Title: Usual and unusual places. Description of a place, situation and experience

Lesson plan elaborated by Magdalena Trysińska

Topic:

Ordinary and unusual places – how to describe them?

Target group:

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

Core curriculum

I. Literary and cultural education

1. Reading literary works. Student:

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

2. defines the aesthetic values of the literary texts being studied;

2. Receipt of cultural texts. Student:

1. searches for the necessary information in the text and cites relevant parts of journalistic, popular or scientific texts;

2. organises information depending on their function in the message;

3. interprets works of art (painting, graphics, sculpture, photography);

4. recognises the differences between the fine literature and scientific literature, popular science, journalism and determines the functions of these types of writing.

III. Creating statements.

1. Elements of rhetoric. Student:

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

2. collects and organises the material material needed to create statements; edits the compositional plan of his own statement;

3. 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);

4. agrees with other people's views or polemicizes with them, substantively justifying their own opinion.

IV. Self‑study. Student:

1. reliably, with respect for copyrights, uses information;

2. participates in cultural life in its region;

3. participates in educational projects (eg creates various presentations, exhibition designs, implements short films using multimedia technologies);

4. develops skills of independent presentation of the results of his work;

5. develops the ability to think critically and formulate opinions.

The general aim of education

The student develops the ability to recognise types of descriptions and to create them.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• social and civic competences;

• initiative and entrepreneurship;

• cultural awareness and expression.

Operational objectives

Student:

• characterises „a small homeland”;

• gives the characteristics of descriptions: place, situation, internal experiences;

• recognises and edits various types of description;

• presents his small homeland;

• determines the mood of the song.

Teaching methods / techniques

• problematic: directed conversation, discussion, elements of drama;

• programmed: using a computer and e‑textbook;

• practical: subject exercises, work with text.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• collective activity;

• activity in groups and pairs.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Introduction

1. The teacher defines the purpose of the course, which is to develop the ability of description. He/she gives students the criteria for success.

2. The teacher asks the students what they associate „homeland” and „small homeland” with. The teacher, together with the students, separate the two concepts pointing to similar and/or different meanings. For this task, the students can use the association map contained in the abstract.

3. The teacher then asks the students to create maps of their own small homeland in groups according to the instructions in exercise 1 in the abstract.

Students present their maps and discuss them.

Realization

1. Students recall information about different types of description. They do exercise 2 in the abstract: they read information about the description of a place, a situation and inner feelings. Then, on the basis of task 3 from the e‑textbook, they list topics of different types of descriptions.

They complete information from tasks 1 and 2 with the information on the purpose and construction of the description contained in the abstract.

2. To see if students can distinguish between the three types of description, the teacher asks them to do task 4 in the abstract.

3. In pairs, students talk about surprising events related to their place of residence, of which they were random witnesses or participants.

They then present the same events from the perspective of a random witness or participant of an unexpected situation; they describe their experiences. The drama method can be used for this task.

The teacher listens to the students' conversations and corrects possible mistakes.

4. Listening to Włodek Górski's song Moje miasto (My city). Then, the teacher asks the students to find in the text the phrases related to the description of the place and inner feelings.

5. Students talk about the lyrics of the song: they give the characteristics of the city to which the song is dedicated; they call the feelings of the person speaking in the song; they explain what makes the city shown in the song an unusual place.

Summary

The teacher asks the students what they have learned today and if they found the lesson interesting. The teacher asks the students to perform self‑assessment of their individual work during the lesson. To this end, they can finish the sentences in exercise 12 in the abstract.

Homework

In groups, create an unofficial website for your region. Remember about places close to your hearts, mysterious, inaccessible to others.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Usual and unusual places. Description of a place, situation and experience

Many people are strongly attached to their place of birth or residence. The region with which we feel an emotional connection is called a “little homeland”. We feel there like at home: homely, good, safe. Not only do we associate different objects with this place but also people whom we meet in our life and with whom we establish various ties.

A description appears in various non‑literary texts, both official and unofficial, which serve the purpose of everyday communication. It can be part of a story, announcement, letter, complaint or curriculum vitae. It can be a detailed presentation of a place, situation or experience. It usually consists of three parts:

1. introduction

2. main body

3. summary

The introductory part shall contain basic information on the subject of the description. Subsequently, more detailed data shall be provided in accordance with the design previously adopted. Finally, you express your opinion or feelings.