Title: Pictorial picture

Lesson plan elaborated by: Magdalena Trysińska

Target group:

2nd‑grade students of a high school.

Core curriculum

I. Literary and cultural education.

1. Reading literary works. Student:

1) understands the basis for periodizing literature, situates literary works in particular periods: antiquity, the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, enlightenment, romanticism, positivism, Young Poland, the interwar period, literature of war and occupation, literature of 1945‑1989 national and emigre literature, literature after 1989;

9) recognises the subject and issues of the texts learned and its relation to the programs of the literary era, social, historical, existential and aesthetic phenomena; he reflects on it;

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

13) compares literary works or their fragments, sees continuations and references in the compared works, defines common and different features;

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:

5) characterises the main philosophical trends and determines their influence on the culture of the era.

II. Language education.

2. Differentiation of language. Student:

6) recognises the types of stylization (archaization, dialectization, colloquialization, environmental stylization, biblical, mythological etc.) and determines their functions in the text.

General aim of education

On the example of Bolesław Prus, the students analyse and interpret the „picture from life”.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• social and civic competences;

• cultural awareness and expression.

Operational objectives

Student:

• characterises realism and naturalism as literary conventions;

• defines the features of pictorial literature;

• determines the mood of the literary text;

• recognises the way of creating the literary world.

Teaching methods / techniques

• problematic: directed conversation, discussion;

• programmed: using a computer and e‑textbook;

• practical: objective exercises, work with literary text.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• collective activity;

• group activity.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Introduction

1. The teacher determines the purpose of the class, which is to learn the specific type of positivist texts, so‑called pictures from life. He/she gives students the criteria for success.

Realization

1. The teacher displays the covers of selected positivist texts on the blackboard. The task of the students is to connect them with the name and surname of the author.

2. If the teacher has the time, he can instruct students to create short information notes about the songs from task 1. For this purpose, students are divided into 10 groups. Each group looks for information about one text. A short note, along with the cover of task 1, is placed on a shared class disk. In this way, the whole class gains concise information about selected positivist works.

3. The teacher asks students to read the text of Bolesław Prus Under Shifts (this text can also be asked earlier in the house).

4. Discussion of the text of Bolesław Prus:

– preliminary recognition: the students point out those parts of the text that the reader may surprise, surprise or shock; justify their diagnosis; they exchange all the characters and places that appeared in the read text;

– students perform task 4 from e‑textbook: they wonder which of the given terms can be used simultaneously to describe places, things, people (eg, ugly face and unsightly neighborhood). The teacher notes that not all terms are so universal. Only things can be broken, and only a man can be weary.

– students formulate two problems which, in their opinion, he wanted to present the author to his readers; the answers may be different, e.g. the problem of poverty; contrast between the rich Saxon Garden and the poverty district.

– students read the description of picture literature in an abstract; then they wonder which elements of the world presented in Prus's piece implement the set of features of the picture.

– students analyse the language used by the narrator and the heroine in the first part of the picture; they indicate stylization (a concept known from earlier stages of education).

– students perform the task 8. in the abstract, which is a summary of pictorial literature - they complement the note.

– the students wonder how Mrs. Maciejowa is characterized - they do task 9 in abstract; each of the given features should be strengthened with an appropriate quote from the Prus text.

Summary

1. The teacher asks students what they have learned today, whether the lesson was interesting. For this purpose, he can use a questionnaire, a decision tree or a verbal evaluation.

2. Students write in their notebooks the key words to the lessons they consider the most important.

Homework

Optional:

1. Write a few‑character description of Mrs. Maciejowa.

2. Sketch one of the images presented in the text of Prusa.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Depicted in pictures

In the 1830s, the so‑called natural school was born in France. It was composed mostly of second‑class writers, completely forgotten today (e.g. Paul de Kock), who stipulated that literature should depict an ordinary life. They strived for objectivity, detailed descriptions and searched for protagonists among the lower social class. They were able to notice the extraordinary beauty of ragpickers and spinsters, the clarity of bricklayers and antique traders and they appreciated the inconspicuousness of merchants, cab‑drivers, workers etc... They set the action in private apartments, hospitals, beerhouses and craft workshops; to the streets, courtyards, fair squares and cramped attics... They knew the world from their own walks and visits. They spied on people in their everyday lives. They watched them. They noticed them. They named them. They described them. Specifically. Factually. Like reporters. Objectively. Authors such as Mikołaj Gogol, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Eliza Orzeszkowa, Bolesław Prus wrote in that manner.

Read a passage from Bolesław Prus’s short story „Pod szychtami”. Then follow the instructions.

Read the following description of the picture literature genre, and then discuss which elements of the world presented in Prus’s work encompass the features of a picture literature genre. Justify your opinions with relevant quotes.

The picture literature genre is in clear contrast to the romantic images of heroes and places. It points to everyday life as a subject that is worth the attention and interest of a writer, even if this ordinary life is filled with brutality, spontaneity or ferocity.
The picture literature genre was supposed to be a solid craft, of good observation which took reality into consideration. The authors of the picture literature genre were offended by the extraordinariness, heroism and uniqueness – but were, however, attracted by detail and by life perceived through its small and modest manifestations.
The picture literature genre uses a concrete, factual language and describes the location of objects and elements of the landscape as well their relation to one other in an accurate manner. Such way of presentation is called direct imaging. It evokes a specific image of places and characters in our minds and helps us to feel the unique picturesqueness and plasticity of the presented elements.