Title: Teachers - dreams and reality

Lesson plan elaborated by: Katarzyna Maciejak

Topic:

Teachers and students – two different worlds?

Target group

7th‑grade students of an eight‑year elementary school.

Core curriculum

1. Literary and cultural education.

2) Reading literary works. Student:

3. recognises literary genres: epic, lyric and drama; determines the characteristics of particular types and assigns the work to the appropriate type;

5) knows the concept of comedy, recognizes its types in texts and determines their functions;

6) knows the concept of irony, recognizes it in texts and defines its functions;

7) defines existential issues in the texts being studied and reflects them;

9) uses, in the interpretation of literary works, references to universal values related to social, national, religious and ethical attitudes and prioritises them;

III. Creating statements.

4. Elements of rhetoric. Student:

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

6) collects and organizes the material material needed to create an expression; edits the compositional plan of his own statement;

7) creates a statement using the appropriate composition for a given form and the principles of linguistic consistency 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);

8) uses the knowledge of the principles of creating thesis and hypothesis and arguments in the creation of the essay and other argumentative texts;

7) agrees with other people's views or polemicizes with them, substantively justifying their own opinion;

9. Speaking and writing. Student:

3) formulates questions to the text;

IV. Self‑study. Student:

10. diligently, with respect for copyrights, uses information;

6) develops skills of independent presentation of the results of his work;

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

The general aim of education

Students reflect on the role of teacher in the life of a young person.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• learning to learn;

• social and civic competences.

Operational objectives

Student:

• describes the characteristics of an ideal teacher;

• characterises the figure of a teacher from the novel „Opium w rosole”;

• talks about the student‑teacher relationship;

• gives synonyms of the word teacher and reflects on their emotional colour.

Teaching methods / techniques

• giving: talk;

• practical: drama, discussion, exercises concerned;

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

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• work in pairs;

• collective activity.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Introduction

1. The teacher determines the purpose of the class: the students will talk about the relationship between the teacher and the students.

2. The teacher asks students to do interactive ex. no. 1, which consists of sorting the features of the ideal teacher in the order chosen by the students and justifying their opinion. The selected persons present their hierarchy of features together with a justification (this can be discussed briefly). ex. no. 2 (interactive board) will be the continuation or supplementation of ex. no. 1. Exercises can be preceded by drama method work: selected students stage roleplays in which they present the features of a good teacher and a bad teacher.

Realization

1. The teacher gives students the information necessary to understand the fragment of the novel about the book by Małgorzata Musierowicz „Opium in broth” (can refer to the whole cycle).

2. The students start the lesson “Teachers - dreams and reality” in the abstract and read an excerpt from the novel “Opium w rosole” while paying special attention to Ewa Jedwabińska and her relations with her students.

3. In order to check the level of understanding of the text, the students do interactive single‑choice test below the excerpt of the novel.

4. Students do an interactive exercise – they complete the table with features of Ewa Jedwabińska and quotations confirming them, and then talk in pairs about what kind of teacher Jedwabińska was (auxiliary questions: did she want to be such a teacher, what could have caused her problems, what could she change in order to have better contact with students).

5. The teacher starts a conversation about old teaching methods. The teacher asks students if they know anything about the old system of penalties and awards or the student‑teacher relations (based on a caricature from the 19th century), and asks them to formulate conclusions on what has changed since then.

6. Students look for synonyms of the word teacher and reflect on the emotional colouring of each word.

Summary

The teacher distributes questionnaires to the students to evaluate their own work.

Then he asks the chosen student or students to formulate their own reflection on the role of the teacher in the student's life.

Homework

Recall the teacher/trainer who played an important role in your life. Could he/she be an authority for you? Justify your choice in a few sentences.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Teachers – dreams and reality

Teachers play an important role in young people's lives at every stage of their education. They can be a role model for students, an authority. At the same time they should keep up with a rapidly changing reality. Teachers help to acquire knowledge and make dreams come true, they teach thinking, indicate the most important goals in life, take care of the development of their students’ feelings and emotions. They experience moments of doubt together with the student, stimulate activities related to solving various problems – not necessarily concerning the subject they teach – also in „life” matters: everyday or family issues. But is this always the case?

The metaphorical title of Małgorzata Musierowicz’s novel “Opium w rosole” refers to the almost ritualistic visits made by the little heroine of the novel – lost in her relations with her mother – Genowefa (actually Aurelia), to the Borejko family and their neighbours. Each visit was connected with a meal celebrated with love, which was eaten together by the whole family. The soup hated by the girl – the broth – eaten in a warm and friendly atmosphere, tasted different. Genowefa's mother, who was harsh and emotionally cold, could not provide warmth to her family. Also the meals prepared by her (including the title broth) tasted as if they contained opium. And they should – as in the Borejko family – “taste like love”.

Discuss in pairs what kind of teacher Ewa Jedwabińska was. Did she want to be like that? What could be the reason for her problems? What traits should she work on? What could she change to have better contact with the students?