THEME: Skyline, Architecture

LESSON PLAN TITLE: As High as the Sky

SKILLS COVERED: Ability to work in a group, fluency, accuracy, analyzing primary sources, writing, comparing and contrasting, evaluation, creative writing 

GENERAL GOALS: to get students acquainted with American architecture and its historical background on the example of the Chrysler Building in New York.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: to teach names of the figures and parts of the skyscrapers; to teach preposition patterns

MATERIALS/VISUAL AIDS: Student’s Worksheets, Screen and Multimedia projector or a Smartboard, high-speed Internet access

Pre-task: it is strongly recommended to read the article about William van Allen’s The Chrysler Building in Picturing America Teachers Resource Book. A teacher also can make an introduction by telling his students the following information. The word "skyscraper" originally was a nautical term that denoted a small triangular sail on a sailing ship. The term was first applied to buildings in the late 19th century as a result of public amazement at the tall buildings being built in Chicago and New York City. The word skyscraper often carries a connotation of pride and achievement. The skyscraper, in name and social function, is a modern expression of the age-old symbol of the world center: a pillar that connects earth to heaven and the four compass directions to one another [1].

Exercise 1. Listening.
Start your lesson with watching a 10-minute film about history of the Chrysler Building, narrated by a famous American actor and film director John Malkovich.
YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nio-w5e1hhE
Pre-intermediate students will need teacher’s comment.

Follow-up activity. Teacher can ask his/her students the following questions:

Exercise 2. Vocabulary
The Chrysler Building picture is hanging in front of the class. Each student receives a worksheet (see Appendix 1). They can work in small groups or with a partner. The task is using a dictionary to find a word that suits the definition that is given. Students know the first letter and the total number of letters in a sought for word. After that students in groups describe the structure of the Chrysler building.

Key: SPIRE, PENTHOUSE, ELEVATOR, STOREY, BASE.

Exercise 3. Vocabulary and prepositions. Writing. Speaking

Group work (3-5). Students receive worksheets (see Appendix 2). Having a look at the picture of the Chrysler Building they should locate rectangles, squares, triangles, arches and fill in the gaps in the sentences.

Key: 1. Spire 2. Triangles and arches 3. Square 4. Rectangle.

Then they are doing speaking task. They imagine being a group of famous designers that receive an order from a millionaire to build a skyscraper. First of all they have to decide following things:

Then each team should make a presentation of their skyscraper. The most original skyscraper wins. For intermediate and upper-intermediate students you can quote John Julius Norwich who said "Art Deco in France found its American equivalent in the design of the New York skyscrapers of the 1920s. The Chrysler Building...was one of the most accomplished essays in the style." (John Julius Norwich, ed. The World Atlas of Architecture. p366) and ask to mention the style of their future construction.

Home-task
As a home-task students can do a webquest. The task will be to find out the tallest building in a) New York b) world c) in their own city/country and write a short report/make a PowerPoint presentation about it.
Intermediate or upper-intermediate students you can ask to choose a skyscraper they like most and write a short essay/make a PowerPoint presentation about it.

Recommended websites for a webquest:

www.wikipedia.org
http://www.nyc-architecture.com
http://www.skyscraper.org/home_flash.htm            
http://www.allaboutskyscrapers.com

Webliography. Further Reading

References:

Appendix 1.

Student’s Worksheet

Look at the Chrysler Building at the 15b picture, study it carefully. Using a dictionary find missing words according to their definitions. The first letter is given.

Now describe the structure of the Chrysler Building. What part does it consist of?

Appendix 2. Student’s Worksheet.

Where can you find these figures in the skyscraper? Fill in the gaps.

Now imagine that you and your classmates are a group of world-famous designers. One millionaire wants to have his own skyscraper, like Walter P. Chrysler. He wants it to be very tall and of unusual design. Decide the following:

Now write a business plan of the project. Then make a presentation of your skyscraper so that the millionaire will give all his fortune to build it. And don’t forget – you have strong competitors