Title: Dear Diary

Lesson plan elaborated by: Katarzyna Maciejak

Topic:

Dear Diary. Features of the diary as a genre. Create a card from the diary.

Target group

4th‑grade students of an elementary school.

Core curriculum

I. Literary and cultural education.

1. Reading literary works. Student:

2) distinguishes epic, lyric and drama genres, including: a diary, comedy, epigram, sonnet, song, tren, ballad, epic, tragedy - and lists their basic features and indicates the genre characteristics of literary works read;

III. Creating statements.

1. Elements of rhetoric. Student:

1) functionally uses rhetorical means and understands their impact on the recipient;

2) collects and organizes the material material needed to create statements; he edits the compositional plan of his own speech;

3) creates a statement using the appropriate composition for a given form and the principles of language coherence between paragraphs; understands the role of paragraphs as a coherent whole of thought in the creation of written utterances and applies the paragraph rhythm (interweaving of long and short paragraphs);

IV. Self‑study. Student:

2) develops his talents and interests;

8) develops the ability to think critically and formulate opinions.

The general aim of education

To familiarize students with the formal requirements of the diary genre.

Learning outcomes

Student:

• gives the genre characteristics of the diary;

• creates an entry in the diary;

• gives the form a form consistent with the requirements of the diary;

• recognizes the information text;

• prepares a plan of reproduction of events;

• finds the information he/she needs.

Teaching methods / techniques

• giving: talk;

• practical: the main text, subject exercises;

• exhibiting: recording;

• programming: using a computer, using an e‑manual.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• collective activity.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Introduction

1. The teacher defines the purpose of the lesson: the pupils will learn the diary as a literary form and they will be able to face it themselves.

2. The teacher asks students if they know what a diary is. Explains the term to the students, paying attention to the differences between the diary and the diary. The teacher asks if one of the students runs his own diary, then asks about the similarity of the form of the diary to the modern forms familiar to students from the Internet: blog and videoblog.

Realization

1. Teacher and students start the „Dear Diary” lesson. Students listen to the first part of the recording.

2. Students perform task 1: they read the information text „About the diary” and answer the questions (eg What language is the diary written in? To whom does the author of the diary direct the speech?). Reading the answer. A brief summary of the rules for keeping a diary.

3. The students listen to the rest of the recording. Then they do task 3: they read a sample card from the diary and find in the text examples confirming what they learned from the text About the diary.

4. Listening to a fragment of A. Kamieńska's text „Piątek” in the „My Diary” lesson on the epodreczniki.pl website and a conversation focused on questions from an e‑textbook (eg What kind of expression do you think?) Who is the author of this card from diary?) or given by the teacher.

5. Reading the text „Piątek” with special attention to the time and discussion of this issue.

6. Indication in the text of what happened on Dorotka's day and organize these events in the right order (interactive task). Events recorded in Dorothy's diary:

• Dorotka wrote the first poem.

• Granny gave Dorothy a diary.

• Teddy bear gave birth to small ones.

• Dorotka's tenth birthday.

• Mom goes to the hospital because Cuba was born.

• Grandma replanting seedlings.

7. Interactive exercise: recognizing emotions.

8. Individual exercise, students write in the notebooks a description of the day in which something very joyful happened.

Summary

The teacher gives students a short survey with the evaluation of their own work. Then he summarizes the classes.

Homework

For a few days, try to keep your journal / diary. Maybe later you would like to continue what you started?

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Dear Diary

Who is writing or used to write a diary? What do you think, who writes a diary and for whom? What can you note down in a diary?

Diary has its characteristic features that make it easy to recognise among other texts. See what they are.

Journals in the old days used to be written in special notebooks. Today diaries may be kept in a computer. The objective of a diary is to put joy, or sometimes anger on paper and to ponder over events.

All of us can write a diary to record and organise important events and to express emotions evoked by those events.

You already know what a typical diary entry looks like. However, there are many ways to record important events – depending on the writer's preferences.

Events described in a diary may be very exciting. Thanks to information about the author’s feelings and experiences we get to know his/her approach to life.

Think about events you could record in a diary. Can you remember more happy or sad moments?