Language Resident Name: Aleksandra Bystrova
Date: 08/29/2022
Class theme/topics discussed: Literature
Goal of the class:
- Learn about Russian Literature
- Speculate on the content of a literature piece adaptation
- Check your knowledge on famous Russian books
- Practice creative writing
How did you structure the class?
- Warm-up: 6 classic books (10 min)
I show students the book covers of 6 Russian literature classics. After randomly reading the books back cover, students should match them to the book cover (the idea is taken from Spanish LR Natalia Cano). - Activity 1. Watch a video with “literature questions for Russian high-school students” (10 min)
Can you answer those questions?
3. Activity 2. Watch a moment from the adaptation of Bulgakov’s “Master and Margarita” (20 min)
I show students a videoclip from anadaptation of Bulgakov’s “Master and Margarita” without sound. I ask them to figure out what is going on and what is the conflict of the situation. Мастер и Маргарита
Then we watch it again with sound.
4. Wrap-up (20 min)
In pairs, create a story with this text as inspirations. Then, each pair will share their story with the rest of the class.
Если моя память меня не обманывает, и я всё еще могу считать себя здравомыслящим человеком, с нормальной способностью интерпретировать знаки календаря и часов, я укажу, что я ошибся ровно десять дней и девять часов назад.
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
Students enjoyed reading summaries of works of Russian classics. I made sure to include key words in these descriptions and encouraged them to search. In addition, I made the annotations as close to real Russian as possible, so they had difficult vocabulary, but the students did a great job determining the general idea. I was worried that my students would not be able to answer the questions of the second assignment, but to my surprise, they knew almost all the answers. As for The Master and Margarita, students came up with creative interpretations. Although one of my students knew the plot, he participated in creating a new story. The last assignment also went well; it was a good way to end the lesson, although I expected it to be more massive.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
I would leave it as it is. It was a great class and I really enjoyed it!