Educating Rita

Educating Rita, Programmheft der Landesbühne Niedersachsen Nord, 1981

Willy Russell: Educating Rita. Theaterstück in 2 Akten eignet sich gut zur Einführung in die Beschäftigung mit der englischsprachigen Literatur. Zahlreiche Impulse zur Beschäftigung mit britischen oder amerikanischen Schriftstellern. Unterhaltsam gemacht (wurde 1980 von der Royal Shakespeare Company aufgeführt und zur "Best Comedy of the Year" gewählt). Bietet verschiedenste Diskussionsmöglichkeiten (Klassengesellschaft, Rolle der Frau, Schule). Sehr ansprechend verfilmt. Video-Version günstig erhältlich. Sollte unbedingt in die Bearbeitung miteinbezogen werden.

Vorschlag für eine Stundenplanung - Bernhard Katzer 2003

Merke

Die folgende Stundenplanung habe ich mit ganz gutem Erfolg in einem Grundkurs 13 am Wirtschaftsgymnasium durchgeführt. Kritik, Anregungen und Berichte über eigene Erfahrungen sind willkommen

Vorbereitung

Schülerreferate

• Liverpool (Ort der Handlung)
• Willy Russel (Autor - Zusammenfassung des Textes " "Educating the author"; im Vorspann der Langenscheidt-Longman Lektüre oder im Nachspann der Diesterweg Lektüre.)
• Open University
  (Informationen dazu sind auch in den Lehrerhandreichungen abgedruckt)

1. Stunde

Inhalt	Medien	Lernziel
Referat: Liverpool	Wandkarte, Regionalkarte (Folie), Dias oder Folien	Liverpool und seine Entwicklung

2. Stunde

Inhalt	Medien	Lernziel
Referate: Willy Russell / Open University	abhängig vom Referenten	Biographischer Hintergrund des Autors / Das System der britischen Open University

3. Stunde

Inhalt	Medien	Lernziel
Summary Scene 1 Students' first impressions The setting and the characters	Tafelarbeit / Folie Entwurf eines Bühnenbildes Frank and Rita - a love-hate relationship Frank Rita drinker smoker married similarities married hates his students hates her customers dissatisfied with his life dissatisfied with her life mutual understanding -> liking reserved straightforward academic background working class background educated differences uneducated unwilling to teach eager to learn everything frustrated, bored, appalling teacher energetic, self-assured ambitious hairdresser lives in Formby lives in Liverpool educated English Liverpudlian slang misunderstandings -> contrast -> humour / conflict	Inhaltliche Grundlagen

4. Stunde

Inhalt	Medien	Lernziel
Gruppenarbeit zu Act 1 scene 1: Gruppe 1: Find obvious misunderstandings between Frank and Rita. What do they tell us about their personal backgrounds Gruppe 2: Why does Rita reject the people of her own class? Gruppe 3: This play was voted best comedy of the year. What comical effects can you find.	Download als PDF-Dokument	THE BASIC PROBLEMS THE BASIC PROBLEMS A summary Rita's past experience is deeply rooted in her working class background. She is familiar with pubs, beers, movies, pornography and popular fiction. She realises that there is something she doesn't understand, that in a way she is not free. She wants to change, wants a better way of living, but doesn't really know how to achieve it. She rejects her working class origin and changes her name. Willy Russel uses irony to point out the differences between Rita's world and Franks. (Irony is based on contrast). Rita is a breath of fresh air in Frank's disillusioned and stagnating world. (the 'handle'- scene). She feels that this is not her world and that Frank's world may not accept her (not a proper university) . Nevertheless she realised that Frank does not really fit into that other world either. (He throws students out of the window). He's different - He's some qualities which she as a working class memeber can appreciate (He's a Flora Man). But he understands the other world, too (he can swear and knows that it's only words). That's why she thinks, he's the ideal teacher for her. They are different all right, but just that gives them the chance to learn from each other. Frank might also learn from Rita (if only that, if the door needs oiling, you should "get on with it"!) Kann eventuell als schriftliche Hausaufgabe erarbeitet warden.

5. Stunde

Inhalt	Medien	Lernziel
Text - Theatre - Video Has Frank already taught her anything? The Wilde Swans at Coole Discussion about the poem Einführung der Video-Version	Folie: The White Swans at Coole Video: Educating Rita Act 1, scene 1 (13 minutes)	Assonance Unterschiede der Medien: Text - Video - Theaterstück

6. Stunde

Inhalt	Medien	Lernziel
Scenes 3 and 4 How to approach literature?	Text: act 1, scene 3 + 4 Two ways to approach literature Video part 2 (18 minutes)	How to deal with literature

7. Stunde

Inhalt	Medien	Lernziel
Gruppenarbeit: 3 Poems. Students study 3 poems and judge them.	Handouts: 1. Three poems 2. professional analyses	Appreciation vs. Literary Criticism

