Title: Good advice will not fail!

Scenario development: Katarzyna Maciejak

Topic:

Good advice will not fail! On counseling for women in the past and today.

Target group:

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

Core curriculum

I. Literary and cultural education.

1. Reading literary works. Student:

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;

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;

2. Receipt of cultural texts. Student:

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

6) defines the aesthetic values of the learned cultural texts.

II. Creating statements.

1. Elements of rhetoric. Student:

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

2) collects and organises the material material needed to create statements; edits the compositional plan of his own statement;

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

8) recognises and distinguishes the means of persuasion and manipulation in advertising texts, defines their function.

IV. Self‑study. Student:

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

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

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

The general aim of education

Students learn the nineteenth‑century ideal of a woman and confront it with a contemporary image (eg in magazines and in advertising).

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• the ability to learn;

• cultural awareness and expression.

Operational objectives

Student:

• talks about the nineteenth‑century ideal of a woman;

• defines the concept of emancipation;

• talks about the contemporary ideal of a woman;

• reflects on the image of a woman in advertising;

• creates his/her own positive advice for contemporary women.

Teaching methods / techniques

• giving: talk;

• practical: subject exercises;

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

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Before the lesson

Task fo students: Browse through several magazines and search for articles that contain various tips for today's women. Specify what they concern and what image the women create.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Introduction

1. The teacher determines the aim of the class: the students will talk about the old ideal of the woman and what has changed in the situation of Polish women over 200 years.

2. The teacher asks students what tips for contemporary women they have found during preparation for the lesson. He/she encourages class participants to synthesise the collected material. He asks for the spheres of life in which women are given advice.

Realization

1. The teacher, referring to what the students concluded on the basis of the collected materials, talks about the functions of the nineteenth‑century guidance and writing of Klementyna Hoffmanowa.

2. Students try to explain the meaning of the word emancipation in their own words and then compare their thoughts with the dictionary definition.

3. The teacher gives some information about the text of Hoffmanowa „Pamiątka po dobrej matce...”. Students read its fragment in the abstract. They subtract the author's golden thoughts from the text.

4. The participants of the classes perform an interactive exercise to check the understanding of the text, and then they create a note presenting the ideal of the nineteenth‑century woman outlined in the text. They take into account the traits of personality and mind, behaviour and proposed activities.

5. In pairs, students discuss the image of a woman emerging from the text (including whether they agree with Hoffmanowa's advice, how they interpret it today – 200 years after the creation of the text) and present their thoughts on the class forum.

6. The students, working in groups, create a list of slogans – advice for a contemporary woman. It is important that these tips do not have the nature of precepts and prohibitions, but rather positive motivating sentences that break gender stereotypes (class participants can use constructs with negation, eg „You do not need ...”).

Summary

The teacher gives students short surveys with self‑evaluation.

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

• What was the significance of women's emancipation?

• How has the image of women in culture changed?

• What was the significance of guidance for women in the past, and what is today?

Homework

Find several ads on the internet that contain the image of women. How are they presented? Formulate conclusions and write a note about their image (include what product is targeted and which is the target group).

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Good advice will not fail!

Modern guides are characterised by didacticism and informativeness, but also usefulness, persuasiveness, publicity and commerciality. They also have therapeutic qualities, addressing issues related to self‑understanding, strengthening self‑confidence or also solving various problems and building new skills. One old guide on good manners for girls was published in 1819, the creation of Klementyna z Tańskich Hoffmanowej Pamiątka po dobrej matce, czyli ostatnie jej rady dla córki. Let's try to go back 200 years…

Klementyna z Tańskich Hoffmanowa (1798–1845) – pedagogue, writer, editor and translator. Among her achievements we can find, among others, novels and tales about women, literature for children and adolescents, and publications about historical and moral character. Her reflections and suggestions of a pedagogical nature were a result of the author's thorough preparation and her personal experiences. She educated herself through discussions in the press, her travels, and comparing her own observations with the experiences of other nations. When she moved to France after the November Uprising, she had the chance to access the original texts of enlightened writers and complement her Polish education. Most of Hoffmanowa's works refer to promoting ideas related to home education and publice service. Women's texts dominate, about the problems of emancipation discussed on the pages of magazines, impelling questions close to the hearts of adolescent girls, for example future marriage, comprehensive education, relations with parents and girlish dreams and desires tailored to the social conscience of the nineteenth century and the cultural challenges of those times.

Klementyna z Tańskich Hoffmanowa's work Pamiątka po dobrej matce czyli ostatnie jej rady dla córki was published anonymously in 1819 and is considered to be the first Polish novel for girls. The discourse takes the form of a moral testament (a pedagogical treaty), in which a dying mother devises advice and instructions related to her daughter's upbringing. Hoffmanowa's work is written in the first person, suggesting a directness in the course of the narration, and an emotional character of expression (referring to the experiences of the main character – Amelia). The didactic tone is made visible by the inclusion of words of wisdom, proverbs and aphorisms, undoubtedly meant to be memorised by the reader.