Find some advice for teachers about the Baltics chapter on this page, organized by page of the lesson. Click the plus signs to open them.

You can also find some materials for use in the classroom in our Diverse Russian – Baltics Google folder. We also hope that if you have materials related to the book’s content that you are willing to share, that you will upload them to the “Sharing materials from users” folder as well.

General guidance and resources

Depending on your students’ level, you might want to spend 4-6 class periods on the chapter about the Baltics, though the material could also be used a little at a time if it is supplementing another intermediate textbook. However, if you only have a short time to spend, you could either focus on more general information about the Baltics (the first 8 pages of the lesson), or focus on the part of the lesson about travel. Or you could skip certain pages to shorten the lesson for your own needs. Pages that can easily be skipped: Балтийский путь, Русский язык в странах Балтии, “Прибалтика” – Как война изменила русский язык, Туризм в странах Балтии.

Resources

Quizlet sets – main vocabulary list

Quizlet sets – complete vocabulary list

Vocabulary list in Google Docs – main vocabulary list

Vocabulary list in Google Sheets – complete vocabulary list

Vocabulary list in Google Docs – complete vocabulary list

Speaking activities collected in one Google Doc

Texts collected in one Google Doc

Diverse Russian – Baltics Google folder (materials that can be used in class)

Страница: Основные факты

On this page, students learn main facts about the three Baltic countries, and on the next page, they have to try to remember them. To assist them in remembering, you could have them ask each other questions about the information in the infographics.

The infographics can be opened in a separate tab (there are links above each one on the page), or you can find them in the Google Docs infographics folder for this chapter.

Страница: Основные факты: Что вы помните?

Infographics can again be found in the Google Docs infographics folder for this chapter.

You could assign students to find out interesting facts about the Baltic countries as a part of a homework assignment and then report back to the class the next class period.

Страница: География стран Балтии

Давайте поговорим!

Remember that you can find the speaking activities from the whole chapter on the Давайте поговорим! page as well as in the speaking activities Google doc.

Страница: История стран Балтии

Давайте почитаем!

This page consists of a timeline that has an overview of some of the main periods in the history of the Baltic countries. The text of the timeline can be found on the Тексты page (or in the texts Google doc), but the timeline contains functionality that cannot be replicated, as well as some interesting images.

Part of the intention behind the timeline is to show students that the Baltics have many common parts of their history, but really only started to be considered as a group more recently.

Страница: Холокост в странах Балтии

Давайте послушаем!

With 3 countries to consider, there was not enough space in the chapter to attempt to go through each of their histories in depth, so we only chose a couple of historical events to highlight. Of course, the Holocaust is extremely important because of its profound effect on each of these countries, and also because we often have students in our classrooms who have Jewish ancestors from these areas.

The interview with Ирена Вейсайте is profound and moving, and it may be worth spending more time on it than designated in this lesson. Students may need to be reminded that these memories belong to just one person, and so of course the experiences of others at the time varied, and peoples’ opinions about such topics as anti-Semitism can vary greatly. Because this topic is likely too advanced for most Intermediate-level learners, it might require some discussion in English.

The transcript of the interview, which can be found on the Тексты page (or in the texts Google doc, or separately in a Google doc), can be helpful if you would like to go more closely into the text with your students. At the bottom of the page you can also find a link to more interviews from other people, which might be useful to illustrate varying opinions and experiences.

Страница: Балтийский путь

Давайте послушаем! / Давайте почитаем!

You can find the transcript of the video on the Тексты page (or in the texts Google doc, or separately in a Google doc). The quotes are also available there or in a printable version. You can find several links at the bottom of the page to articles which contain more information about the event, which might be useful if you would like to go into more depth about this topic with students.

Страница: Русский язык в странах Балтии

Давайте послушаем!

The video on this page is long, but as it plays on the screen is shown a transcript as well as an English translation, and so students should be able to understand it, but may not have the time to focus on every detail. You can find the Russian text of the video on the Тексты page (or in the texts Google doc, or separately in a Google doc). The “Easy Russian” YouTube channel has several other videos on similar topics, which are included at the bottom of the page.

Страница: “Прибалтика” – Как война изменила русский язык

Давайте почитаем!

The original text from Новая газета that this page is based on is quite complex, but it has been shortened and adapted here. The text can be found on the Тексты page (or in the texts Google doc, or separately in a printable Google doc).

The video at the bottom of the page covers some of the same ground as the text.

Страница: Путешествия: Слова, которые вы, наверное, уже знаете

You may want to review the verbs of motion ходить / идти / пойти, ездить / ехать / поехать, летать / лететь / полететь if your students are not very familiar with them. Many of the blanks have hints included that students can use if they need help.