8. Stunde

Inhalt	Medien	Lernziel
Education Collect information about Rita's school experience. How Rita sees it. Her practical experience Frank's view	Text: act 1, scene 2 Download als PDF-Dokument	Life at a British state school Education. (critical debate) Imagine: Rita has just paid a visit to our school. Write an additional dialogue of your own, in which Rita tells Frank excitedly what she saw (Evtl. als schriftl. Hausaufgabe)

9. Stunde

Inhalt	Medien	Lernziel
RITA'S TRAGEDY the half-caste	Video part 3 (21 minutes) RITA'S DILEMMA THE EDUCATED CLASSES RITA THE WORKING CLASS dress standards customs (wine) topics if conversation language "court jester" Spanish plonk someone funny and delightful (=unusual) marriage /babies beer football Everyone pissed or on the valium plastic glasses stories about the past vandalism and violence The Daily Mirror and the Sun ITV The Unions UNFAMILIAR WORLD "I'm a half caste"(p.45) REJECTED WORLD "There must be better songs to sing" (p. 46) Text (esp. Act 1, scene 7) || Problems of a changing Rita

10. Stunde

Inhalt	Medien	Lernziel
Rita and Frank A Love Story or a Tragedy?	RITA AND FRANK A LOVE STORY? Frank RITA p23 "why didn't you walk in here 20 years ago" (p.32)"aren't you?"(having an affair with me) p34 "Let's go to the pub" interested in an affair p33 "findin meself" not interested in an affair ("connects" an affair with her previous life) ...when literature takes the place of life its time to..(34) LIFE (LOVE) MORE IMPORTANT THAN LITERATURE He wants to take life away from me (34) LITERATURE MORE IMPORTANT THAN LIFE (=LOVE) A TRAGEDY? TRAGEDY (p.40) = inevitable, pre-ordained. (Macbeth) NO Rita must finish her studies. Then she will "find a better song to sing". There is no way back for her. YES Frank will never be able to prevent Rita's change (it's inevitable) Text: Act 1, scenes 5 - 8	The difficult relationship between Frank and Rita Tragedy (Macbeth)

11. Stunde

Inhalt	Medien	Lernziel
Group work Ausarbeitung einer zusätzlichen Szene. Text production role play	Rollenvorgabe zur 11. Stunde Group 1: Write down what may have happened between Rita and Denny. (Scene "4a") - 2 students play the scene. Group 2: Rita tells her parents that her marriage is breaking up. Produce an additional scene showing how they may have argued Group 3: Frank and the other lecturers. They have got repeated reports about Frank's unconventional teaching methods. Create a dialogue between one or two senior lecturers and Frank. Text	Understanding Frank's and Rita's problems language practice

12. Stunde

Inhalt	Medien	Lernziel
The new Rita Act 2	Text Act 2, Scene 1 THE NEW RITA excited confident full of news has given up smoking new clothes (second hand) new friends (Trish / Tiger) a proper student knowledge has lost her innocent point of view An educated woman (doesn't depend on Fank anymore) </popup> Video part 4	Rita's changes at summer school

13. Stunde

Inhalt	Medien	Lernziel
Frank(enstein) Frank's tragedy	Text Act 2, Scene 2-5 FRANKENSTEIN Rita - The monster Frank produced: doesn't speak naturally (p.51; p. 67) doesn't depend on him any more (p.54-55; p.68-69) has changed her name again (p.69) prefers young, classy people (Trish, Tiger) to Frank. Instead of being subjective, innocent and unique she is now standardised in her judgement (p.67) Rita has gone - Susan is there	How Frank sees the new Rita Does education produce "Daleks"?

14. Stunde

Inhalt	Medien	Lernziel
A Happy Ending?	Video last section (45 minutes)	Video version

15. Stunde

Inhalt	Medien	Lernziel
A Happy Ending! A story of give and take	Map and pictures of Australia	Australia - paradise for the likes of me? What Australia stands for Discussion of the play's last scene

Textausgaben

• Longman Literature (ISBN 0-582-06013-3)
• Diesterweg (ISBN 3-425-04099-5) (dazu "Teacher's Book" siehe unten)
• Reclam UB 9040 (ISBN 978-3-15-009040-4; preisgünstigste Ausgabe!)

Lehrerhandreichungen

• Langenscheidt-Longman (ISBN 3-526-50382-6)
• Diesterweg: Comments and Study Aids (ISBN 3-425-09088-7)
• Diesterweg: "Teacher's Book" (ISBN 3-425-09000-2)

Film

Linkliste

• Rita will es endlich wissen
• Educating Rita (film)^(English)

Weblinks

Educatin Rita

• Educating Rita
• Educating Rita^(English)

Der Autor Willy Russell

• William Martin Russell
• Willy Russell^(English)

Info

Diese Seite basiert auf einer Veröffentlichung von Bernhard Katzer auf www.zum.de aus dem Jahr 2003 unter der Adresse http://www.zum.de/Faecher/E/BW/rita/rita.htm. Die Inhalte wurden mit der freundlichen Genehmigung von Bernhard Katzer ins ZUM-Wiki übernommen.