Animal Farm After Reading Activities
I view teaching Animal Farm as my civic duty. With fake news running rampant, social mediapropagating herd mentality, and politicalapathy growing by the day, I believe this book is more important now than it ever has been. Here are some ideas to ensure your students connect with and learn from the politicalmessages in Animal Farm.
1. Focus on Preventing Herd Mentality- Before I begin planning for any unit, I ask myself what is the number one theme I want my students to understand. If they only remember one thing ten years from now, what would I want it tobe? It’s not keeping up with the character names and who they represent in the Russian Revolution; it’s not learning the vocabulary. No, tome, the most important theme in Animal Farm is how “herd mentality” can lead to a country full of people who don’t know how to think for themselves. After reflecting on the most important part of the unit, I then focused on ELA standards that are best suited for recognizing, analyzing, and preventing herd mentality.
First, students analyzeOrwell’s characterization of sheep and then look at how politicalcartoonists use sheep to send messages as well. Just google “PoliticalCartoons with Sheep” and a bunch of examples will come up:
George Orwell's Animal Farm: Adapted As A Play For The Classroom: Raine, Steven: 9798354101276: Amazon.com: Books
Lastly, using StoryBoardThat or their own artisticgifts, students can create their own political cartoon to satirize and show understanding of herd mentality.
2. Use The Commandments to Model Vigilance- Another thing I like to do is display the commandments either in my room or on my door during our Animal Farm Unit. I put them up and change them every time a commandment is altered on the farm, but I never draw attention to them or mention them once they are up. Undoubtedly, students forget about them and don’t notice when they change…until the last one. Since the last sign is drastically different, it’s so much easier to notice. This leads to a wonderful discussion in which students recognizehow important it is to follow the news and take a stand against corruption.
3. Analyze and RecognizePropaganda – As another way to promote critical thinking in the real world, students learn to recognize propaganda and analyze how it’s used for political agendas. First, students analyzehow Squealer is able to persuade the animals not to speak up against the missing milk. They look for ethos (emerald green), pathos (pink), and logos (light blue) then break apart his speech into specificpropaganda techniques.
Animals At The Farm Big Book / Animales De La Granja
To keep with the same topic for a clear comparison, I then show three milk commercials all of which predominantly use ethos, pathos, or logos. Next, we look at specific propaganda techniques and discuss how this level of analysis should go into every political persuasion attempt we encounter.
An interesting way to keep up with Squealer’s propaganda while teaching Animal Farm is by having students create a literary bar graph. Not only does this prompt students to take notice of propaganda in Animal Farm, but it also creates a great visual to discuss. What do you notice? How does Orwell believe most citizens are manipulated?
4. Combat Fake News- The important lesson of spotting fake news pairs nicely with Animal Farm (think fake updates on Snowball and hiding food shortages). Students will easily pick up on the fake news within Animal Farm, but I want them to extend this analysis to the real world. To do that, we look at this amazing fake news infographic, study fake news techniques on Snopes, then synthesize learning by creating fake news tweets from Squealer.
Animal Farm Critical Thinking And Creative Activities
5. STEM with Meaning- I’m a huge advocate of designing STEM projects for the ELA classroom. As I was thinking of a project to use with myAnimal Farm unit, I immediately pictured the windmill. There are so many ways to incorporate a STEM Windmill project into this unit. These ideas can range fromin-depth and cocurricular or small and in-house.
*(in-depth) Use this guide to build a windmill at the start of the unit. Have students test their durability and efficiency. As with Animal Farm, their windmills probably won’t hold up very long. Have students work to make their windmills stronger. Once you get to the attack on the windmill in Animal Farm, ask students how they would feel if you destroyed their hard work. Next, ask students to research which agencies might benefit from destroying clean energy initiatives in the U.S.
*(easy but also meaningful) Have students think about the symbolism of the windmill and create a paper version of their own. The back of the paper is used to answer what the windmill represents in Animal Farm while the front is used to artistically express dreams for their own country. The results are really beautiful.
