“What if my students could learn from a person of another culture and language, not merely about them?” This was the question Anna Kowalik from Broughton Anglican College considered as she prepared a language and culture unit on Barcelona for her Spanish classes. The focus of the unit was to be examples of the work of the famous architect Antonio Gaudí, popularly known as 'God's Architect'. “As we appreciated some of the amazing work of Gaudí, learning adjectives in Spanish to describe what we saw, we also investigated what inspired and motivated him in his work. Why did he choose to dedicate the latter part of his career to the project of building his most famous work, the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia (Barcelona's cathedral)? My students discovered that Gaudí gave credit to God for his ability to design and create. They learnt that Gaudí considered building the cathedral as an expression of his faith and that his dedication to the task was a way of ‘giving back’ to God in thanks." As they reflected on how Gaudí acknowledged that his unique creativity and vision were gifts from God, Anna encouraged her students to then think about what they were good at, whether it was athletics, art, music, or some other particular skill. She asked them then to consider what they could do with their gift, to express thanks to God. "My students loved combining language and creating art inspired by Gaudí's mosaics. We learnt about the wonders of Barcelona and how to describe them in Spanish. But I hope the most enduring lesson we all learnt from Gaudí is that using the gifts God has given us can become an expression of our worship" Libby Colla
1 Comment
Jo Fenton
6/11/2016 07:17:02 pm
I have only just had a moment to read your post, Anna. What a fantastic idea! I love that the lessons moved beyond learning to describe to learning what motivated Gaudi to create. What a fantastic enduring understanding to leave your students with.
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