Страница: Путешествия: грамматика

It’s important to note that since this book does not focus on grammar, the grammar that is presented is not aiming to be thorough, and is only intended to help students with what they need to complete the activities in the book. So, though verbs of motion is a grammatical topic in this chapter, we are not intending this as a complete overview. We have focused on what we believe to be the forms that students are most likely to use when talking about travel (past: multidirectional; present: unidirectional; future: perfective). If you feel that your students will need other forms, then you may want to supplement with more practice with other forms.

Страница: Туризм в странах Балтии

Давайте почитаем!

The infographic can be found in the Infographic Google folder for this chapter. Note that despite the fact that the term “Прибалтика” is considered by many to be a colonial term, it is still used in this infographic, and in several other places in the chapter. Of course, opinions are varied on different terms, and sometimes old habits are difficult to break. You could have a discussion with your students in which you ask them to think of similar examples in English.

Страница: Путешествие по городам стран Балтии

Давайте послушаем!

Note that the videos that are given at the various points of the map are quite long (most are between 10 and 20 minutes long), so unless you dedicate more time to this page, you should not expect that your students watch all of the videos. The idea is to just explore some of the cities to get an idea of what they look like. Of course, if you would like to spend more time on the cities, you could have your students engage in the videos more in depth. Because this activity is not meant to focus on all the details of the videos, we did not include the video transcripts in the supplementary materials. In most cases, however, you can get the video transcript by going to the video on YouTube and clicking on “Show transcript”. This button is usually displayed in the description of the video.

Давайте поговорим!

If the travel ticket website suggested on the page doesn’t work or is not available, you can provide another one for your students to use, or help them to search for other ways of buying travel tickets online.

Страница: Ужупис

Давайте послушаем!

The transcript of this video can be found on the Тексты page (or in the texts Google doc, or separately in a printable Google doc). Similarly, you can find the text of the Ужупис constitution in a printable form in you prefer in a Google doc. Note that we shortened the constitution somewhat and if your students are more advanced, you may want to show them the full version, which you can find here: Конституция республики Ужупис

Страница: Рижский югендстиль

Давайте послушаем!

The transcript of this video can be found on the Тексты page (or in the texts Google doc, or separately in a printable Google doc). You can also find the infographic that is on this page in the Infographics folder.

Давайте поговорим!

Make sure that your students understand that it’s OK if they don’t guess correctly all of the architecture styles.

Страница: Музей оккупаций

Давайте послушаем!

The transcript of this video can be found on the Тексты page (or in the texts Google doc, or separately in a printable Google doc).

If your students are interested in politics, you could follow up these activities by having them learn more about Donbass or Transnistria.

Страница: Ярмарка в Вильнюсе: Казюкас

Давайте послушаем!

The transcript of this video can be found on the Тексты page (or in the texts Google doc, or separately in a printable Google doc).

One of the activities on this page highlights an “incorrect” use of numbers. You may want to stress to your students that this use, while technically incorrect, is extremely common, and worth learning because they are extremely likely to hear it.

The speaker in this video talks quite quickly, so if your students need help, you can remind them how to slow down the speed of the video.

Страница: Фестиваль уличной еды

Давайте послушаем!

The transcript of this video can be found on the Тексты page (or in the texts Google doc, or separately in a printable Google doc).

Страница: Балтийский прайд

Давайте послушаем!

The transcript of this video can be found on the Тексты page (or in the texts Google doc, or separately in a printable Google doc). You can also find the infographic that is on this page in the Infographics folder.

Давайте почитаем!

The information on this page is likely to change quickly, so be sure that your students realize that things may have changed. You may want to help them to do some research in Russian to find out what the most recent developments are regarding LGBTQ+ rights in the Baltics.

Страница: Планируем поездку: подготовка

Since this set of activities is rather long, you could assign only part of it.

You can find a printable version of the Отзывы from page 6 in the Google folder.

A possible follow-up activity would be to have students write hotel reviews based on the reviews in the activity.

Страница: Планируем поездку

This activity could take a whole class period or even more than one, with students working together and then presenting to their peers. Or you could have them do it as a homework assignment and then post it on the Padlet (which is on the next page in the lesson) or hand it in via your course management system.

The activity uses a “Documentation tool” to allow students to create a Word document that can then be downloaded to their computer. Or if you prefer, you can have them use a Google doc version. You could print it out, or you could have them make a new copy of the Google doc and then type in their answers.

Страница: Ваша поездка

This page allows students to share with others their fictional trips. If students from other universities have posted on this collective Padlet, it might be interesting for your students to compare their trips with those of their peers.

Страница: Поиграем: что вы помните о странах Балтии

This game is mostly for fun, to help students remember what they learned about the Baltics. You could have them do it in teams in a friendly competition in class.