Title: My name is Mole, Adrian Mole... A diary of an English secondary school student

Lesson plan elaborated by: Magdalena Trysińska

Topic:

My name is Mole, Adrian Mole... Funnily about growing up.

Target group:

8th‑grade students of an 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;

8) defines the aesthetic values of the literary texts being studied;

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

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

2. Receipt of cultural texts. Student:

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

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.

2. Speaking and writing. Student:

4) performs a voice interpretation of texts read and delivered.

IV. Self‑study. Student:

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

The general aim of education

Students reflect on the problems of adolescence presented in a fragment of S. Townsend's book and confront them with their own experiences.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• social and civic competences;

• cultural awareness and expression.

Operational objectives

Student:

• confronts the hero's behaviour with his own experiences;

• analyses the motives of the proceeding and assesses the behaviour of the literary hero

• collects vocabulary for the description of advantages and disadvantages;

• indicates humorous elements in the literary text.

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 defines the purpose of the course and explaines students the criteria for success.

2. The teacher asks students what they associate adolescence with – the teacher provokes a discussion on this subject, asks students to write down their associations.

3. The teacher asks students to create – taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of adolescence – funny comic strips based on the drawings contained in the e‑textbook. Students can do this task in groups.

Realization

1. The teacher presents information about the series of Adrian Mole's diaries.

2. Students read the first fragment of “The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole” (“Mole’s Family”), and then do the related tasks:

- students mark the information concerning the relationships in the Adrian’s family;

- they explain the reasons for arguments between Adrian's parents;

- they wonder why Adrian has a grudge against his mother and his father;

- they look for a quotation containing Adrian's opinion about his parents' marriage;

- they compare the marriage of Adrian Mole's parents with the Lucas’ marriage; they draw conclusions;

The teacher also asks for finding fragments in the text in which humour or irony appears. The teacher discusses with students the mechanisms of comedy.

3. Students read the second fragment from “The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole” (Adrian's Birthday) and do the related instructions:

- they highlight the quotation that allows to determine whose gift delighted Adrian the most;

- they explain why Adrian did not want to comment on the gift from his grandmother Mole;

- they wonder whether the material value of the gift should be important for the person receiving the gift; they refer to their own experiences, justify their opinions.

Summary

1. At the end, the students do task 5 from the e‑textbook - matching the genre name to its short definition and think about which genre best reflects Adrian Mole's notes.

2. Students write down in their notebooks the key words to the lesson they consider to be the most important.

Homework

The students make pairs. One person prepares a short statement on the subject: “Adrian Mole could be my great mate, because...” and the second person on the subject: “Adrian Mole annoys me because...”.

During the next classes, the students discuss this subject – they try to win each other to their way of thinking.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

My name is Mole, Adrian Mole... A diary of an English secondary school student

Let’s read some fragments of one of the most famous diaries from the turn of the 20th and 21st century. It was written by the English writer, Sue Townsend who is best known for creating the character of Adrian Mole.

Between 1982 and 2012, eight volumes of diaries, in which the narrator is Adrian Mole, were published. In the first book, he is almost 14 years old, as it is stated in the title: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾. In the next volumes, the main character grows up, and the last book presents him as an adult. These very humorous books were translated into 30 languages (in Poland, the first volume was published in 1991). The TV series, film and the computer game contributed to Adrian Mole’s popularity.