Title: Tradition and the future, old and new - not only in the distorting mirror

Lesson plan elaborated by: Katarzyna Maciejak

Target group:

8th‑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) 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;

4) recognises in the literary text: neologism, euphemism, Homeric comparison, invocation, symbol, allegory and defines their functions;

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;

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

10) uses in the interpretation of literary texts elements of knowledge about history and culture;

11) uses in the interpretation of literary works the necessary contexts, e.g. biographical, historical, historical‑literary, cultural, philosophical and social;

II. Language education.

2. Differentiation of language. Student:

1) recognises the diversity of vocabulary, including recognizing national vocabulary and limited vocabulary (eg scientific terms, archaisms, colloquialisms); recognizes native and borrowed words, knows types of abbreviations and abbreviations - defines their functions in the text;

5) distinguishes environmental and regional varieties of language;

7) understands the concept of style, recognizes colloquial, official, artistic, scientific and journalistic style.

III. Creating statements.

1. Elements of rhetoric. Student:

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

IV. Self‑study. Student:

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

3) participates in cultural life in your region.

The general aim of education

Students learn the notions of stylisation and grotesque and remember the types of comedy.

Operational objectives

Student:

• talks about old and contemporary Polish wedding ceremonies;

• indicates in the text examples of situational, linguistic and comic character comicisms;

• explains what a grotesque is and indicates its manifestations in the text;

• explains what dialectal stylisation is (dialectic) and understands its functions.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• social and civic competences;

• cultural awareness and expression.

Teaching methods / techniques

• giving: talk;

• practical: subject exercises, elements of drama;

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

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Before the lesson

Before the planned lesson, the teacher asks indicated students to familiarise themselves with the material of the abstract and prepare a stationary frame (a still‑life) illustrating the selected situation or image from the literary text. Students can bring outfits or needed props. Each of the protagonists should prepare a one‑sentence statement, answering the questions: who am I? What am I doing? Why am I doing this? Their task will be to start classes with the presentation of their free‑standing frames and the interest of other students in their presentation.

The entire class performs ex. 1 in the abstract.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Introduction

1. The teacher determines the purpose of the classes and gives the students criteria of success.

2. Selected students present a still‑life prepared for the classes. They tell who they are, what they do and why they do it.

The teacher encourages other students to ask questions to the presenters, e.g.

• Why have you chosen this frame?

• Why have you brought such props?

• What role does... play?

If necessary, the still‑life can be presented again in the summary phase of the lesson.

Realization

1. Students look at the photo gallery depicting old wedding customs (exercise No. 1) and wonder which of them have survived to this day. They also talk about what they have learned from parents and grandparents in preparation for the lesson.
2. Reading of the fragment of „Wesele w Atomicach” by Sławomir Mrożek. After reading, the students share their impressions.
3. Checking the understanding of the text read: exercises 1, 2 and 3. The teacher makes sure that the tasks have been correctly performed and gives feedback.
4. The teacher asks students what „stylisation” is. They should give at least associations related to the world of fashion. One can also ask what stylisations can be like and what particular styles something could be stylised on. By analogy, the teacher explains what language stylisation is. Students form their own definition of the concept, while the teacher clarifies what dialectal stylisation is (dialectisation). there are examples of dialect stylisation in the text of Mrożek.
5. Work in groups. Individual teams are to find in the story examples of various types of comedy:

• Group I and II – situational comedy

• Group III and IV – linguistic comedy

• Group V and VI – character comedy

Representatives of groups present conclusions during the class. Students discuss which type of comedy is the most often used in the text.

6. Searching for elements of the grotesque.

Summary

The teacher asks questions to summarise, e.g.

• What was the purpose of Sławomir Mrożek to combine in his text stylization with the features of a science‑fiction genre?

• What does Mrożek want to tell us about society? What does he warn us against?

Homework

Get acquainted with information about old wedding ceremonies cultivated in the Masovian villages. Check the website (www.dialektologia.uw.edu.pl) about the wedding customs of the regions you are interested in.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Tradition and the future, old and new – not only in the distorting mirror

Tradition is our connection with the past. It recalls the patterns, standards and models. However, in today’s world that changes so fast, it is difficult to remain attached to the past. The 20th‑century literature has repetitively raised the problem of the tradition and the progress rivalry. Sławomir Mrożek, whose text you will read today, presented these phenomena in the distorting mirror.

Sławomir Mrożek (1930‑2013), the world famous Polish dramatist, writer, illustrator and essayist. He made his debut as an illustrator and prose writer in the first half of the 1950s, and his first drama (Policja) was published in 1958. Sławomir Mrożek spent most of his life in an exile outside Poland: in the USA, Italy, France, Germany and Mexico. His dramas are characterized by grotesque and absurd, addressing socio‑philosophical issues. The most famous dramas by Mrożek are: Tango (1964), Emigranci (1974), Miłość na Krymie (1993).

Mode of expression changing the literary text language, so it becomes characteristic for a specific era, author, environment or a certain community. It consists in introducing to the style of expression recognizable features that are typical of the imitated style. The mode of expression reflecting the local dialect is called stylisation of dialect.

Which type of comedy appears the most often?