Constantin Brâncuşi – My life was a sequence of miracles

24.11.2018

Lecturers
Students

Tourism

Autonomous learning
Classroom Context

Romanian

Any language

B1
B2

Activity/task
Guiding resources (online course/book)

Vocabulary

Listening
Speaking
Critical Thinking
Reading

The material presents a short film (5:46) about the life and creations of Constantin Brâncuși. The video starts with the first steps of the sculptor in the professional field. In the following minutes the film analyses the features typical of his works of art, mentioning his most famous sculptures –„Muza adormită”, „Începutul lumii”, „Domnișoara Pogany”, „Pasărea”, as well as as the project „Fântâna lui Haret”. At the end of the film there are details about the famous sculptures from Târgu Jiu that are parts of the complex called „Calea eroilor”: „Masa tăcerii”, „Poarta sărutului” and „Coloana fără sfârșit”. The video is followed by a text which mostly (even though not perfectly) corresponds to the contents of the film.

In my opinion and in that of my students (levels A2+, B1) the resource Constantin Brâncuşi – „Viaţa mea a fost doar un şir de miracole“/ ”My life was a sequence of miracles” is interesting and helpful in expanding knowledge of the Romanian language and culture and for consolidating intercultural competence. It triggers the activation of all skills, especiallly of the receptive skills (reading, listening-comprehension), but also of the productive ones (speaking, writing). Although the written text and its oral version have a comparatively high degree of difficulty, they can be used for a number of varied exercises/tasks that keep the students’ interest alive through frontal interaction and in pairs, as required before and after the reading of the text and the watching of the video material. The resource was used in the on-site mode in a 90 minutes module, but I continued using it in the following module, since a second watching of the film was needed and repeated listening-comprehension, as well as more vocabulary consolidation exercises were required thant those indicated in the guidelines. Ilie Loredana – Nicoleta, Departamentul de Filologie de la Universitatea Petrol-Gaze din Ploiești, Lecturer
(the Romanian language) with the Institute of the Romanian Language at the “Adam Mickiewicz” University of Poznań, Poland
Testarea resursei a fost realizată online cu un grup ţintă eterogen (studenţi din următoarele ţări: Angola, Azerbaidjan, Cuba, Maroc, Siria) şi a constat într-un scurt documentar despre viaţa şi opera sculptorului Constantin Brâncuşi.Nivelul previzionat al resursei a fost B1-B2, astfel încât textul (transcrierea) aferent a fost adaptat (în ceea ce priveşte vocabularul, structurile gramaticale) pentru competenţele şi cunoştinţele achiziţionatede studenţi care aveau, în momentul utilizării resursei, nivelul A1-A2.Design-ul lecţiei propus în Ghidul de utilizare a constituit un punct de plecare, însă numai în proporţie de 10%. Documentarul a fost utilizat în secvenţa de consolidare a cunoştinţelor pentru un curs de cultură şi civilizaţie românească activînd în principal următoarele competenţe: receptare de text oral şi comunicare orală. Studenţii au apreciat resursa ca fiind interesantă şi eficientă mai ales pe segmentul dezvoltării vocabularului. Gafu Maria Cristina, Universitatea „Petrol-Gaze” din Ploieşti, Facultatea de Litere şi Ştiinţe, Departamentul Filologie

Listening, specialised vocabulary, level B1-B2.
1. Teacher announces the topic – Artistic works by Constantin Brâncuși.
2. Activating the schemata. Teacher shows students pictures with the works of art by Constantin Brâncuși and asks the following questions: In what century do you think they were created? How would you describe their style? What distinctive features can you see in these sculptures?
3. Teacher asks each student to write down 5 key words that, in his view, describe the sculptures from the pictures.
4. Teacher asks students to watch a short film about Constantin Brâncuși. Teacher asks students to write down key words from the film that describe Constantin Brâncuși’s works and artistic style. If the text is too dificult for listening practice, teacher suggests that students use the written version of the film to check for the correct understanding of the information presented in the video.
5. After watching the video, teacher asks students to compare, in pairs, the list of key words which they compiled before and after watching the video.
6. Teacher starts a free discussion, asking the following questions: Can we compare Constantin Brâncuși’s creations with those of another sculptor / painter or artist in general? Is there a sculptor or painter in your country whose style resembles Brâncuși? Do you think that the simplicity of form can express the profoundness of content?

Achieved results:
- the use of specialised vocabulary from the target field
- the development of the skill of listening to a specialised text and extracting the relevant information
- the accumulation of knowledge in the field of art.
Risks that have to be taken into account:
- students may face difficulties in understanding a long specialised text; in this case, teacher suggests that they use the written version of the video.