Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... » music and art

The Best Collections Of “The Best” Pieces Of Art Ever Created

Larry Ferlazzo — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:50:11 +0000

In my Theory of Knowledge class we’re learning about the roles of emotion, language, perception and reason in art. As part of that, students are looking through pieces of art and writing a short analysis of one they choose.

They are going to look through the online collections of various museums, but I had also found a site that shared one person’s view of “The Best” pieces of art ever created. I had shown students images from the site and asked them to share what kind of emotional reaction, if any, they provoked.

That turned-out to be a pretty good lesson, so I thought I’d develop a similar list of sites that provide images of famous pieces of art. Not only will this list help my Theory of Knowledge students, it might also be an intriguing way to help English Language Learners develop a great vocabulary related to feelings and emotions if they tried a similar lesson — plus create opportunities for both art vocabulary and art content knowledge.

In order to make it on this list, a site had to show a number of images or links on the same page of their selected artworks, and allow the ability to click on them to get an enlarged view.

Here are my choices for The Best Collections Of “The Best” Pieces Of Art Ever Created:

The Greatest Works of Art

Another site titled The Greatest Works of Art

Best Works of Art in the World

Famous Paintings

The World’s 50 Best Works of Art (and how to see them)

50 Most Famous Works posters (this is from a site that sells posters, but does provides nice images of famous pieces of art)

Feedback and suggestions are welcome.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

Glitchscape

Larry Ferlazzo — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:43:00 +0000

The only way I can explain Glitchscape is it lets you make boxes and then turns them into music. You then get the url address of your creation for posting on a blog or website. No registration is required.

I’m adding it to The Best Online Sites For Creating Music just because it’s so easy to use. On that list, I share a few ideas on how web apps like this one can be used for language development.

The Best Places To Find Lyrics On The Web

Larry Ferlazzo — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:36:47 +0000

Singing songs is a great way to help English Language Learners get past their understandable reluctance to speak in a new language, and a good vocabulary-building activity. In addition, you can create clozes (fill-in-the-gaps) with the lyrics, use them to teach grammar, and have students use the real lyrics as models while they write their own.

It’s easy always been easy to find lyrics on the Internet, though often there are inaccuracies and so many lyrics sites have tons of annoying pop-up ads. I thought I’d create a “The Best…” list that shares places where there appear to be correct lyrics and no pop-ups.

You might also be interested in these other “The Best…” lists:

The Best Music Websites For Learning English
The Best Online Sites For Creating Music
The Best Online Karaoke Sites For English Language Learners

Here are my choices for The Best Places To Find Lyrics On The Web:

Lyrster is a search engine that appears to search only collections of lyrics to songs. Just type in a few words and your results show links to the complete lyrics. It performed quite well in my tests. The sites it searches include some, but I don’t believe all, of the other sites on this list.

Lyrics Fly is one of the best sites out there for finding song lyrics. You can also use it to find music audio and videos, but I’m primarily interested in the lyrics. The Make Use Of blog calls it “lyric search on steroids.”

I’d certainly be interested in hearing other suggestions, so please feel free to leave them in the comments section.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

Art Glossary

Larry Ferlazzo — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:11:39 +0000

Harcourt has an excellent Multimedia Art Glossary that provides audio support for the text in addition to visual images.

I’m adding it to The Best Art Websites For Learning English, as well as placing the link on my website under Music and Art.

“I Spy” Art Game

Larry Ferlazzo — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:15:19 +0000

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has what best can be described as an I Spy Game with artwork. You’re provided several pieces of art, and lists of objects to find within each one of them.

These kinds of games, which I’ve written a lot about and have posted on my website, are good, fun ways for Beginning English Language Learners to begin to build vocabulary.

I’ve posted the link on my website under Music and Art.

By the way, once you’ve found all the objects in this particular game, there are some other activities you can also do that might be worth exploring.

Classical Music Site

Larry Ferlazzo — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 05:18:30 +0000

Creative Kids Central has a number of very engaging online activities related to classical music. I particularly like its “talking” and musical story on the 1001 Arabian Nights and its online video game on the composer Brahms.

Both are accessible to English Language Learners.

I’ve placed the direct links on several sections on my website.

Thanks to Phyllis’ Favorites for the tip.

Museum Webquests

Larry Ferlazzo — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 05:34:40 +0000

The nine national museums in Great Britain have a nice collection of webquests.

I’m adding the link to The Best Places To Create (And Find) Internet Scavenger Hunts & Webquests.

Thanks to Eric Sheninger for the tip.

INudge

Larry Ferlazzo — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:18:23 +0000

INudge lets you quickly compose your own song, which can be played on an embeddable widget. No registration is required.

I don’t think it’s quite good enough to be added to The Best Online Sites For Creating Music, but it will make it onto the next addition of The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly.

Teaching English With Music

Larry Ferlazzo — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:59:22 +0000

This is my week for interviews!

If you’re interested, here is an interview with me on using music with English Language Learners.

“Away We Go”

Larry Ferlazzo — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 04:08:52 +0000

Away We Go is a movie (it actually sounds pretty interesting). But the reason for this post is the neat online tool they have on their website. You type in any address or location you want that has some kind of special memory for you, and your brought to it. Then, you have an option to pick one of quite a few different musical tracks that might remind you of that significant moment, your write about it, and then the song and what you have written appears on the map. No registration is required.

It could be quick and fun activity for English Language Learners.