Title: Tree and train - metaphor for growing up

Scenario development: Magdalena Trysińska

Topic of the classes:

Tree and train - metaphor for growing up. Do you have to grow out of childhood?

Target group:

8th grade students of an eight‑year elementary school.

The core curriculum

I. Literary and cultural education.

2. Receipt of cultural texts. Pupil:

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

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

3. recognizes the differences between the fine literature and scientific literature, popular science, journalism and determines the functions of these types of writing;

2. Differentiation of language. Pupil:

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

III. Creating statements.

1. Elements of rhetoric. Pupil:

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

2. collects and organizes 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. uses the knowledge of the principles of creating thesis and hypothesis and arguments in the creation of the essay and other argumentative texts;

5. differentiates the example from the argument;

6. carry out the inference as part of the argumentative argument;

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

2 Speaking and writing. Pupil:

1. creates consistent statements in the following genre forms: review, essay, application, resume, CV, cover letter, speech, interview;

IV. Self‑study. Pupil:

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

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

The general purpose of education

The student gets acquainted with the text of the CSLewIS essay on growing up.

Shaped key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• social and civic competences;

• cultural awareness and expression.

Operational goals

Pupil:

• characterizes the stages of human life in both the biological and existential dimensions;

• reads the metaphors of the adolescence (metaphor of the train and the metaphor of the tree);

• identifies the thesis of the CS Lewis essay;

• indicates the arguments in the argumentative‑persuasive text.

Teaching methods / techniques

• problematic: directed conversation, discussion;

• programmed: using a computer and e‑textbook;

• practical: subject exercises, work with text.

Forms of work

• individual individual activity;

• collective collective activity;

• activity in groups;

• activity in pairs.

Before the lesson

A week before the planned lesson, the teacher asks students to bring their pictures from childhood or infancy. Students should ask their parents what they liked to do and what they were interested in as young children. The information is saved in the form of a note in notebooks.

The course of classes

Introductory phase

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

2. Students present their pictures from childhood. They tell us what children they were, what they liked to do, what toys they played with, what they were interested in. The teacher asks what has changed since then. Do they like something else now? Do they sometimes come back to their children's tastes?

Implementation phase

1. Periods of human development. Students work in pairs, trying to identify periods of human psychological and social development. Then they present their suggestions on the class forum. After a short discussion, they perform exercise 1. The teacher asks if they were able to correctly determine the stages of human development before the exercise.

2. The teacher divides the students into three groups. Each group deals with another task described in the abstract:

Group 1 prepares a list of the pros and cons of being a child.

Group 2 prepares a list of pros and cons of being a teenager.

Group 3 prepares a list of pluses and minuses of being an adult.

Students develop their topics in the form of mini‑posters or slides. For this purpose, they can use, for example, Google tools and a class disk.

The groups present the results of their work.

3. Silent reading of the text by Clive Staples Lewis „On three ways of writing for children”. Then students perform the following essay commands:

• individually perform exercises 4 and 5 in the abstract (checking the level of acquisition and understanding of the text);

• together on the board, students perform an exercise 6 regarding the essay features, and then the teacher discusses them;

• together on the class forum they perform exercises 7 and 8 on reading the metaphors of growing up and the views included in the essay;

• independently perform exercises 9 and 10 on the preferences of children and adults, read their suggestions on the class forum;

• together with the teacher discuss the issues of exercise 11, and then write down their answers in the form or in a notebook. The teacher verifies the correctness of the answers given, paying special attention to the way of formulating the thesis and arguments.

Summary phase

The teacher asks questions prompting students to summarize. Eg.

• Did reading Lewis' text change your perspective on the process of growing up? How?

• What do you think about your childhood fascinations now?

• Is your growing up like a train or a tree?

Homework

Justify in the form of a essay, which way of feeling the world is closer to you - adults or children? In your arguments, please refer to examples from literature and film.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

A tree and a train – metaphors of growing up

Do you remember the way you perceived yourself and the world when you were a child? How do you perceive them now? Those two ways are probably very different from each other and there are more changes awaiting you. An adult sees things from yet another perspective. Children and teenagers very often dream about being an adult. And many adults sometimes miss their childhood. In the process of growing up and maturing we often make choices: what to take with us and what to reject. It determines the basics of our self‑esteem.