Sophia Cathedral in Polotsk. Photo from the Internet, forgive me its author!

I stood with a group of tourists on a green hillock and looked at the high snow-white cathedral, it seems, St. Sophia. It was in Polotsk, I am 13-14 years old and this is my first independent trip without parents. I remember that I was holding a small notebook in my hands, where I tried to write down the names of sights. I didn’t have other gadgets then, in the late 80s. And the desire to somehow document the trip has already arisen.

Later, years later, I learned that there is such a genre of travel writing in travel journalism, when a traveler writes down his observations, the most catchy moments of the trip and his impressions of it. Especially impressions that fade over time, like old printed photographs. Of course, in our digital age, it's easier to take pictures than . But it is still important to note some details in the notebook as well.

These are the names of settlements, cities, the names of people with whom they met and talked. By the way, it is important to fix as accurately as possible. Do not be too lazy to write down what the weather was like and what nuances it brought to the trip. The names of streets, cathedrals and monuments, and most importantly - the state of mind that they caused, because even cities have, and not just history.

I confess that I have never been at sea, in foreign countries and in the mountains (except that I saw the Ural Mountains from the window of a train and a car). While I travel most often in Russia. Too bad I didn't always take notes. But even now I can remember some details. In the village of Mikhailovsky, I was surprised by tall powerful pines (or spruce?) And shady alleys with bridges, and in the Svyatogorsky Monastery, where they brought Pushkin to bury, narrow dark corridors, and the death mask of the poet, similar to the theater.

Minsk is remembered for its neat station square and bright, sparsely populated metro. In the mysterious town of Nesvizh, for the first time, I saw a medieval castle with guards, a courtyard, parks, earthen ramparts and deep ditches. In Yekaterinburg, she visited the site of the death of the royal family at a time when, instead of the Church on the Blood, there was a cross with a photograph of the royal family. And nearby you could see the hills from the blown up Ipatiev house ...

Now I live in Kazan, and once I lived in Zelenodolsk and. I visited Bolgar, Urzhum, Malmyzh, Nolinsk ... Even in the smallest provincial towns there are so many interesting and unique things that you will not see anywhere else. In Nolinsk, for example, the ensemble of St. Nicholas Cathedral impresses with its grandeur and ... abandonment. The tall white walls of the cathedral are destroyed by time, and possibly by people, although it is an architectural monument. I saw it and remember...

And once we went to the Urals, to the city of Serov by car. My grandmother and grandfather, my mother's parents lived there. From the Kirov region, the path is not close, we drove for a day. But it was an unforgettable road trip! Through the sea-like Votkinsk reservoir, the cozy city of Tchaikovsky in flower beds, the foggy bridge near Kachkanar ... But a lot was forgotten, because I did not write down the interesting names and impressions that they made.

I had a camera with me (a soap dish with film), so we took some pictures, for example, the border sign between Europe and Asia, which is marked in this place by a white elegant pillar. On it one can see completely inelegant, but eternal inscriptions: Vasya was here ... We were there too! Here, we show off on the photo, old, still printed, and slightly blurry.

By the way, there are a great many such pillars throughout the Ural Mountains (and this is more than 3000 kilometers) and they are all of different types. Each has its own history. Unfortunately, I forgot (because I didn't write it down!) where in the Ural Mountains there is a pillar near which we were photographed. But maybe one of the readers will recognize this place?

And from the notes you can create a travel essay that will please the author and benefit other people. They may never visit there, but thanks to the author's travel notes, they learn a lot of interesting things.

Travel Notes (Lessons 23-24)

Travel notes, like an essay, are created on the basis of the author's observations of the facts of reality, but contain (include) not only a reproduction of what he saw, but also the thoughts and feelings of the author in connection with what he saw. As K. Paustovsky wrote, "a fact presented in a literary way, with the omission of unnecessary details and with the condensation of several characteristic features, illuminated by a faint radiance of fiction, reveals the essence of things a hundred times brighter and more accessible than a truthful and accurate protocol to the smallest detail."

Travel notes and essays help to see how our country is changing, where and how factories and power plants are being built, cities are growing, space is being explored, nature is changing, people's way of life and man himself is changing.

