My Teaching Design for
Art and Architecture
July 2007
Unit 3 Art and Architecture
Reading Comprehension: Modern Architecture
★ About the material
The reading part tells us the history, features of modern architecture as well as the sharp contrast between modern architecture and traditional architecture. It also gives us the examples of the architects and their designs, especially architects who found inspiration from nature and expressed the natural beauty in their designs.
★Teaching Goals:
1 Learn something about the history and features of modern architecture and the difference from the traditional architecture.
2 Get to know some famous modern architects and appreciate the beauty expressed in their works.
3 Appreciate and practice some fine sentence structures.
★Key points:
Analysis of the material to help students understand the passage thoroughly and cultivate their abilities in reading and analyzing.
★ Difficult points:
The ”Reflecting and discussion” is the difficult point in this period because all the questions are open-ended and require students to think independently and represents the answers in their own words.
★Time: one period
★Means and methods:
Picture display, slides, reading and discussion.
★Teaching process:
ⅠBackground information as Lead-in
Present the four pictures in the pre-reading part. Ask students what they look like. Then summarize that they all look like structures we can find in the natural world, shapes of animals or plants and all are examples from modern architecture..
Picture 1 is a bridge that looks like a bow or a moon.
Picture 2 is a building that looks like a hamburger or an egg.
Picture3 is the Opera House in Sydney that looks like ship sails.
Picture 4 is a pedestrian overpass that looks like a dragon (or the inside of snail’s house)
Ⅱ Passage Analysis by task reading.
Part one: paragraph one
Read the first paragraph and summarize the main idea.
Answers :
Every culture had expressed its idea of beauty in art and architecture.
Part two: paragraph 2-5
Read the four paragraphs and finish the tasks:
1 The main idea of the part?
2 How and when modernism came into being?
3 what does the word in bold “them” refer to?
Answers to
1 The history, features of and materials used in modern architecture and the difference from classical architecture.
2 Modernism was invented in the 1920s by a group of architects who wanted to change society with buildings that went against people’s feeling of beauty. They wanted their buildings constructed in a way to look unnatural.
3 It refers to the buildings that look like the boxes with flat roofs, sharp corners and the glass walls.
Part three: paragraph 6-8
Read the last 3 paragraphs and finish the tasks:
1 The main idea?
2 Who are the two mentioned famous architects and what inspired them?
3 What do the words in bold refer to respectively?
Answers to
1 Examples of famous architects and the buildings that take examples from nature.
2 They are Antonio Gaudi and Frank Wright and they were inspired by nature, or to be more exact, Antonio Gaudi was inspired by fish, dragons and Frank Wright was inspired by Japanese seashell.
3 that: the idea that nature doesn’t have any straight lines.
His: Antonio Gaudi
It: the 2008 Olympic Stadium
Ⅲ Reflection and discussion:
Allow students a few minutes to discuss in groups and fill in the blanks to compare the differences between modern architecture and classical architecture.
Shape Material Feeling Example
Ancient architecture Like things we find in nature Earth, stone, bricks, wood and bamboo Warm and friendly The Temple of Heaven
Modern architecture Huge, like boxes with flat roofs , sharp corners and glass walls. Steel, glass, concrete and plastic Hard and unfriendly The 2008 Olympic stadium of Bird’s Nest
Ⅳ Structure Appreciation
Explain each structure and practice them orally.
1.They wanted their buildings constructed in a way to look unnatural.
want something (to be) done
(2007.上海春招) She wanted her paintings _____ in the gallery, but we don’t think they would be very popular.
A display B to display C displaying D displayed
2.seen from the top, it looks like a bird’s nest made of tree branches.
seen from the top= when it is seen from the top