LET’S LIVE A GOTHIC EXPERIENCE! by Noemí Álvarez

 

1.    Introduction

Teaching History is not always easy because students, a priori, have an incorrect idea about this discipline. They define it as boring and not useful. Those are the reasons why a History teacher needs to design activities in order to transmit them enthusiasm and probe the importance of knowing our past to develop a critical thinking and be able to be conscious citizens in the global world.

If History is not very well accepted, it is even harder to make them like this subject when they have to learn it in English. Language could be seen as a barrier. 

Teachers in the British or Bilingual programs have to deal with the Impostor Syndrome and improve their language skills along with the teaching practise. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is one of the most interesting tools to elaborate activities that can connect teenagers with complicated topics such as crisis, wars or relationships between and within the countries with the aim of getting a general perspective of History and to understand what is happening in the world nowadays. It is also important to apply CLIL methodology so they can have more dynamic lessons.

It is vital to point out the difficulties of applying UDL or CLIL in those educative centres where they do not have technological  media  or TIC, because it is basic to use new technologies to develop some of the competences they have to achieve following the current law in Spain.

The activities designed in this job could be included in active methodologies and educative innovation, two of the main ingredients for teachers that are always trying to learn.

2.    Designing a UDL activity

While I  was reflecting about the design of a UDL activity I  realised that it was difficult to focus just in one, so I have decided to establish some sessions applying UDL trying to create inclusive learning context for all of the students and focusing in one specific topic: Gothic.

The artistic style is going to be worked during three sessions of 50 minutes each. The teacher will be dealing with the following points:

1.     General questions to motivate participation and check the previous knowledge.

2.     Explanations with power points/videos.

3.     Groups work = posters.

4.     Game: statues

5.     Kahoot

6.     Experiment: stained glass windows, lights, music.

3.    Activity: LET’S LIVE A GOTHIC EXPERIENCE!

Gothic Art is part of the program of 2º of ESO and it is essential that students understand its development related to the development of cities at the end of 12th century. They need to learn the main architectural features and how sculpture and painting start to evolve searching for a new method to represent emotions.

The first session would star with some questions in order to be able to understand what they know previously in order to get a significant learning for them. Some examples could be the following:

-Have you ever been in a Gothic cathedral?

-What have you thought in there?

-Have you ever realised what everyone does once they get into a Gothic Cathedral? Look at my face (the teacher have to  open  his/her  mouth). Why do you think we open our mouth? 

If they do not say anything the teacher can guide them pointing the ceiling. And then he/she can write on the blackboard these words:  verticality,  light,  spirituality.  

In  some days, the students are going to create a semantic  field  to  decorate  the class including different words related to the style. Each one of them have to think about three words and bring them the following day.

-Do you remember the Romanesque features? Let’s go to tell them and while I am explaining Gothic I want you to compare.

After the colloquium, the teacher starts the explanation about architecture with an alarm on the screen. They love the bombs that explode at the end1. In this case it will be 20 minutes. 

The teacher will follow the book but the speech will be supported with a power point. Pictures can transmit more than any theory. During the last 10 minutes of the class, the students, in groups (organised by the teacher in advanced) are going to research about different buildings in order to elaborate a poster with all of the information following some examples in the power point.

The second session would start with a 5-10 minute retrospective about the day before and answering some doubts or finishing little details about the explanation. Once again, they will have an explanation about main features of sculpture and painting with a lot of pictures and examples.

Then, they will have 15 minutes to continue working in their posters always with the teacher as a guide. The last 5 minutes will be devoted to play the “statues game”. It consists of moving around the class and when the teacher says “Gothic” they have to stop in a gothic style posture. If the teacher says “Romanesque” they have to do the same. If he/she says “Gothic group” or “Romanesque group” they have to recreate a scene.

During the last lesson, they will be working with the poster for 15-20 minutes. They would have to finish it in some days in order to decorate the class and is going to be part of the mark.

The second part of the session they will play a kahoot with some questions about the style: when it was originated, where, how it was spread and where, main characteristics, some examples… and so on.

Finally, they are going to be part of an experiment during the last 10 minutes. They have to turn off the lights, put down the blinds and sit down in silence. They are going to receive one slide with a transparency of a stained glass window (it is common to have them in the History Department). 

 

They have to put it up with the lights of the telephones behind. The teacher is going to light some candles in his/her table far from the students and is going to play some medieval music and explain them the atmosphere that was created in a Gothic Cathedral in 13th and 14th centuries. 

He/she is going to insist on the importance of understanding that this is just a game, but that can be useful to feel, just for a little bit, how faithful could felt hundreds of years ago. They have to be in silence for one minute. Later, at home, they will have to write a paragraph expressing what they were feeling.

  

  

 

3.    Conclusion

The aim of this UDL sessions is to deal with different  aspects  that should be present in any learning process:  engagement,  representation and action an expression.

https://www.scillsspartners.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/udlg.jpg

One of the main objectives of the Gothic lessons is that they appreciate heritage and learn how to distinguish it from Romanesque. 

In my opinion it is not decisive that they remember all of the characteristics or examples, but they need to understand the constructive system and understand the symbolism of the light. 

That is why they are going to be working in posters including information that they will have to select (with my help and guide) in which they have to become researchers and not just receive information or copy from the book. I think that, thanks to mixing methodologies and dividing the class in different sections, they can be more motivated because we create more means of ENGAGEMENT. 

They have to develop coping skills while they reflect; they have to cooperate with their classmates and the teacher, and they optimize certain autonomy an individual choice. 

It is also a way of providing multiple ways of REPRESENTATION. Because they have to activate background knowledge (the explanation with power point) and be able to , process and manipulate information to transmit it. It is also perfect to develop language competences and to use TIC in order to get data and illustrations. In order to be able to provide different options of perception I have suggested the recreation of the atmosphere of a Gothic Cathedral with tangible objects such as stained windows slides and, also, playing games that implies movement but also thinking. With this activity options for physical action are also provided allowing ACTION AND EXPRESSION. During the lessons, the teacher is going to use multiples tools for construction and composition and different media of communication focusing, if possible, in TICs so they have an example to be able to express themselves in a future through different strategies

The main idea is, at the end, to promote motivated, resourceful, knowledgeable, strategic and goal directed learners and, of course, make them love art, history and heritage.