The educational impact of travel notes lies in the fact that they truly and figuratively reflect life, that they not only affirm the positive, but also reveal shortcomings and difficulties - this genre is an important means of the author's active intervention in life, in various phenomena of everyday reality.

Travel notes include a description of the area, landscape, portraits of characters, elements of narration and reasoning, dialogues.

Lesson 23

Purpose of the lesson

To give the concept of travel notes as one of the varieties of journalistic genre, to acquaint students with their features and structure.

Equipment

Books (for example, V. Kantorovich. "Notes of a writer on a modern essay"; Yu. Smuul. "Ice book"; N. N. Mikhailov. "At the map of the motherland", "Russian Land", "I walk along the meridian"; In Soloukhin "Vladimir lanes", V. Konetsky "Salty ice" and A. N. Radishchev "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" A. S. Pushkin "Journey to Arzrum" A. P. Chekhov "Sakhalin Island", etc.

Main stages of work

This activity can begin in a variety of ways: with a conversation, with a review of travel notes or essays available in the student book Cultivate the Gift of Words (see Ex. 87-89, etc.) or collected independently, with a short introduction by the teacher, and etc.

The sequence and variety of stages and forms of work depend on the specific conditions in which classes take place, on the composition of the optional group, its interests and capabilities, on the teaching aids available to students (player, tape recorder, overhead projector, camera, etc.). It is very good if, while preparing for this lesson, students take interesting walks and excursions, record their observations and impressions, take photographs of the area, historical monuments and secluded corners of nature, record interesting meetings, voices of birds and animals on tape or in diaries, " village voices" and the sounds of a big city, a railway station, a river station, etc.

Let's consider the content of some stages of the lesson in more detail.

Selective reading and analysis of V. Peskov's travel essay "The River of My Childhood" can be started by answering the questions that are proposed in the assignment for exercise. 87 in Cultivate the Gift of Words. Or you can - and with a brief message about the author himself: what is interesting, what he wrote, what he likes to talk about (remember "Steps on the Dew", the programs "In the Animal World"). To reveal the true meaning of V. Peskov's expression "Each of us has our own river" will help listening to songs that are consonant with this topic, viewing slides or film clips "Around our native land", students' sketches and photographs.

The head of the elective, together with the active students, selects a song that is interesting for this group in advance, and it sounds at a certain stage of the lesson. We offer several songs to choose from (of course, the teacher and students have the right to replace or supplement them):

"My Motherland" (lyrics by E. Yevtushenko, music by B. Terentyev),

"I love Russia" (lyrics by P. Chernyaev, music by A. Novikov), "Native Land" (lyrics by V. Tatarinov, music by E. Ptichkin),

"I sing about Moscow" (lyrics by Yu. Polukhin, music by S. Tulikov), "Heart of the Sea" (lyrics by S. Ostrovoy, music by B. Terentiev), "Meadow Flowers" (lyrics by S. Krasikov, music G. Ponomarenko). After listening to one or two songs (more songs can distract from the solution of the main task), the analysis of travel notes and essays can be continued. Attention should be paid to the composition of the analyzed text (how it starts, how it ends, what parts it is divided into, why the events are presented in this sequence, etc.) and the features of the author's language.

Independent work of students in optional classes should be purposeful and specific. Students are offered differentiated tasks for one text or, conversely, similar tasks for several notes or essays. Here, for example, what questions and tasks can be offered to students when working on V. Peskov's travel essay "The River of My Childhood":

1. How does the author describe his favorite river at the beginning of the essay based on childhood memories? ("... For me, this river was the first and perhaps the main school of life ... Nightingale trill at night ... We learned to swim ... as naturally as learning to walk in childhood ... And how many joys and discoveries were made in childhood by fishing!" etc.) How are the author's feelings expressed at the sight of a "river without water"? ("The river was without water... (cf. a house without windows, a forest without trees)... a grassy ghost of the river... And below the dam lay a dry and black canyon... a red-breasted bird that had flown in to bathe barely got its paws wet. .. Especially sad was the hour when I finally reached places especially dear to me ... ")

How does the mood of the author change when he sees the famous Usman forest, cut through by the full-flowing Usmanka? (“My heart fell silent with joy when, already at dusk, the boat got out onto the wide stretches ... And the whole life of the reserved forest stretched here, to the shores ... On the shore, like stray bullets, the crowns of oaks were pierced and acorns fell heavily into the darkness ... By the light of a flashlight, I wrote in my diary: "Reserved reaches. Happy day. Everything was almost like in childhood" ...)

