Art

I'm sharing an activity I created to work with B2+ students in the use of connectors for discussions. We were talking about art and in this class we discussed several aspects of it. Students tried to define what art was for them, they analyzed a concept and designed their own, and they supported their views through a debate.  

Warm up: Take a look at the following pictures and discuss in pairs.

Are these all examples of art?
What's the purpose of art?

Activity 1: Listen to this teacher talking about art. 

What is art anyway?
Do you agree with her?
How would you define it?

Activity 2: This scene explores another side of art. Watch it and choose the correct alternative.

Closure: A school in your community is planning to cut out the Art hours from its syllabi. Half of the class is going to favor this idea and think of reasons why this is a wise choice. However, the other half is going to be totally against this measure and will come up with a list of arguments which show how wrong it is. Once they have written all their arguments, they will exchange their opinions. The only conditions to participate are the following: Whenever they participate, they have to use one of the connectors seen in the previous activity. And remember:

Expressions they might use (besides the connectors):

In my opinion/view .... 

If you ask me ....

As far as I can see/I’m concerned .... 

It seems to me that ....

I have the/a feeling that .... 

I think/feel/reckon/believe ....

Well, I’d say .... 

First of all/To start with I’d like to point out ...

What we have to decide is .... 

There can be no doubt that ....

It’s a fact that .... 

Nobody will deny that ....

The way/As I see it 

Let me put it this/another way .... 

Let’s get this clear (first) ....

The point I’m trying to make is ....

Personally (speaking) I think .... 

I’m absolutely convinced that ....

My view/point of view is that .... 

The way I look at/see it is this

What I actually meant was ....

Here's the worksheet.

Regards,
Claudio