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Provocative Art - Advanced - Reading and Speaking


A potentially provocative lesson that deals with political art. This is best suited for Czechs, due to the subject matter, but should be successful with other democratic/liberal nationalities. Careful teaching the lesson in countries where political dissent is prohibited. The lesson deals with a reading about David Cerny, a Czech artist, and concludes with students creating and presenting their own political/protest piece of art. The reading is pretty short, but I'm sure there are longer articles on the subject matter that you could use.
The article for the lesson can be found here Provocative art link.

Introduction: 1-2 minutes

Option 1. Stage a mini protest in your class. Start the class by complaining about a relatively 'light' social problem - e.g. ice-cream is too expensive in the city. Have signs prepared and chants. Tell the students that you plan on taking it to the streets to get your message across and you need their help. Try to elicit the concept of protesting.

Option 2. Show a video of a protest and ask the class what's going on in the video.


Lead in: 5-7 minutes 
Students in groups ask and answer these questions
1. What are 7 different methods of protesting/enacting social change?
2. In your opinion, which methods are most and least successful and why?
3. Can you think of a few examples in your lifetime where a form of social protest accomplished its goals?
4. Have you/would you ever engage in some form of protest? What would motivate you to do so?


Aux Vocab: Optional 5-7 minutes 
* Note: I generally do not pre-teach aux vocabulary to upper/advanced students since they should be able to deduce meaning (or at least try to) from the context of the reading. If you prefer to pre teach reading vocab, you can of course do that here.


Prediction: 1 minute
 Have the name David Cerny and a picture of the sculpture on the board. Tell students that they are going to be reading an article. Ask them what they think it's going to be about. Czechs should know this immediately, but other nationalities might be in the dark.


Focus Task #1 Scan : 3-4 minutes 
Hand out the article and tell students that they have 2 minutes to find the significance of these numbers: 45, 10, 1991, 2003. Get feedback


Focus Task #2 Comprehension: 7 minutes
Give students roughly 4-5 minutes to answer the following questions. Have them underline any new vocabulary that they are unsure of.

1. Who are the two main important people in the article?

 2. Why did Cerny float the statue on the Vltava and why the specific direction? 

 3. What exactly about Zeman upsets Cerny?

 4. Who is/was Cerny cooperating with?

 5. How did Zeman react when the statue was first launched?

 6. Has Cerny done anything else similar before?

Go over questions/answers with students.

Reading Vocabulary: 5 minutes 
 Answer any vocabulary questions they have.

Short Segway: 5 minutes 

Do you believe David Cerny's sculpture was effective? Why or why not?
Do you support Cerny's right to protest politically in this way or do you believe he went too far?

Get Feedback from students and then move to your main activity.


Protest Art Creation

*Note: I'm not adding any target language to the lesson, but if you want to teach a lot of phrases/words related to protest art, please feel free to do so here.

Demo for Follow up/Activation: 3 minutes 
 - Tell the students that you have a created a large piece of political art and they need to ask you questions about it. On a large flip-chart show them the piece.

Have them ask you the following questions.

1. What specifically is the piece protesting?
2. What materials are used in it's construction and why?
3. What features make the piece of work provocative?
4. Are there any symbolic representations in the piece?
4. Who helped fund the work of art?
5. Where's the piece being exhibited?
6. What's the goal of the work? What do you hope to accomplish from its creation?



Creation of Follow up/Activation: 7 minutes 

Students create their large political/provocative pieces of art in groups. Monitor their work to make sure that their register is at the advanced level. Help them substitute better words/phrases as needed.


 Protest Art Selection: 10 minutes with feedback maybe more

Once complete students showcase their plans to each other. Groups rate the different sculptures/works of art on 1. Creativity 2. Potential for Effectiveness 3. Provocativeness (without going overboard). Push the students to really question the different pieces and why they think they would work/wouldn't work.The class can decide which work is the best! Board and correct errors. End the class with a joke.





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