2. Explain the meaning of incomprehensible words and expressions that are important in revealing the content of the text (canyon - a deep narrow valley washed out by a river; reach - a wide body of water on a river or lake; floodplain - a low part of a river valley flooded during floods and floods, where good grass grows, water meadow). Give an explanation of how local words and expressions are formed: stomp, shaggy, sweaty place; find in the explanatory dictionary an explanation of the meaning of the words: bochag, pothole, chaplygi, etc.

3. Find in the text words denoting the names of plants, shrubs, trees (reeds, willow, willow, willow, hops, sedge, meadowsweet, hemlock, alder, bird cherry), the names of animals, birds, fish (osprey, corncrake, beaver, heron , sandpiper, nightjar, kingfisher, burbot, perch, pike-eater, ide). Which of these plants and animals do you know? What can you tell about their habits and features?

4. Make a word-formation analysis of words denoting the names of settlements: Moskovka, Bezymyanka, Privalovka, Zheldaevka, Lukichevka, Enino, Krasino, Gorki, Pushkari, Streltsy, Storozhevoe, Krasnoe. Find the origin of the names (toponyms) of cities, rivers and villages in V. A. Nikonov’s “Concise Toponymic Dictionary” and other manuals: Moscow, Smolensk, Tula, Pskov; Gorki, Krasnoye, Usman, Ples; Elan, Ugra, Unzha, Usolye, Pochinok, Priluki, Yamskaya. Try to explain the name of the village, town, village, city where you live.

Students' independent work can be continued on the material of other exercises (see the student manual "Develop the gift of speech").

Questions-assignments to the texts of exercises direct the attention of schoolchildren to the connection between the content and form of travel notes and essays, orient them towards a holistic perception of the text.

Analysis and discussion of the materials collected by students can begin with viewing slides, photographs, drawings made by the children on a hike, on an excursion, listening to diary entries and draft notes. During the discussion, it turns out what made it difficult for the students in the travel sketches they started, what they managed to observe, what thoughts and feelings the pictures of nature evoked and how it "falls on paper" is reflected and recorded by young travelers. Students read their notes and explain why such a beginning was chosen, what is the meaning of this description, for what purpose the dialogue or lyrical digression is included in the text, how the travel notes are supposed to end and how to title. As experience shows, young authors of travel notes pay little attention to justifying the purpose of the trip. Lack of motivation makes it difficult to perceive the text, understanding the author's position. Often, students avoid descriptions of nature and terrain, and if they do introduce them, then ineptly, formally, sometimes there is no argumentation.

The texts of the exercises and assignments for them are designed to help students choose a place from which a street of a city or village, a river or lake, collective farm fields are clearly visible, i.e., "objects of description" necessary for travel notes. But not only the shortcomings should fix the attention of students.

Young authors should be encouraged, who reflected in their notes live impressions, expressed their attitude to the described fact and event; included their own reflections and reflections in connection with what they saw; managed to unequivocally express their civic position.

Summing up the discussion of the collected materials, the head of extracurricular activities points out that travel notes and essays help the reader see how our country is changing: cities are growing, factories and power plants are being built, high-rise buildings are being built, railways and new metro lines are being developed, virgin lands are being developed . And at the same time, the person himself, the builder and creator of a new life, is being transformed.

Refinement by students of the collected materials. This stage of work can be carried out in the form of consultation with individual students. The leader answers questions about the content and form of travel notes, helps with advice to improve the composition of the essay, points out errors in language and style, and gives specific advice and recommendations.

Consultations with groups of students working on related travel notes are recommended. The leader can invite individual students to read already completed parts of the text, finished fragments of the work, and even, if time permits, entire essays. The attention of the writers is drawn to how the main idea (idea) of the travel notes is expressed, whether it is clear to the author himself and whether it is brought to the mind of the reader, what this work teaches, whether the travel notes are well constructed (is there anything superfluous that is unsaid and unproved), what is the language of the author. If necessary, and at this stage of the work, it is possible to once again turn to the analysis of the texts included in the student manual "Develop the Gift of Words" (see, for example, exercise 88 and the task for it).

