Studying English is fun!

on February, 11-12 – 
The Window on America center in Dnipropetrovsk staff visited the local high school #22 which majors in the English language study. WOA’s longtime partner, the English teacher Ms. Valentyna Shvydka, invited the WOA staff to take part in the school’s event – The Week of Foreign Languages. Today the language teachers could have a break, because the DOUNB librarians took over and presented lessons about the USA culture to the school children.
The WOA’s Head Svitlana Usenko presented eight lessons for different age groups. She introduced the students and teachers to the DOUNB Library and its resources. All the participants of the event were informed about the WOA Center and its resources. WOA Center is a facility that may be of great help for all who study English, plan to study abroad and to travel the world.

The WOA center continues its project “U.S. Art residence in Dnipropetrovsk”. The 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th year students were offered educational and music video clips, several slide shows, animated cartoons, vocabulary games, kids’ songs and dances. From now on they are aware of such genres of music as jazz, twist, pop and enjoy them a lot.
All the activities offered to the students activated their vocabulary to the topic “Celebration of the Valentine’s Day in the USA”. The kids learned the history of the holiday, the American custom to celebrate it, the traditional gifts, etc. The offered language activities enriched the students’ vocabulary, urged them to communicate in English; funny songs and dances motivated the kids to study and made the lessons more effective.
The 8th year students were offered a lesson about the life and work of the American writer Jack London. The students learned some fun facts from his biography, translated several famous quotes by J. London, and watched the book-trailers to his short story “Love of Life” and the novel “Sea Wolf”. The highlight of the video illustrations was the unique short documentary with Jack London. The students learned several new idioms and were extra motivated to read the originals of London’s fiction.

The WOA staff member Tamara Gavryliuk offered the senior students (the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th year students) a slide show that introduced to the them two controversial American artists – Rockwell Kent and Andy Warhol. The slide show’s title was “Paradoxes in the U.S. Art”. These artists were chosen for the presentation due to peculiar facts of their life: R. Kent’s paintings were very popular in the USSR and hardly known in the USA; Andy Warhol is the iconic US pop artist with Ukrainian roots, but his art is known only to a narrow circle in Ukraine. The slide show introduced Rockwell Kent as an illustrator, printmaker and painter. Andy Warhol was presented as a leader of pop art, a pioneer of the computer graphics and one of the most expensive artists of the 20th century. Warhol’s art creations are exhibited in his museum in Pittsburg.
Number of participants – 405 persons (teachers – 15 persons, students – 390 persons).

Presentations:
Valentine’s Day: History, traditions and customs;
Celebration of the Valentine’s Day in the USA;
Valentine’s cartoons;
Valentine’s Day songs;
Walt Disney’s cartoons “Two Chips and Miss” and other;
“Jack London – the first writer-millionaire in the world”;
“Paradoxes in the US Art: Rockwell Kent and Andy Warhol”;
Action kids’ songs.

Have a look at morepictures, please

American Painter Rockwell Kent

Within the framework of the WOA’s “U.S. Art Residence” project English Speaking Club “Gabfest” presented to the public  the art of Rockwell Kent, the significant American illustrator and painter.  In the 1920s and 30s, Kent became known for his illustrations of classic American novels, among them H. Melville’s “Moby Dick” and some others.
Rockwell Kent was a revolutionary as well as an artist, and his subject matter reveals his social and philosophical interests. He donated hundreds of paintings to the Soviet museums and was the most known US artists in the USSR. Many of Kent’s works presented harsh environments, such as Alaska and Greenland, and centered around the relationship between humanity and the environment. 

To complement the information about Rockwell Kent library books about the artist were presented to the group. Several YouTube videos and images shown to the group introduced samples of Kent’s art – both graphics and oil paintings. The majority favored his naturalistic depiction of nature.
The second part of the session was dedicated to the Club matters. The numerous new-comers introduced themselves, the election of the Club’s President and Vice-Presidents took place. We congratulate Mrs. Laryssa – a new President of the Gabfest Club.

The pleasant surprise for the club was the visit of our American guest – Mr. Carl from San Francisco. He contributed a lot to the subject of the session and recommended the WOA’s resources that may help to improve students’ pronunciation – Rosetta Stone and Pimsler’s software, on-line resource “American English at state”, etc.
Number of participants – 24 persons.

Have a look at more pictures, please

Discover American Painting

Within the framework of the ”U.S. Art Residence” project WOA Dnipropetrovsk presented the book display "American painting" on the premises of the DOUNB Library’s Art Department . 
WOA’s English editions are complemented with books about American museums and American artists in Russian. In the Art Department’s reading room all visitors can examine the publications with bright illustrations. The highlight of the book display is the multimedia dictionary "Art of the 20th century".
For more inquisitive library patrons we provided a computer work station next to the book display. It enables anyone to find information about American art in the Internet.
We invite you to review the book display! It will be exhibited until the end of January!

Have a look at more pictures, please