Title: Positivist paths

Lesson plan elaborated by: Katarzyna Maciejak

Topic:

Positivist paths.

Target group

2nd‑grade student of a high school.

Core curriculum

I. Literary and cultural education.

1. Reading literary works. Student:

3) distinguishes epic, lyrical, dramatic and syncretic genres, including: genres learned in primary school and epos, ode, ancient tragedy, psalm, chronicle, satire, idyll, ballad, romantic drama, poetic novel, as well as variations of novel and drama , lists their basic species traits;

4) recognises in the literary text the means of artistic expression learned in primary school and the means of meaning: oxymoron, periphrase, euphonia, hyperbole; lexical, including phraseologies; syntactic: antithesis, parallelism, enumeration, epiphora, ellipse; versioning, including the launcher; defines their functions;

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;

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;

15) uses the necessary contexts in the interpretation of literary works, especially the historical, literary, historical, political, cultural, philosophical, biographical, mythological, biblical and existential context;

16) recognises universal and national values present in literary works; determines their role and relationship with the work's issues and the importance to build their own value system.

2. Receipt of cultural texts. Student:

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 answers;

6) reads non‑literary cultural texts using the code proper in a given field of art;

III. Creating statements.

2. Speaking and writing. Student:

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

4) in accordance with standards formulates questions, answers, evaluates, edits information, justifications, comments, a voice in the discussion;

10) in the interpretation presents a proposal to read the text, formulates arguments based on the text and known contexts, including personal experience, and performs a logical argument for the validation of formulated judgments;

IV. Self‑study. Student:

1) develops the ability of independent work, among others, by preparing various forms of presenting their own position;

2) organises information into a problematic whole by valuing it; synthesizes the learned content around the problem, topic, issue and uses it in your statements;

6) selects relevant quotes from the text and applies them in the speech.

General aim of education

The student recognises the relationship of literature with the program of a given literary period, philosophy, social and historical phenomena.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Learning outcomes

Student:

• explains the reasons for turning away from romantic ideals;

• analyses the positivist manifest;

• explains the meaning of the most important philosophical currents of the era;

• discusses the differences between realism and naturalism in art.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned;

  • leading text method.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. Students repeat messages about romanticism: they describe the ten epochs created by themselves or taken from literature, and record the characteristics of a romantic hero.

Introduction

1. The teacher defines the goal of the class and sets the criteria for success with the students.

2. We are happy to introduce students to issues developed for the lesson. The chosen student notes the most important slogans on the board, which his colleagues described the era of Romanticism. Then the teacher divides the class into groups. Each team is to develop a hypothetical manifesto of representatives of the new era, opposed to their predecessors. After the appointed time, the groups read their manifestos.

Realization

1. A conversation about historical events that coincided with the decline of Romanticism. The chosen student records the historical events of the mid‑19th century on the timeline on the blackboard.

2. A joint reading of a fragment of the manifesto by Aleksander Świętochowski „My i wy.” The reference of Świętochowski's words to students' visions of a new era. The teacher asks what the lack of agreement between the representatives of Romanticism and positivism could have resulted (eg failure of the November Uprising, disappointment with romantic ideas). Then the students list in the table (part 3) the characteristics of the young (positivists) and old (romantics) and they wonder if it is unwise to be cut off from the views of generations or, on the contrary, necessary for development. At the end, the teacher asks you to explain the functions of the first and the second plural in the manifest text.

3. Students carry out exercise 4 in the abstract, based on the recognition of philosophical trends of the period of positivism.

4. Students develop pairs of news about realism and naturalism in the visual arts and literature. The result of students' work is to be a note on both trends, containing the following information:
   1. Initiators.
   2. Characteristics of trends, assumptions.
   3. The topics addressed.
   3. Examples of works of art and literary.

5. Reading of B. Prus's text and answer to the questions under the text (exercises 5 and 6).

6. Students wonder which worldview is closer to them - romantic or positivistic.

Summary

1. The teacher asks the willing student to summarize the lesson from his point of view. He asks the other students if they would like to add something to their friend's statement about the knowledge and skills learned in the lesson.

2. Students use the dictionary to choose the most difficult words and form sentences related to the topic of the lesson.

Homework

1. Choose any image from the illustrations in the abstract. Describe the situation presented on it from two points of view: a romantic and a positivist.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Positivist paths

The positivist era in Poland started in 1864, after the fall of the January Uprising. It was the time when romantic ideals started to lose over cognitive recognition. Attitudes aimed at the reconstruction and integration of society were promoted (work at the grassroots, organic work, emancipation of women, assimilation of Jews). People believed in progress, the value of science and hard work.

The basic creative method for positivists was realism, an idea of a faithful recreation of reality.

Realism in painting is a particular starting point and at the same time a destination for the era of positivism – in regards to both the belief system, literature and philosophy…

Painter Gustav Courbet – French realist – advised his students to wander – walk and observe, and then capture the details of the world they saw on canvas. French writer – Stendhal – argued that a good novel should be like a „a mirror that hangs over a road. It reflects the azure sky, the mud of a roadside puddle”.

This is why positivists reached for entirely new themes. An audience used to romantic landscapes and a romantic dimension in novels was destined to be surprised by the portrayals of ordinary people, short stories about peasants seeking work in the city, a purchase of a cow, mines, Vogt, uneducated writers, or neglected children…