Title: Show empathy

Lesson plan elaborated by: Katarzyna Maciejak

Topic:

What is otherness? Why do we need empathy?

Target group:

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

Core curriculum

I. Literary and cultural education.

1. Reading literary works. Student:

7) defines existential issues in the texts being studied and reflects them;

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

2. Receipt of cultural texts. Student:

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

II. Language education.

2. Differentiation of language. Student:

1). sees the diversity of vocabulary (...).

3. Language communication and language culture. Student:

1) understands what language politeness consists of and uses it in the statements;

III. Creating statements.

1. Elements of rhetoric. Student:

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

7) 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;

8) develops the ability to think critically and formulate opinions.

The general aim of education

Students analyse the interpretation and interpretation of the literary text and reflect on the subject of otherness and empathy.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• learning to learn;

• cultural awareness and expression.

Operational objectives

Student:

• uses the concepts of positive values, determines the attitudes associated with them;

• develops the ability to think critically and formulate opinions;

• discusses, justifies his own opinion, accepts the views of others or polemicizes with them;

• analyses characters' characters and evaluates their behaviour.

Teaching methods / techniques

• giving: talk;

• practical: practical exercises;

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

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• collective activity.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Introduction

1. The teacher determines the aim of the class: the students, through the analysis and interpretation of the literary text, will talk about the social norm and otherness.

Realization

1. The teacher encourages students to talk in pairs about what otherness means, in what situations the word is used, which would be the opposite of the otherness so understood, how the otherness and typicality are to be understood.

2. Students write the most associations associated with the word another, then put a + sign for each of them (if it is a positive association) or - (if negative). The teacher can start a conversation, whose associations are more and what it results from (eg different = interesting, different = worse).

3. The teacher talks about Dorota Terakowska and her work, he/she also outlines the story of „Poczwarka”.

4. Students, on the basis of the fragment of „Poczwarka”, read at home, answer the following questions: What are the parents' first reactions to the child's dissimilarity? For what reasons is Mouse a problem for my father? What changes the appearance of Marysia in the marriage of Adam and Eve? How do you understand the title of the novel?

5. Students read the next fragment of the novel and derive from it the terms, which are called children with Down's syndrome, then they wonder what aspect of the disease the particular terms pay attention to.

6. The teacher begins a conversation about what political correctness is. Students give a definition of political correctness and discuss its advantages and disadvantages.

7. The teacher asks students if they know what the word empathy means. He/she evokes the history of this concept. Students perform a task which consists in giving synonyms of empathy and empathic words and explaining whether empathy is important.

Summary

The teacher gives students short surveys with self‑evaluation.

Then he/she summarises the class by asking students questions:

• What can cause intolerance for otherness?

• What is the empathic attitude characterised by?

Homework

Answer the questions formulated in the topic of the lesson. Write down your thoughts. What is otherness for you? How do you understand the word: empathy?

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Show empathy

Everyday life shows that people have problems with everything that deviates from the so‑called standards. If someone is different, he/she usually encounters resentment and rejection. It applies for example to people with different sexual orientation, disabled or those who are begging on the streets. Why is that happening? Maybe because we are convinced that we are better. What would happen if a person who differs from the standards became a part of our family? It might seem that the problem will disappear because it is much easier to be opened and engaged when it comes to our relatives. But it is not always like this...

Dorota Terakowska (1938‑2004) – one of themost popular contemporary writers. Her bestselling novels were: Córka czarownic (1992), Samotność bogów (1998), Tam gdzie spadają anioły (1999), Poczwarka (2001), Ono (2004).

Chrysalis (Poczwarka) is a moving story about otherness. It is a story of a married couple and their expected child who was born with Down syndrome. At first, Adam and Ewa don’t accept their daughter, but finally, Marysia’s mother overcomes the prejudice and decides to bring her up. She talks to her child, tries to understand, and learns how to love Marysia. Adam, in contrast, drifts away from his daughter and wife. The family is being constantly judged by other people. It is worth to read this novel, to face our own perception of both: being normal and empathy.

“Political correctness” is an unwritten rule of using the language in public spaces. It consists of avoiding words that may be offensive to someone and replacing them with neutral terms. Political correctness applies particularly to those situations in which the discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, religion, culture or age is possible. Its aim is to reduce the level of antisocial prejudices and discrimination towards some particular social groups.

In the colloquial sense, the empathy is the ability to share another person's feelings and emotions as if they were our own. This term is derived from the Greek word empátheia meaning suffering. At first, this word was of a very general character and meant: to unite with the world. Later, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, empathic thinking began to refer to the interpersonal relations, to rapprochement, unity, and the ability to enter into another’s personality and imaginatively experiencing his experiences. At that time, there was the German term Einfühlung translated into English as: empathy what means: compassion. In the recent years, the dilemma of how to behave towards other people is more important. The issue of empathy shifts clearly towards ethics. It also gains a more concrete meaning, as it implies certain obligations, for example: help, dedication or responsibility for another person.