Animal Farm Picture Description: English Esl Worksheets Pdf & Doc
6. Practice PoliticalGrowth Mindset- While I’ve always found the themes in Animal Farm important, I have a hard time leaving my students with the cryptic ending. It wasn’t until recently that I realized I could change this. Benjamin the donkey provides the ultimate example of a fixed political mindset. He doesn’t believe he can make a difference and just sits back and watches as his country falls into despair. This is the exact opposite of the mindset I want to instill in my students. Therefore, I want my students to recognize the pitfalls of a fixed political mindset and work to change theirs to a growth political mindset. This can be done with a fun role-playing activity.
First, students don these ridiculous Benjamin the Donkey hats and act how he would respond to motivational quotes such as, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Next, students look at passages from the text and reword Benjamin’s fixed mindset into a growth mindset. Lastly, students put on the “wise owl” hat and respond to negative quotes such as, “If voting helped anything, they would make it illegal.”
Animal Farm Study Guide
7. Connect Animal Themes to Modern Day Issues- There’s no point in reading Animal Farm if students can’t connect the text and theme to issues in their lives. To help them find connections, I like to find modern-day pairings that use animals to spread political messages in the way Orwell does. A really good example of this isZootopia!
If you haven’t seen Zootopia or if you’ve only watched it as a children’s cartoon, then you might be surprised to realize there are lots of important messages in this film. Most important is their use of animals to illustrate inequality in a world perceived as equal. This plays very well into Orwell’s message of “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”Evaluate general reading comprehension and support the development of close reading analysis skills with this bundle of formative assessments covering chapter 2 of
By George Orwell. Included are the following: a plot-based quiz, a close reading worksheet, and answer keys. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.
Animal Farm By Eli Publishing
The Merchant of Venice Act 5 Scene 1 Close Reading Analysis Activity by Inquiring Mind of the English Teacher Kind Extend reading comprehension and support the development of close reading analysis skills for high school with this set of rigorous questions about Shakespeare'sThe Merchant of Venice. Focusing on Act 5, … 10th 11th 12th Drama Language Arts Reading Activities Assessment Worksheets
The Tempest Act 3 Quiz and Answer Key for High School by Inquiring Mind of the English Teacher Kind Evaluate general reading comprehension and eliminate assessment planning responsibilities with this quiz covering Act 3 of William Shakespeare'sThe Tempest. The quiz may double as a guided reading worksheet to facilitate… 10th 11th 12th Drama Language Arts Reading Activities Assessment Worksheets
To Kill a Mockingbird Chapter 9 Close Reading Worksheet by Inquiring Mind of the English Teacher Kind Support the development of close reading skills with this worksheet composed of challenging questions designed to help high school students analyze chapter 9 ofTo Kill a Mockingbirdby Harper Lee. An… 10th 11th 12th Critical Thinking Language Arts Reading Activities Assessment Worksheets
Animal Farm Background Posters
Jurassic Park Fourth Iteration Quiz and Answer Key by Inquiring Mind of the English Teacher Kind Promote homework accountability and measure general reading comprehension with this printable assessment covering the fourth iteration ofJurassic Parkby Michael Crichton (chapters 30 through 43). Delivered in Word Document and PDF… 10th 11th 12th Back to School Language Arts Reading Activities Printables Worksheets
“Rules of the Game” by Amy Tan Close Reading Analysis Worksheet for High School by Inquiring Mind of the English Teacher Kind Help high school students go beyond general reading comprehension and support the development of critical thinking skills with this close reading analysis worksheet covering Amy Tan's short story titled Rules… 9th 10th 11th Critical Thinking Language Arts Reading Activities Assessment Worksheets
“Thank You, Ma’am” by Langston Hughes Quiz and Answer Key by Inquiring Mind of the English Teacher Kind For many middle and high school readers, realistic and young adult fiction are genres that maximize relatability and engagement with literature. Thank You, Ma'am by Langston Hughes is a short… 7th 8th 9th Back to School Language Arts Reading Activities Printables Worksheets
Longdown Farm Activity Book
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use
Posting Komentar untuk "Animal Farm After Reading Activities"