Watts Towers

What are those towers over there?

The Watts Towers were built by the Italian artist Simon (Sam) Rodia and were finished in 1954. Rodia adorned the 17 sculptures with a mosaic. The Watts Towers are considered one of the most important pieces of folk art in the U.S. and have been designated as a National Historic Landmark. Nowadays, it is a state park.

Ken Lund. *Watts Towers, Watts, California* (CC BY-SA)

At the end of the session, you will have:

used a thinking routine about the Watts Towers.
learnt about when to use the expressions of obligation "have to" and "don't have to".

To start with, let’s begin with a thinking routine, about the Watts Towers. Look at the picture of the towers.

After having viewed this picture of the Watts Towers, answer the questions:

What can you see?
Why did he design these towers?
Can these towers be visited by anybody?

You can obtain more information about the history and facts of these towers at its official website.

Then, after visiting the website, answer the following questions:

What do you think about these towers?
Do they remind you of any other monument?
What does it make you wonder?

You have to answer these questions in your personal blog. The title of the post must be "Watts Towers Thinking Routine"

You can have more information about this thinking routine b by consulting the resource Thinking routine.

Remember that the Watts Towers must be part of the route at your Google Sites map.

Continue with your posts on Twitter (#taskwayoflife and #EDIAlosangeles). You have to answer these questions in your tweets: Do you like this kind of art? Have you ever visited an open-air museum? Who did you go with when you visited it? Was it a school excursion? The 'Rubric to assess a Tweet' can help you do a good job in this social network.

I have to visit Los Angeles in the future!

We can use "have to" and "don't have to" as obligation modals to express compulsory things that we have to do or things that are a choice and optional.

I have to work at weekends. (compulsory)
They don't have to wash the dishes. (optional or not compulsory)
He has to wake up at seven every morning. (compulsory)
She doesn't have to go on an excursion. (optional or not compulsory).

Prayitno. *Los Angeles International Airport, California* (CC BY)

Sometimes there are certain things that are compulsory and some other that are optional. These expressions will help you express these two situations. Visit the BBC's Grammar Challenge BBto explore when to use one or the other depending on the obligation or on the absence of obligation in English and practise them: Exercise 1; Exercise 2: Exercise 3.

Try to do the activities in pairs. Your teacher can help you with all the exercises.

Once you finish, you have to write in your learning diary a short text using these two modals verbs ("have to" and "don't have to") about things that you or your classmates must do or that are optional regarding classroom rules.

Your Task: First version of your mental map

Task Step 3: Time to start finishing your mental map about American way of life

As you have to do this task individually, you can share your draft with another classmate and he or she can give you some suggestions in order to improve your final product. Then, you have to give some feedback to another classmate as well.

Remember that in the following step, you will have to use the TAWE app in order to record the sound of the descriptive text of your mental map. So, it is now when you have to write some sentences explaining the most important aspects of the mental map regarding your issue.

Your challenge: Los Angeles at the Google Site

Challenge Step 4: Organising the Los Angeles entry at your Google Site

At this step, you have to keep on organising all the information you have gathered in order to complete the entry.

Each group ( 2 / 3 people) has to organise the information you have searched about Los Angeles at your Google Site. Creativity in the distribution of the contents is very important.

At this step, you have to include at your Google Site the following information: one video about tourism in Los Angeles.

If you find more than one representative video or any other audiovisual information, you can also include them in your Google Site.

Learning diary

Learning diary Step 4: Revise all the steps of your task and challenge so far

You are in the middle of your ´Los Angeles´ project. It is time now to revise all the steps you have done so far in both the task and the challenge.

Click on the "Show Feedback" button and answer these questions individually in your learning diary.

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