Session 24

Purpose of the lesson

Check how students mastered essays in the form of travel notes.

Main stages of work

Independent written work of students.

Discussion of written essays and preparation of materials for the release of the next issue of the bulletin "On the native land".

Statement of the problem: 1) two or three students are invited to prepare reports "M. Gorky about the essay" and "Memoirs of G. Medynsky about the essay" (see exercises 94, 95); 2) Several students are given assignments to talk about how essay writers collect material for their essays (see exercise 98).

Summer is vacation time. No not like this. Summer is travel time. Finally, you can see what is there, beyond the horizon. Minimum clothes, maximum impressions. And I so want it to never end.

Summer will end. Memories will remain that will warm you on long winter evenings, give a topic for talking with friends. And here's what I thought. Looking at photographs is one thing. Human memory is not perfect. That mood, those people, good and bad, met along the way will be forgotten very quickly. Something needs to be done about it. Do not spill memories of a unique summer, save it for yourself, for children, for loved ones. The only way out is to write travel notes.

How to do it? It's one thing to say "I'll write." It's another thing to force yourself to sit down and write. When you are going to write, so many thoughts. You sit down - the universal emptiness envelops the consciousness, subconsciousness and other parts of the brain. We will act according to the plan.

First plan: technical side.[ more]
1. Write down everything that happened at the same time every day. For example, at 21.00. Failed, then in the morning at 9.00. This will become a habit and it will become easier to seat yourself at the table.
2. Prepare supplies and workspace so that searching for all this does not interrupt the creative process.
3. It's good to have a laptop. If not, you need a notebook. Yes, thicker. The place where you record should also be organized. You can add plan items.
4. Let's not forget the camera!

Second plan: direct travel notes. We are following this plan here. We start with the designation of the date, time, place. Then we proceed to the description of the place in which we are, fellow travelers, events.

Describing the place is probably the easiest. What I see is what I write. At the same time, let's not forget the most important thing: to evaluate what we see, to describe our mood while admiring the area and the statements of others, if any.

It's a little more difficult with people. After all, a person has not only an external, but also an internal. With the outside, everything is clear: name, approximate, by eye, age, marital status (if possible), what he does, appearance, demeanor, gestures, smile, features. The inner can be expressed by your conversations with him. Here it is possible not to reproduce what was said with accuracy to every word, but simply in a few words, reflecting the views of the interlocutor, to convey the essence of the conversation. Again, let's not forget the main thing: to evaluate a person, you can listen to what others have to say about him, but we will not stoop to a discussion behind our backs.

Describing the events of our journey, we will use works of art, or rather their plot structure. How do writers write? According to plan. And in this regard, there are only 4 points.
1. Tie. We answer the question: how did the event start?
2. Development of action. You directly describe what actions took place, who did what, said, thought.
3. Climax. This is the most intense moment of action, when everything is on the verge of life and death, for and against, good and evil.
4. Decoupling. How did the event end? What lesson did you take away from it? How has it changed your life and those around you?

Traveling, we can become not only the heroes of some incident, but also its observers, witnesses. It's also good to write down. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others.

Do not forget that people love to read, firstly, the memoirs of famous people (and now ordinary ones), and secondly, the notes of travelers. Who knows, maybe you will write notes about your trip not only for yourself? Wake up your talents!

You will need

• camera or video camera;
• notebook and pencil;
• laptop or tablet;
• voice recorder.

Instruction

When planning your next trip, try to prepare in advance for the fact that you will keep a travel diary. To get started, seek the help of professionals. Surely, at least once you watched the programs “Around the World”, “Unlucky Notes” or turned on the “Travel-TV” channel. Find any of the stories from these cycles in the program guide or on the Internet. See them from the point of view of a traveler and a journalist. Pay attention to what the emphasis of the plot is. Sketch in a notebook or any digital device convenient for you a rough plan for keeping travel notes.

