Topic: Traveling, writing and reading

Lesson plan elaborated by:

Magdalena Trysińska

Target group:

3rd‑grade high school students.

The core curriculum

I. Literary and cultural education.

1. Reading literary works. Student:

10) recognises in the work the ways of creating: the presented world (plot, heroes, actions, themes, motives), narrative, lyrical situation; interprets and evaluates them;

14) presents a proposal for interpretation of the work, indicates in the text of the place that may constitute arguments in support of its interpretation proposal.

2. Receipt of cultural texts. Student:

1) processes and hierarchizes information from texts, such as journalistic, popular science and scientific;

2) analyses the structure of the text: it reads its meaning, main thought, way of leading the argument and argumentation;

3) recognises the specificity of journalistic texts (article, column, reportage), rhetoric (speech, laudation, homily), popular science and scientific (dissertation); it distinguishes between message and commentary among press texts; recognizes linguistic means and their functions used in texts; reads information and explicit and hidden messages; distinguishes between correct and avoidant responses.

IV. Self‑study.

9) uses multimedia sources of information and makes their critical evaluation;

10) collects and processes information, prepares a database;

11) uses multimedia resources, eg from: libraries, on‑line dictionaries, e‑book publications, original websites; selects web sources, taking into account the criterion of material correctness and critically evaluates their content.

General aim of education

Students learn the specificity of the reporter's work and the features of reportage as a genre from the borderline of literature and journalism.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Learning outcomes

Student:

• recognises species from the borderline of literature and journalism;

• describes what the reporter's job is about;

• characterises the types of reportage.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion;

  • simulation.

• 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. Students are to prepare information about the reportage as a genre on the borderline of literature and journalism and on the subject of „Polish school of reportage”.

Introduction

1. The teacher states the subject of the lesson, explains the aim of the lesson and together with students determines the success criteria to be achieved.

2. Eager or selected students are characterized by a documentary genre and talk about Polish reportage and its representatives.

Realization

1. Determining the place of reportage against other journalistic genres. Students solve exercise 1.

2. Eager or chosen student presents the figure of Ryszard Kapuściński and talks about the collection of his reports, „Journeys with Herodotus”.

3. Reading the fragment „Travel with Herodotus”. Students should pay attention to how the reporter talks about Herodotus, who inspired his reports. Then, the participants of the classes perform exercises 2, 3 and 4 in pairs.

4. A conversation about various types of reportage. The students make the division of the genre due to: the topic, place of publication and the way the subject is presented (Exercise 5).

5. The teacher divides the class into 5‑7-person teams. Each group is an editorial board in one of the following newspapers: a general regional one, a magazine for women who care for their form, a travel magazine and a culinary monthly. The task of the groups is to conduct an editorial meeting and plan a new issue of the newspaper. Student‑journalists should propose topics for articles, taking into account the genre of reportage. The result of the group's work will be the presentation of the plan for the issue of the next issue of the journal.

Summary

1. The teacher asks a willing student to summarize the lesson from his point of view. He asks other students if they would like to add anything to their colleague's statements.

Homework

1. Listen to the abstract recording at home. Pay attention to pronunciation, accent and intonation. Learn to pronounce the words learned during the lesson.

2. Read or watch any report. Specify its type. Check if it has the following features. Find the relevant parts to support your opinion.
   - the authenticity of the presented events
   - contains factual data (hero names, place names, numerical statements, etc.)
   - has an information function (explains, reports on relationships)
   - has an expressive function (includes grades, presents experiences)
   - it has a persuasive function (convinces to something, shapes attitudes)
   - contains a wealth of styles and language variants.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Traveling, writing and reading

Literature is commonly associated with making things up, fiction. For many readers the truth is of greatest importance. Experienced readers know well that literature is not only about telling trivial stories, but literary works often relate to important matters and real issues. One can say that literature is the kind of fiction that can depict the world and men.

The literature of the first half the 20th century was dominated by modernistic fictionality and creativity. On the other hand, the second half of the 20th century saw the rise of nonfiction and documentaries. For various reasons, writers were interested in depicting the reality. The proportions between facts and fiction swayed towards the truth in texts bordering on literature and journalism. Ryszard Kapuściński figures among the masters of the reportage.

Ryszard Kapuściński
1932–2007
A reporter, publicist, photographer, poet, one of the most worldly‑recognised Polish writers. For a very long time, Kapuściński – as a correspondent of the Polish Press Agency – travelled through Asia, Africa and South America. He witnessed the biggest political and military conflicts. His books were oftentimes read as parables of human lives. The most important books of the author are: The Polish Bush (Busz po polsku) (1962), The Soccer War (Wojna futbolowa) (1978), The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat (Cesarz) (1978), Shah of Shahs (Szachinszach) (1982), Imperium (1993), The Shadow of the Sun (Heban) (1998) or Travels with Herodotus (Podróże z Herodotem) (2004).

Travels with Herodotus are a collection of reportages from travels through Africa and Asia. As always, the writer documents the observed reality with utmost attention, although does so in a particular way because he believes that it is not possible to interpret the world in a completely objective manner. The author of Travels with Herodotus was certain that a writer during his or her work becomes unavoidably entangled in subjectivism and valuation of the depicted reality.

This book by Kapuściński combines three activities of a reporter: travelling, writing and reading. It is necessary to realise that Travels with Herodotus were influenced by The Histories written by Herodotus. The Polish writer quotes and comments the writings of the ancient author. Herodotus was not chosen by Kapuściński by coincidence. The philosophy of the ancient writer was a good excuse for him to take his own writing technique into consideration. Moreover, Herodotus was a thinker that inspired the Polish writer in many other areas.