"Graffiti: art or vandalism?"

Objectives:

1. to develop students’ ability to communicate effectively according to the topic;
2. to develop thinking skills such as problem solving;
3. to teach students to express their point of view;
4. to develop students’ social and interpersonal skills;
5. to develop students’ skills of unprepared speech (in pairs and groups).

Materials and equipment: worksheets, photocopies of role plays, a computer, projector, interactive whiteboard.

Level: Intermediate.

Procedure

Teacher: Good morning! I’m glad to see you all here. How are you doing today?

Students: Good, thanks/ Not bad, thank you.

Warming – up:

Look at the board, what are your ideas of this quote:

Art is an adventure into an unknown world. <слайд 1>

Possible answer: All people have their own ideas and concepts of the world, the good and the evil, and artists’ works let us sneak into their world, they give us a chance to see their way of thinking which is sometimes absolutely different from ours.

II. Introduction to the topic

Today we’ll touch upon such a topic as art of modern cities – graffiti. At the end of the lesson you’ll have to decide whether graffiti is art or vandalism. <слайд 2>

T.: Could you tell me what art means for you?

Possible answers: Something beautiful and exquisite. / All paintings by Monet. /Russian ballet.

Group work

Students are divided into 2 groups, pieces of paper on their desks.

T.: When you hear the word “graffiti” what words occur to you? Write down all your ideas of graffiti. It can be all parts of speech.

Possible answers: Colorful / Subway/ Europe/ Suburb / Fantasy…

III. New vocabulary

T.: Do you know that graffiti artists have their own terminology, so-called writer’s vocabulary <слайд 3>. Have you ever heard about that? What words do you know?

<Презентация>

1. How do you call a person who does graffiti? <слайд 4> writer
2. Spray paint cans? <слайд 5> - cannon (s)
3. Group of writers? <слайд 6> - crew
4. Any work having not been removed? <слайд 7> - burning
5. Locations such as walls facing train tracks that are secluded from the general public but are popular with writers? – <слайд 8> - gallery
6. Pieces that are painted in hard-to-reach places such as rooftops? <слайд 9> - heaven spots
7. Writers especially respected among other writers? <слайд 10> - king
8. A large and labor-intensive graffiti painting? <слайд 11> - piece
9. A stylized signature, normally done in one color? <слайд 12> tag (scribble)
10. Pieces on trains that cover the whole height of the car? <слайд 13> top-to-bottom
11. An adjective to describe poor work? <слайд 14> - toy
12. Graffiti artist's sketchbook? <слайд 15> - a black book

1. Tree graffiti <слайд 16>
2. Radical and political graffiti <слайд 17>
3. Love expressions <слайд 18>
4. Poster graffiti <слайд 19>
5. "Field graffiti" <слайд 20>
6. Aircraft graffiti <слайд 21>
7. Vehicle graffiti <слайд 22>

IV. Reading

Now that you know enough about graffiti artists, it’s time to read the text and find out why “writers” are so obsessed with graffiti and if it’s against the law to “write” on public transport.

Art crimes

The beginning.

Graffiti, of course, has been around since man learned how to write. In New York City the trend of "tagging", or writing one's name, on subway cars is most often credited to Taki 183, a seventeen year old from 183rd Street in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, whose job as a messenger required him to travel on the trains everyday. Taki began writing his name all over the trains and stations of the transit system, and it wasn't too long before people started to notice. On July 21, 1971, the New York Times ran an article entitled "Taki 183 Spawns Pen Pals," reporting on the sudden phenomenon of rapidly multiplying tags, and in the process making a folk hero out of young Taki.

Of course, the New York Times wasn't the only one who noticed. All over New York, more and more kids became enamored of the idea of their name traveling across the city every day and being seen by thousands upon thousands of commuters.

With so many youths competing for attention and space, it soon became necessary to go beyond simply scrawling one's name in black marker on a train wall to be noticed. A greater level of originality became more valued, as did more ambitious works. Logos, stylistic variations, size, and color were added to make pieces stand out from the crowd. It wasn't long before writers were covering entire sixty-foot by twelve-foot cars with a single work, a formidable and highly respected accomplishment among graffiti artists.

Why Paint the Subway.

When average people hear of the hardships endured by graffiti artists pursuing their chosen vocation, the first question they are likely to ask is "Why?" There seems to be little reason to risk one's life for something as meager as a fleeting moment of self-expression, soon to be cleansed away by a fresh coat of paint. But there are others who see it a different way: the dreamers and the adventurers, the bridge-climbers and the rebels. The graffiti writer falls squarely into this category.

Kingtwo, an old-school graffiti artist, described it like this: "The best feeling about writing on a train is something you can't describe until you do it. Graffiti was a way to express yourself, even though we knew it was illegal. We never considered the risk we took. When you do a masterpiece on the train and you add a three dimensional onto your letters and put a cloud around it, with designs here and there and no paint drips, the feeling was so great you can't imagine it."

By Lefty Leibowitz

True, false, don’t know

1. Tagging is a slang term for spray paint cans.
2. Taki was a messenger and that’s why he had to go by train a lot.
3. The press didn’t pay much attention to Taki 183 and his writing.
4. To create a single work on public transport is a real achievement for graffiti artists.
5. Most of the graffiti was done in a primitive way.
6. Graffiti artists don’t take a risk when they do their masterpieces in public places.
7. Boredom is the only reason why they create graffiti.
8. Graffiti is a way of self-expression.

Answer the questions. Pair work.

1. How old was Taki 183? Why did he go by trains everyday?
2. Why did kids become interested in tagging?
3. What did graffiti artists do to differ from each other?
4. What kind of graffiti is considered as a “highly respected accomplishment”?
5. Why is graffiti only “a fleeting moment of self-expression”?

V. Role plays

T.: Well, now you’re supposed to make up a dialogue using a given situation.

As you pass the school’s back wall, you notice a group of kids. You stop and talk to them and realize that the wall that they are standing in front of covered with graffiti. When you ask about it, they say they are bored and just wanted something to do, they also warn you not to tell anybody. The following day you’re called to the principal’s office. He informs that the security camera taped you walking through the parking lot the night before. He presses you to confess.

You are the principal of a public high school. When you arrive at school your staff informs you that the back wall of the school has been covered with graffiti. The damage is estimated at $800. You are told that a security camera recorded a student but you are certain that the student wasn’t involved in doing the graffiti but he/she probably knows who did. You decide to question a student.

VI. Summing up

T.: Let’s draw a conclusion. Now you’ve learnt enough to decide whether you like graffiti or not, whether it’s a form of art or vandalism.

Try to make the following phrases into complete sentences

1. Graffiti is…
2. When I see graffiti I feel …

T.: Thank you for your work.

I hope you had a great time learning about such a controversial form of the modern art as graffiti.