First, mark the date, time and place where you start your travel notes. By the way, you can start keeping your travel notes right after you left the house and went to the airport or train station. Secondly, start each morning with new photos and notes to them, without fail fixing their date. Accompany your comments with photos. There can be quite a lot of them, later you will have to carefully select the most interesting ones for travel notes.

Be sure to take pictures of every interesting object. It can be a local market with an abundance of seafood or tropical fruits, festive processions and just scenes from life, permeated with the flavor inherent in this place. If you do not have the opportunity to immediately write comments to the footage in a notepad, use the voice recorder, which is probably on your mobile phone. This will help in the future to recreate your impressions of what you saw and describe them in travel notes.

Do not forget a very important point: capture every vivid impression of what you see not only in a photo or video, but also in your comments to it. The sooner you describe your feelings, the more interesting and brighter your travel notes will turn out. Do not overload your notes with detailed historical information obtained from a guide or on the Internet, those who want to know the details will do it themselves. Also, do not put mean and faceless captions such as “local market”, “mountain view”, etc. under the photographs. Try to make the description interesting for the readers of your notes.

Your journey is over. It's time to arrange all the material for notes in chronological order. Collect all sources for notes together: record texts from a voice recorder, add notes from other sources, download photos. In any program convenient for you that works with texts and images, write your notes by inserting photographs and captions to them. You can also give each photo an original title, include your imagination and sense of humor. Be sure to re-read the notes and give them to your loved ones. Liked? Feel free to post your travel notes on your page, blog or any site where tourists share their travel experiences.

Summer is vacation time. No not like this. Summer is travel time. Finally, you can see what is there, beyond the horizon. Minimum clothes, maximum impressions. And I so want it to never end.

Summer will end. Memories will remain that will warm you on long winter evenings, give a topic for talking with friends. And here's what I thought. Looking at photographs is one thing. Human memory is not perfect. That mood, those people, good and bad, met along the way will be forgotten very quickly. Something needs to be done about it. Do not spill memories of a unique summer, save it for yourself, for children, for loved ones. The only way out is to write travel notes.

How to do it? It's one thing to say "I'll write." It's another thing to force yourself to sit down and write. When you are going to write, so many thoughts. You sit down - the universal emptiness envelops the consciousness, subconsciousness and other parts of the brain. We will act according to the plan.

First plan: the technical side.

• Write down everything that happened at the same time every day. For example, at 21.00. Failed, then in the morning at 9.00. This will become a habit and it will become easier to seat yourself at the table.
• Prepare supplies and a workspace so that the search for all this does not interrupt the creative process.
• It's good to have a laptop. If not, you need a notebook. Yes, thicker. The place where you record should also be organized. You can add plan items.
• Let's not forget the camera!

Second plan: direct travel notes.
We are following this plan here. We start with the designation of the date, time, place. Then we proceed to the description of the place in which we are, fellow travelers, events.

Describing the place is probably the easiest. What I see is what I write. At the same time, let's not forget the most important thing: to evaluate what we see, to describe our mood while admiring the area and the statements of others, if any.

It's a little more difficult with people. After all, a person has not only an external, but also an internal. With the outside, everything is clear: name, approximate, by eye, age, marital status (if possible), what he does, appearance, demeanor, gestures, smile, features. The inner can be expressed by your conversations with him. Here it is possible not to reproduce what was said with accuracy to every word, but simply in a few words, reflecting the views of the interlocutor, to convey the essence of the conversation. Again, let's not forget the main thing: to evaluate a person, you can listen to what others have to say about him, but we will not stoop to a discussion behind our backs.

Describing the events of our journey, we will use works of art, or rather their plot structure. How do writers write? According to plan. And in this regard, there are only 4 points.

1. Tie. We answer the question: how did the event start?
2. Action development. You directly describe what actions took place, who did what, said, thought.
3. Climax. This is the most intense moment of action, when everything is on the verge of life and death, for and against, good and evil.
4. Interchange. How did the event end? What lesson did you take away from it? How has it changed your life and those around you?

Traveling, we can become not only the heroes of some incident, but also its observers, witnesses. It's also good to write down. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others.
Do not forget that people love to read, firstly, the memoirs of famous people (and now ordinary ones), and secondly, the notes of travelers. Who knows, maybe you will write notes about your trip not only for yourself? Wake up your talents!