Picturetelling Topic: Street art Language: Look like; Detailed description of objects Materials: Image and text ENT Cy 9 SS Re CTS aLesecritrecinia,) Preparation, materials and equipment 1 For this activity, you will need a photograph of Banksy's water tank elephant. The image can be downloaded here. This piece of street art appeared in Los Angeles in early 2011. Banksy is a British graffiti artist (Optional) Select a few photographs of street art. See the link to the Wikipedia entry in the box below, Note: Street art usually refers to visual art in public spaces (see Wikipedia entry here). It can refer to traditional graffiti, stencil graffiti, street poster art, sticker art, guerrilla art, street installations, etc. It generally doesn't refer to territorial graffit, vandalism or corporate art Make a print of the Image and Text sheet on page 4 Lesson plan 1 Ask students if they like street art. If necessary, show some photographs (see Preparation, materials and equipment above). Ask students if they can describe any specific examples of street art from their / your environment. Tell students that you have a photograph of a piece of street art, Tell them that you want to describe it to them. Use the Image and Text sheet (page 4) for this purpose. Notes: + As you hold the Image and Text sheet in front of you, make sure that students can't see what is on it. It should be for your eyes only. + Also, to ensure that students can't see through the sheet, hold it on top of a book + The ideais that that you are looking at an image and describing it to students. In other words, it should not be apparent that you are reading from atext. Try familiarising yourseff with the text and rehearsing how you are going to deliver it + Repeat the description a number of times. This will allow students to strengthen the mental images that they develop. BANKSY’S ELEPHANT by Jamie Ked:Lessonstreamorg 3. Ask students to consider the following questions: + As you visualise the water tank, what kind of animal do you imagine it could look 2 : Specitcaly, how has the artist changed the object? In other words, what has he done to draw our attention to its animal resemblance? 4. Let students share and compare their ideas. 5. After asking students for their suggestions and discussing ideas, show students the actual image of Banksy's water tank elephant Follow up 1 Dictate the following sentences and draw student's attention to the look like + noun / clause structure: + Itlooks like some kind of water tank noun) + Itlooks like it was designed to be pulled by a tractor. clause) ( ( + Itlooks like ithas been abandoned. (dause) ( ( ( + Itlooks a bit like an elephant noun’ + | think it looks nothing like an elephant noun’ + | think it looks more like a camel ‘noun’ Ask students to express their opinions about the water tank. Do they agree with the artist or do they have different ideas? Encourage students to make use of the dictated structures. Follow up 2 Banksy's water tank elephant found itself at the heart of a story about ownership, overly: priced art and homelessness. Ask students to go online and find out who or what each of the following are and how they are connected + Banksy + Mint Currency + Tachowa Covington + Calex Students can then write a summary which explains the people, the companies and the events involved in the elephant water tank story. Click here for an artide. BANKSY’S ELEPHANT by Jamie KeddieLessonstreamorg Image and Text “This is a photograph of a piece of art. | suppose you would call it street art although the work isn’t in a street - it’s an object on the side of a road - a highway to be exact - in Los Angeles. The object is, | think, a piece of farm equipment - it looks like some kind of water tank. It looks like it was designed to be pulled by a tractor. It is long and cylindrical, it is made of metal and it’s got wheels. It’s supported by a number of vertical structures - let’s call them legs. The water tank is white and it’s got a horizontal pipe sticking out the end. It’s old and it looks like it has been abandoned. | imagine that the artist drove past the object and saw it as an opportunity. He clearly thinks that it looks like a certain type of animal and in order to draw our attention to this similarity, he has added something to it. In other words, he has made a subtle change to the object.” BANKSY’S ELEPHANT by Jamie Keddie 4