Find some advice for teachers about the Ukraine 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 – Ukraine 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 Ukraine, 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 Ukraine (the first 8 pages of the lesson), or focus on the part of the lesson about history and geography. Or you could skip certain pages to shorten the lesson for your own needs. Pages that can easily be skipped: Песня “Ой у лузі червона калина”, or you could have students skip one or some of the pages about particular Ukrainian cities.

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 – under construction

Vocabulary list in Google Docs – complete vocabulary list – under construction

Speaking activities collected in one Google Doc

Texts collected in one Google Doc

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

Страница: Украина: основные факты

Note that the exercise is on this page is first in English and then in Russian. You can specify which of these you would like your students to complete based on their level, or you can have them do both.

You can find the reading text in the Тексты Google Doc for this chapter or on the Тексты page. We have also created a Украина: основные факты Google Doc that has a printable version of the text.

Страница: Украинский язык – Українська мова

You can find the reading text in the Тексты Google Doc for this chapter or on the Тексты page. We have also created a Украинский язык Google Doc that has a printable version of the text.

You can also find the Давайте поговорим questions in the Давайте поговорим Google Doc for this chapter or on the Давайте поговорим page.

Страница: Украинское произношение

This page is mainly informational and there are no exercises for students to complete.

Страница: Языки в Украине

You can find the listening text in the Тексты Google Doc for this chapter or on the Тексты page. You can also find the Давайте поговорим questions in the Давайте поговорим Google Doc for this chapter or on the Давайте поговорим page.

It may be interesting for your students to investigate more about language use in Ukraine, since it is reportedly changing sharply since the full-scale invasion in 2022. For example, this article in English is on this topic, as is this article in Russian, but you may be able to find more recent resources.

Страница: Свобода и независимость

As a follow-up activity, you may want to find some headlines of recent media or social media that use the roots that are introduced here so that students get more practice in interpreting them in context.

Страница: Тарас Шевченко

You can find the reading text in the Тексты Google Doc for this chapter or on the Тексты page. We also created a Google docs version of the text about Тарас Шевченко that could be printed if desired.

Страница: Символы Украины

You could have your students brainstorm about symbols of their own country or countries that they know about before learning about the symbols of Ukraine. If they have been aware of events in Ukraine, they might already know something about the symbols, and so you might help them to activate this prior knowledge before beginning this activity.

You can find the reading text in the Тексты Google Doc for this chapter or on the Тексты page. We also created a Google docs version of the text about symbols of Ukraine that could be printed if desired.

You could challenge your students to find Ukrainian symbols in a variety of contexts from media reports and then analyze those interpretations of the symbols.

Страница: Песня “Ой у лузі червона калина”

You can find the reading text in the Тексты Google Doc for this chapter or on the Тексты page. We also created a Google docs version of the text about Such riflemen that can be printed if desired.

After your students listen to the version of the song in the lesson, you could have them learn about the fact that, soon after the full-scale invasion began and he returned to Ukraine to help defend the country, Ukrainian musician Andriy Khlyvnyuk made a video of himself singing the song that went viral.

In an effort to show support for Ukraine, Pink Floyd used his vocals and made a single called “Hey, Hey, Rise Up!”

The South African musician the Kiffness also remixed the video:

Students could also find other versions of the song and compare them.

Страница: География и история: Слова, которые вы, наверное, уже знаете

While the chapters in Diverse Russian can be done out of order, we recommend doing the chapter on Ukraine first, in part because a lot of the vocabulary in this chapter will help students to prepare to learn about all of the different places in the different chapters.

Страница: География и история: новые слова

Because this is envisioned as the first chapter, it has a longer set of vocabulary than some of the other chapters, since all of this vocabulary will assist students in learning about all of the places in the different chapters of the book. You may want to devote extra time to the vocabulary for that reason.

Страница: География и история: Грамматика

If your students have never encountered participles or passive voice before, they may need extra support to understand these grammatical features. Again it might be a good opportunity to find some recent headlines that include these constructions and have students work out their meaning.

Страница: Стороны света

If desired, you could print out the map of Ukraine for students to work with.

Страница: История Украины

The text on the history of Ukraine may be too long for less advanced learners, so it could be an activity that could be skipped or could be done as a group.

You can find the reading text in the Тексты Google Doc for this chapter or on the Тексты page. We also created a Google docs version of the history text that can be printed if desired.

Страница: Первая кофейня Европы

You can find the reading text in the Тексты Google Doc for this chapter or on the Тексты page.

Страница: Голодомор в Украине

You can find the reading text in the Тексты Google Doc for this chapter or on the Тексты page.  We have also created a Google docs version of the text about the Holodomor that can be printed if desired.

YouTube has quite a few interesting short videos about the famine in Ukraine:

Страница: Бабий Яр (Бабин Яр)

You can find the reading text in the Тексты Google Doc for this chapter or on the Тексты page.  We have also created a Google docs version of the text about Бабий Яр that can be printed if desired.

The BBC Русская служба produced a short video on the 80th anniversary of Бабий Яр:

Страница: Выдающиеся украинцы

You can find the reading text in the Тексты Google Doc for this chapter or on the Тексты page.  We have also created a Google docs version of the text about prominent Ukrainians that can be printed if desired.

Страница: Киев

You can find the transcript of the listening text in the Тексты Google Doc for this chapter or on the Тексты page.

You can have students open a larger version of the Google map and explore the city in Google street view. An assignment could be for them to find something interesting in the city, learn about it, and then share it with their classmates.

Страница: Львов

You can find the transcript of the listening text in the Тексты Google Doc for this chapter or on the Тексты page.

You can have students open a larger version of the Google map and explore the city in Google street view. An assignment could be for them to find something interesting in the city, learn about it, and then share it with their classmates.

Страница: Одесса

You can find the transcript of the listening text in the Тексты Google Doc for this chapter or on the Тексты page.

You can have students open a larger version of the Google map and explore the city in Google street view. An assignment could be for them to find something interesting in the city, learn about it, and then share it with their classmates.

Страница: Харьков

You can find the reading text in the Тексты Google Doc for this chapter or on the Тексты page. We have also created a Google docs version of the text about Kharkiv that can be printed if desired.

You can have students open a larger version of the Google map and explore the city in Google street view. An assignment could be for them to find something interesting in the city, learn about it, and then share it with their classmates.

After learning about several cities in Ukraine, you could have students learn about other cities on their own and report to their classmates.

Страница: Ваш любимый город

You can find the Давайте поговорим questions in the Давайте поговорим Google Doc for this chapter or on the Давайте поговорим page.

Страница: Поиграем: что вы помните об Украине?

This is mostly meant to be a fun way for students to review. You could also do a similar “Викторина” in class.

Страница: Путешествие

This page features a Padlet that invites students to post about their favorite city. This Padlet is public, and anyone can post on it, and the authors of the textbook are doing their best to monitor it and make sure there are no inappropriate posts, but if you see anything that needs to be removed, please contact us at diverserussian@gmail.com to let us know. The activity prompts students that if they want, they can post on the Padlet anonymously. You should take this into consideration as you give them this assignment, so that they know how to let you know which post is theirs if it is posted anonymously. You might have them copy and paste the same text into your course management system in order to turn it in to you.