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Saturday, January 14, 2012

The Da Vinci Code: Symbols

A great book, but not so great a movie. The messages in the film, though, are very good food for thought and discussion. I used these scenes to talk about symbols and what they represent.




A symbol is something such as an object, picture, written word, sound, or particular mark that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On maps, crossed sabres may indicate a battlefield. Numerals are symbols for numbers or amounts. All language consists







Look at the symbols below and say what they represent:








Answers:

handicapped,

gay pride,

male,

poison,

recycle,

anarchy,

solidarity for HIV positive people living with AIDS

Vitruvian man symbolizes everything about Leonardo DaVinci’s calculated approach to both art and science and the beauty of the human form

peace

nuclear

no smoking area

justice

 swastika - racism and the "white supremacy" of Neo-Nazis

medical.



I. Work in groups. Which symbol could represent the following ideas? Use your imagination.

Wealth

Slum

Hospital

School

Danger

Attention

Airport

Restaurant

Pet shop

Information

Democracy

Wireless Internet connection


II. Choose four of them and create posters with your own image. Make sure your friends will guess what it means from your drawings.


III. Share your posters with the class and let them guess what they represent.


IV. Watch the first segment from the movie The Da Vinci Code and answer the questions in pairs.




1. What does Professor Robert Langdon say about what symbols can help us understand?

2. What were both interpretations of the symbol he showed first?

3. What about the second symbol?

4. And the third one?

5. What message does he want to give with this presentation?


V. Watch now the second segment from the same movie and answer the questions in pairs.




1. What does the pentagon represent in this context of the segment?

2. What is your interpretation of the whole scene?

MOVIE SEGMENT DOWNLOAD - THE DA VINCI CODE PART 1


MOVIE SEGMENT DOWNLOAD - THE DA VINCI CODE PART 2
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4 comments:

  1. Teacher AlexJanuary 14, 2012 at 7:58 PM

    I share the same opinion, Claudio. I read the book and loved it but as for the film... Jeeezussss! What a disappointment! As usual though you always find a way of using segments to create great lesson plans. Congrats and happy 2012 :=)
    Alex

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  2. AriyaJanuary 19, 2012 at 9:32 PM

    Hi Claudio,

    I think that these movies on your blog aren't only good for teaching grammar, but listening and speaking also. I'm wondering if there's a way to remove or hide the subtitles.

    Thanks

    Ariya

    ReplyDelete
  3. Claudio AzevedoJanuary 19, 2012 at 10:35 PM

    Dear Ariya,
    I agree. Any movie segment is great for listening. However, it is not my main goal. The segments are prepared with the subtitles for the blogs` gosls. Sorry about that. All the activities are prepared having in mind the subtitles are on. It is impossibke to do it otherwise. Well, I always have the DVD so I can have subtitles on or off. You could do the same. See you.

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