Aim: subject-specific: to share the ideas you took from the text and to explore the linguistic means used by the author to communicate these ideas;

thinking: to develop the draft of the ENV of a text started in texts 1,2,3 for the better understanding of techniques of creating a text

Materials: the text "How We Judge People" by Richard Bach

Tasks:

1 You read the text. Now say what it made you think about; what you have possibly realised or discovered.

2 Explore how the author conveys ideas

3 Compare the texts "Weekend" and "How We Judge People". Avoid the following parameters: length, characters, theme.

 

 

Task 1a: listing ideas

Procedure: the students in turn share their ideas, the teacher notes them down. In the process of noting down the other students and/or the teacher ask for clarifications if required or make comments.

Time: 20 minutes.

Outputs: a list of ideas (here is the summary due to the economy of space)

The POV in the text is rare (it is that of a formerly famous person who got disappointed with it) – mostly disadvantages of being famous are mentioned; Journalists say things people never said – the media wrongly represent people; Famous people are not what they look like, what they are, they are 'prisoners of image', which does not make them happy; People need models – perfect examples, ideals  to strive for, to develop; ‘Everybody is an example” – we can learn from it – it depends on what we are fascinated by, who you are...; What makes someone be interested in you?; We all are equal, and everyone has problems only few people realise that; What people expect from us no matter whether we are famous or not may be different from what you wish;

Task 2:

Procedure: the students look for the extracts from the text where the mentioned ideas are expressed and note the linguistic means the author used. The teacher's role - to elicit the responses, to monitor the discussion.

Time: 20 minutes.

Outputs: the author uses examples, repetitions of specifically selected words (think they know, trying...), imagery (built a thick glass wall around), contrast (inside – outside), escalation of tension, climax, epithets (phony), synonyms with the focus on the differences in the shade of meaning (model - example, beautiful - appealing, celebrity - curiosity).

Time: 10 minutes

De-briefing/reflection questions:  why did we do this task? (to better understand the text) how can we use the answers we found through doing this task? (in analysing texts; in writing our own texts);

Fitting the information we obtained into the draft of a text ENV we have created. Where - to which parameter will it fit (Content - Ideas - How to...) (see Materials - appended)

Task 3

The students work in pairs. Then collect the similarities and differences.

Purposes: general: to let them specify the features of Bach’s style; thinking: to practice applying the ENV to describing a text and to use the draft of a text ENV

Time: 15 minutes

Outputs:

Features of R.Bach's style: setting - indefinite; plot – a mere conversation; language – neutral, 'above common', expressive, clear, simple; characters mainly  portrayed through dialogue; tone/mood - serious, philosophical; the subject matter described – meditations - makes reading hard: several dimensions.

De-briefing:  Did you use the parameters of a text to do the task? (yes, some of them) Which ones did you have to add to the ENV text draft? (tone, setting, plot) - 10 min

Homework: a choice:
Either a Content-Generation Task, or a co-authoring task or a translation into your mother tongue and then comparison with the  published translation.

Reflection:

I think the thinking aim is partially fulfilled: we have further developed  the ENV text draft, however, not without my guidance.

I devoted the lesson to the work on exploring the text to attract the students' attention to the language and to explore the author's style.

The students needed a lot of monitoring when doing task 2 (exploring the text) - I have discovered it was quite challenging to them. The task revealed the problem: how to gain output with less guidance. I still lack skills.

Generally, I think they have moved a step forward in their awareness of the ENV application to describing and comparing texts. In doing task 3 they used  the parameters of a text.