Title: What does it mean to be a man?

Lesson plan elaborated by: Katarzyna Maciejak

Topic:

How has the ideal of a man changed over the centuries?

Target group

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

Core curriculum

I. Literary and cultural education.

1. Reading literary works. Student:

6. knows the concept of irony, recognizes it in texts and defines its functions;

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

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, 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;

3. defines the aesthetic values of the learned cultural texts.

II. Language education.

3. Language communication and language culture. Student:

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

2. distinguishes between the standard and functional language standards and applies to them;

III. 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;

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

4. 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;

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

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

The general aim of education

Students identify the masculine pattern based on the analysis and interpretation of the poetic text.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• learning to learn;

• cultural awareness and expression.

Operational objectives

Student:

• wonders what it means to be a real man;

• analyses changes in the masculinity pattern over the centuries;

• knows that stereotypes create a simplified vision of the world;

• collects vocabulary to discuss the crisis of masculinity;

• analyses the image of a man in advertising.

Teaching methods / techniques

• giving: talk;

• practical: subject 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 purpose of the class: the students will talk about the changing pattern of masculinity.

2. The teacher signals that the masculinity model has changed over the centuries. He asks students if there is a pattern of a real man according to them. If so, what are the functions? Can it be hurt in some way?

Realization

1. The teacher encourages students to read a poem by Wisława Szymborska, who with a distance and humor referres to one of the patterns of masculinity. Students open the abstract „What does it mean to be a man?” And read the poem „Konkurs piękności męskiej” and then they answer the following questions:

• Who is the main character in the poem?

• What stylistic measures does the author use to describe a man?

• What is the character of this poem?

• How can the two last verses be interpreted?

2. The teacher talks about Szymborska's sympathy to a boxer Andrzej Gołota. The poet watched his fights and held his likeness in the house.

3. Students look in the available sources for the word kalokagatia and wonder what features are missing the man from Szymborska's poem.

4. The teacher encourages students to create individually a map of thoughts depicting the modern ideal of masculinity and the identification of traits that they consider to be stereotypical (students may also note features that they consider important). Then the students talk in pairs about their maps and check whether any of the features have repeated (maybe they will be the stereotypes – then it is worth asking what contributes to the presence of such a pattern).

5. The teacher begins a conversation about the crisis of masculinity. Students read the text of Zbyszek Melosik and try to explain in their own words what this crisis is about.

6. Students perform an interactive task consisting in assigning features to appropriate groups.

7. The teacher organises the symptoms of the Melosik's crisis of masculinity and encourages students to find online examples of advertisements in line with the traditional and modern masculine pattern. He asks students if they see any relationship between the product type and the presented image of a man.

8. The students perform an interactive exercise in which they combine antonyms with character traits. In pairs, they reflect on the benefits of changing the perception of men (an auxiliary question: what positive qualities „enriched” the contemporary man, eg sensitivity, emotionality, sensitivity, etc.).

Summary

The teacher gives students short surveys with self‑evaluation.

Then he summarises the class by asking students questions:

• How has the pattern of masculinity changed over the years?

• What are the spheres of life related to the crisis of masculinity?

• What challenges do modern men face?

Homework

Write a story whose hero will be a non‑stereotyped man. Try to show what difficulties he has to face.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

What does it mean to be a man?

Masculinity seems to be something very obvious, but this impression is misleading. Model of masculinity has been changing through the centuries. There are certain behaviour that nowadays are desirable and perceived positively in men, however, in the past they would be considered to be unmanly. Wisława Szymborska looked closely at femininity (i.e., in her poems Przy winie or Portret kobiecy ), but she also thoroughly observed masculinity. Being a careful observer of the reality, she presented one of the masculinity patterns with humour and distance, masterfully using a metaphor.

Despite the fact that in the presented poem Wisława Szymborska mockingly referred to the masculinity pattern based on the body cult, she allowed one exception - Andrzej Gołota, a professional boxer. She always watched his fights, which were very often lost, live, regardless of the broadcast time. She also watched the TV show “Dancing with the Stars” in which Gołota participated, and in her room she had his image. Maybe the Szymborska’s genius revealed here as well, maybe she recognised in Andrzej Gołota not only the boxing champion, but also his “not very masculine” sensitivity, that didn't let him achieve the success relevant to his boxing talent. Because that is what some commentators saw in him. Who knows?

Poetic thoughts of Wisława Szymborska reflect the problem connected with so‑called: masculinity crisis. This issue is widely discussed by many publicists and scientists. Zbyszko Melosik, the professor of sociology at the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań, devoted his book to this problem.

Signs of “masculinity crisis” according to Zbyszko Mellosik: