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Animal FarmCulminating Task

Central Question

How do authors develop themes and commentary through allegorical stories and characters?

Task Questions

  1. What is the lasting meaning and significance of Animal Farm’s allegory to our society and us as readers?

  2. How have you come to understand the role, importance, and symbolic meaning of a character you have examined closely?

  3. How might your character view and tell the story if it were written in first rather than third person?

  4. How might your interpretation of Orwell’s allegory be represented graphically in an original design for a book cover?

Prompt

For the Culminating Task, you will finalize and integrate the claims you have formed about Orwell’s allegory, the first-person retelling of the story from your character’s point of view, and the graphic design you have developed to communicate your interpretation of the story and its themes.

To do so, you will complete the following three pieces for the Culminating Task:

1. First-person narrative

You will finalize your first-person narrative, in which you retell key moments of Animal Farm as your character might have viewed its plot developments.

2. Poster Board Exhibit

You will develop and present a visual exhibition of your understanding of Animal Farm that includes:

  1. Your explanation of an evidence-based claim (short response) about the lasting meaning of the allegory (Culminating Task questions 1 and 2; written in Section 4 Lesson 1)

  2. A sample of your first-person self-introduction and retelling of key scenes in the story from your character’s point of view (Culminating Task questions 2 and 3 drafted for the Section 2 Diagnostic)

  3. A graphic design for a book cover that represents your interpretation of the allegory and your character (Culminating Task question 4; proposed and mocked up for the Section 3 Diagnostic)

3. Synopsis and Self-Evaluation

Write a Design Synopsis in which you summarize and explain how you have interpreted Orwell’s allegory and its lasting significance through your book cover design. Complete a self-evaluation of your final cover design using a rating form.

Guiding Questions

Use the following questions to help you evaluate and prepare your products:

Explanation of an evidence-based claim (Section 4, Lesson 1)

Does your explanation do the following:

  • State a clear claim that communicates your perspective on the relevance of Animal Farm?

  • Use textual evidence from Animal Farm to support your claim?

First-Person Narrative

Does your first-person narrative:

  • Clearly identify, introduce, and represent the personality, voice, and symbolic role of your character?

  • Describe the major plot developments of the story from your character’s point of view (as identified on the Animal Farm Storyboard Tool)?

  • Reflect your understanding of Orwell’s allegory and the characteristics of totalitarian societies he satirized?

  • Consistently narrate in the first person as you retell Orwell’s third-person narrative?

  • Use vivid action and descriptive words to bring your retelling of the story to life?

  • Tell the story in a consistent verb tense (past or present)?

  • Avoid major errors in grammar, usage, punctuation, and spelling?

Book Cover Design

Does your design include:

  • One or more selected or created image(s) of your character?

  • A graphic representation of the book’s title and author’s name?

  • Informational copy to accompany the graphic elements of your design?

Poster Board Exhibit

Is your presentation:

  • Separated into three pieces that present:

    • Your final claim about the lasting meaning of Animal Farm

    • Your final cover design

    • A one-page excerpt from your final first-person narrative?

  • Organized in a manner that showcases your work clearly to the audience?