Topic: A city. The pros and cons of urbanisation.

Target group

7th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

XXIII. Europe and the world in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Pupil:

4. lists new political ideas and cultural phenomena, including the beginnings of mass culture and moral change.

General aim of education

Students get acquainted with the manifestations and effects of technological change and civilization progress.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• to enumerate the most vital examples of technological breakthroughs and civilisational progress in cities in the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century;

• to identify the social effects of their use.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. The teacher asks students to remember the data on the development of European cities in the first half of the 19th century.

Introduction

1. The teacher explains the students the purpose of the lesson and the criteria for success.

2. Students do Exercises 1 and 2 - they indicate the five largest cities in Europe in 1900 and the process that took place at that time. Referring to the messages prepared before the lesson, they discuss with the teacher the direction of changes that urban agglomerations in Europe underwent in the course of the nineteenth century.

Realization

1. The teacher tells students briefly about the manifestations of ordering urban space (lighting, urban transport, cleaning services, reconstruction of streets). Then, he asks students to analyze iconographic materials in order to find examples of the mentioned image changes that the cities undergone during the nineteenth century. Students do Task 1, Exercise 3 and 4, which refer to the invention of electricity and its use in public space. They also watch the picture attached to Task 2, answering the question about the representative character of the buildings. Then they analyze the map of the London underground from 1908 (Task 3). The teacher makes sure that the tasks have been correctly completed and gives feedback.

Summary

1. As part of organizing the lessons learned, students do Exercise 5, marking the appropriate points in the table. The teacher asks students to answer the question who could use the city's facilities in the 19th century? Did they include all city dwellers? Asking questions, the lecturer remembers that they are to be formulated as the key questions.

2. The teacher assesses the students' work during the lesson, taking into account their input and commitment. For this purpose, he may prepare an evaluation questionnaire for self‑assessment and evaluation of the teacher's work and other students.

Homework

1. The teacher asks homework for pupils willing (it is not an obligatory part of the scenario): Look for examples of architecture and urban utility devices from the 19th century in your place of residence or its surroundings. Who were they intended for? Photograph them and describe them. Find differences and common features.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

A city. The pros and cons of urbanisation.

The growth in the number of inhabitants of European cities in the second half of the nineteenth century was the result of a surge in internal migration from the countryside by those in pursuit of better living conditions, most often in search for work in the industry sector. In many countries, the urban population exceeded the number of rural inhabitants. From the 1830s to the 1870s, a number of European cities were modernized. Hundreds of new tenement houses were built and the order therein was improved urbanistic. The urban space, which up to that point had been developing in a chaotic manner, began to be organized. In the second half of the nineteenth century, large department stores began to emerge in cities. Their appearance was a sign of the economic prosperity of cities and increasing welfare. At the beginning of the 1880s in Berlin – as the first city in the history - electric trams started operating. The first metro in the world was launched in London as early as in 1863. At the end of the 19th century, in some European countries communal housing began to be developed for the poorer population. However, indigent areas still existed in cities, which were unable to cope without the activities of private philanthropic associations, church institutions and public welfare services, which were gradually developing.