Title: Father explains

Author: Magdalena Trysińska

Topic of the class

Father explains. How to interpret a poem?

Target group

6th‑grade students of an eight‑year elementary school.

The core curriculum

I. Literary and cultural education.

1. Reading literary works. Pupil:

1) discusses the elements of the presented world, identifies poetic images in poetry;

4) knows and recognizes in the literary text: epithet, comparison, figuratively, words, sounds, diminutive, beings, personalization, animation, apostrophe, anaphora, rhetorical question, repetition and determines their functions;

9) characterizes the lyrical subject, the narrator and the characters in the read works;

12) defines the theme and issues of the work;

14) calls the impressions that the text reads in it;

15) explains the literal and portable meaning in the texts;

17) presents his own understanding of the work and justifies it;

18) uses in the interpretation of texts own experience and elements of knowledge about culture;

20) indicates the values in the song and determines the values important for the hero.

2. Receipt of cultural texts. Pupil:

2) searches in the text for information expressed directly and indirectly;

3) defines the topic and main thought of the text;

8) understands the specificity of cultural texts belonging to: literature, theater, film, music, visual arts and audiovisual).

III. Creating statements.

1. Elements of rhetoric. Pupil:

1) participates in a conversation on a given topic, separates its parts, construction signals strengthening the bond between participants of the dialogue, explaining the meaning.

IV. Self‑study. Pupil:

1) perfect quiet and loud reading;

2) improves various forms of saving the obtained information;

3) uses information from various sources, collects messages, and selects information.

General aim of education

The student develops the ability to analyze and interpret the poetic text.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• the ability to learn;

• cultural awareness and expression.

Learning outcomes

Student:

• reads the message of the poem;

• points and calls stylistic measures in a poem;

• recognizes poetic images in a poem;

• determines the character speaking in a row;

• determines the mood of the poem;

• recognizes known places in the illustrations.

Teaching methods / techniques

• problematic: directed conversation, discussion;

• programmed: using a computer and e‑textbook;

• practical: practical exercises, working with poetic text;

• intersemiotic translation.

Forms of work

• individual individual activity;

• collective collective activity.

Before the lesson

The teacher asks a designated student or pupils to familiarize themselves with the work of Czesław Miłosz „Father explains”, which is in an abstract, and they chose a pictorial illustration for the lesson and prepared short (4‑5 sentences) encyclopaedia notes about Warsaw, Paris, Prague, Rome, the Alps, St. Peter's Basilica and the Prague Castle.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Introduction

1. The teacher determines the purpose of the course, which is developing the skills of analyzing and interpreting the poetic text. It gives students the criteria for success.

2. Selected students present examples of black and white photos prepared for classes along with the justification for their selection. They explain why they chose them and why they present them in that order. The teacher encourages other students to ask questions to the presenters, e.g.

• What key did you choose your examples from?

• Why did you decide on this form of examples?

• To which fragment of the poem follows an example?

3. Selected students read encyclopedic notes. The teacher asks summarizing questions:

• What have you learned about mountains, cities and buildings?

• What data is included in the encyclopedic note?

It is worth noting that students are data about:

• position,

• number of inhabitants,

• industry, climate, flora, fauna,

• history etc.

• what language is written? (brevity, laconicity, condensation).

Realization

1. The teacher asks the students a question for discussion: Why Cz. Miłosz gave his poem the title „Father explains”? It is worth directing the conversation so that the students pay attention to the role of the parents / father who gives the child their knowledge about the world.

2. The teacher or the chosen student reads Czesław Miłosz's poem „Father explains”. Then the participants read the text individually. They pay attention to who the lyrical subject is and the emotions expressed by him. Together, they perform exercises 5 and 7 in abstract. The teacher draws students' attention to the definition of a poetic image.

3. Students recognize geographical areas and cities, as well as buildings characteristic of them. They solve exercises 3 and 4.

4. Students answer the question:

• After deleting geographical names, you can know which places are described by Cz. Milosz? Eg.

(...) in the sun of a yellow bath .....
it's like a plate of modry.
(...) ....... stands, from all sides discovered,
A city that is not real, but very famous.
What is the difference between these images of cities and mountains from encyclopedic notes?

5. Pupils resemble definitions of poetic means discuss their functions in a poem and purpose of use. At the end of this part of the lesson, they are doing exercise 8.

Summary

The teacher asks students to think about what the lesson was today and to complete the form in an abstract. Students finish sentences:

• Today I found out ...

• Interested me…

• I would like to know more about ...

• I still have to repeat ...

Homework

Close your eyes and go on a similar journey that my father from the poem Czesław Miłosz experienced. Choose four places in Europe or on a different continent and describe them in a poetic way.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Father explains

1911–2004

Polish poet, prose writer. In 1980, he received the Nobel Prize for Literature for Lifetime Achievement. In his collection of poems entitled The World: A Naïve Poem, he describes the beautiful land of childhood. This volume includes poems: „Droga” (The Path), „Ganek” (The Porch), „Ojciec objaśnia” (Father explains), „Przypowieść o maku” (A Parable of the Poppy), „Słońce” (The Sun).

Think about your impressions of the lesson. Did you like it? Finish the sentences.