Lesson 1

Lesson Goals

Texts

Core

• • Afterword to Animal Farm from Signet Classics 75th Anniversary Edition, Russell Baker, Signet Classics, 1954
  • Introduction to 1954 edition of Animal Farm, C. M. Woodhouse, Signet Classics, 1954

• • Animal Farm, George Orwell, Signet Classics, 2004

Materials

Tools

• Animal Farm: Reading Schedule

• Summarizing Text Tool

• Animal Farm: Unit Text List

• Vocabulary Journal

• Animal Farm: Vocabulary List

Reference Guides

• Narratives Reference Guide

Question Sets

• Animal Farm: Section 1 Question Set

Editable Google Docs

• Animal Farm: Section 1 Question Set

• Summarizing Text Tool

• Vocabulary Journal

Activity 1: Read – Discuss – Write

We will be introduced to the narratives reference guide and use it to learn about the symbolic narrative genres of the fairy tale, fable, allegory, and parable.

Step 1

We will begin by examining our copy of the narrative we will read in this unit: George Orwell’s Animal Farm. In a class discussion, anticipate what you might experience when reading this book:

1. From the title alone, what do you imagine the story might be about?

Find the original copyright date for the book and consider this discussion question:

2. What do you know about history and the world in the 1940s?

Consider the subtitle that Orwell gave his book: “A Fairy Story.”

3. What kind of stories do you associate with fairy tales?

Step 2

Access and review the Narratives Reference Guide, a resource you will use in this unit.

Note that the first page of this reference guide explains:

• What the concept of narrative writing entails

• When you might use the information in the reference guide

• Why understanding the mode of narrative writing is important

Step 3

Turn to the glossary on page 10 of the reference guide. Study the section titled Narratives that Rely Heavily on Symbolism and Motif.

With a reading partner, read through and discuss (in order) the explanations of the following narrative forms:

• Legend or folk tale (fairy tale)

• Fable

• Allegory

• Parable

Discuss this question with your partner (or the class):

4. How are these narrative forms related? What are the distinctions among them?

In your Vocabulary Journal, write in your own words a definition for each of these narrative forms, with an example.

Activity 2: Read – Discuss – Write

We will consider how two writers have commented on Animal Farm as a “Fairy Story” and fable.

Step 1

Read and discuss this quotation from journalist and critic Russell Baker:

“Orwell called the book ‘a fairy story…’ [but] it is too many other things to be so handily classified. It is also…an allegorical lesson, and a pretty good fable in the Aesop tradition.” (para. 6)

1. When Baker refers to the book as “an allegorical lesson” what might he be suggesting?

2. What does calling the book a “fable in the Aesop tradition” imply?

Step 2

Consider a second quotation about Animal Farm as a “fairy story” from a 1954 introduction to the novel by British writer C. M. Woodhouse:

“In what sense can Animal Farm properly be called a fairy-story? ...at first sight it is tempting to conclude that Orwell wrote his subtitle with his tongue in his cheek, and to read Animal Farm with our tongues in ours.

In fact Orwell was a deep lover of words who never consciously misused them. If he said he had written a fairy-story with a political purpose, we cannot lightly suppose he spoke lightly. A political purpose suggests some kind of moral, and that suggests rather the fable, the medium of Aesop.” (paras. 12-13)

Note details in this quotation that tell you something about Orwell as a writer, and discuss this text-specific question:

3. What does Woodhouse say about how seriously we should read Orwell’s story and look for a moral or political purpose?

Step 3

In your Learning Log, write a few sentences in which you discuss what thinking of Animal Farm as a fairy tale, fable, or allegory might mean for how you read and think about the book.

Activity 3: Read – Discuss – Write

We will use the narratives reference guide to learn about concepts and phases of plot development in a narrative: exposition, complication, climax, and resolution.

Step 1

Turn to pages 2 and 3 of the Narratives Reference Guide and the section titled Developing Narrative Plot through Elements of Organization and Structure.

With a reading partner, study the explanations for the phases of plot development in a story’s narrative sequence:

• Exposition

• Complication (rising action)

• Climax

• Resolution (denouement)

Consider a story both of you have read recently (or a film you have viewed) and talk about how it is developed through these phases of the plot.

Step 2

After a class review, write entries for these plot concepts in your Vocabulary Journal.

Activity 4: Read – Discuss – Write

We will view and discuss an animated fable, considering how its characters and plot are developed and what its allegorical meaning might be.

Step 1

View an animated fable selected by your teacher. While you watch, pay attention to how the story unfolds through the phases of its plot:

1. What do you first learn about the setting, characters, and initial events in the exposition of the story?

2. As the story develops through its complication, what happens and how are the characters and conflicts further presented?

3. What key events serve as a turning point or climax for the fable’s story?

4. How is the story resolved and its moral presented through its resolution or denouement?

Step 2

As a class, discuss the fable, how it is presented through animation, and what you think its moral, meaning, or commentary might be.

Talk about how the story and its meaning are developed through the phases of plot development.

Activity 5: Read – Discuss – Write

We will use the Summarizing Text Tool to analyze and summarize the key details, characters, and plot development of the fable we have viewed. We will then develop a short summary and a statement about the fable’s central idea or theme.

Step 1

Follow along as your teacher introduces (or reviews) a reading tool you will use in this unit and throughout the course: the Summarizing Text Tool.

Note that the tool is divided into three sections:

• One for recording an initial understanding of a text’s central idea or theme

• A second for recording key characters, events, and details of the text

• A third in which you can write a short detail-based summary of the text and refine your understanding of its central idea or theme

Step 2

In the top section of your copy of the tool, write a sentence or two that expresses your initial understanding of the central idea or moral of the animated fable you have viewed.

Step 3

Follow along and record notes as your teacher models for the class how to think about the characters, events, and first key details introduced during the fable’s exposition. Record your notes in the top three rows of the Note Key Details section of the tool.

With a reading and discussion partner, record notes about how the plot of the fable develops in the following rows:

Key Detail(s) 2: Details about the complication or rising action of the fable

Key Detail(s) 3: Details about what happens in the climax of the fable

Key Detail(s) 4-5: Details about the resolution or denouement of the fable and the moral it suggests

Step 4

On your own, use the tool to summarize the text:

• Write a 4–5 sentence summary of the fable as it is developed through the phases of its plot.

• Then write a sentence or two that sums up the moral or meaning of the fable as you now understand it.

Compare your statement about the fable’s meaning with that of your discussion partner, then share it in a class discussion.

Activity 6: Read – Discuss – Write

We will review the Unit Text List to familiarize ourselves with the texts we will analyze and discuss throughout the unit.

Access and review the Unit Text List. Note the information that is included about each text. These texts are also listed in the activities in which they appear, under the Materials tab. You will notice that each text has an icon by it. These indicate where the text is located, which corresponds to the Location column in the Unit Text List.

Text locations:

• Tradebook: These texts are full-length novels or nonfiction books you will most likely have copies of.

• Digital Access: You can find these texts online. Use the information provided in the Unit Text List or on the Materials tab for the activity to conduct a web search for the resource. Digital Access resources include online articles, videos, podcasts, and other web sources.

• Unit Reader: These texts can be found in the Unit Reader.

• CD/DVD: This material is available on a CD or DVD. These materials might also be available through online content providers.

Activity 7: Read – Discuss – Write

For homework, we will read chapter 1 of Animal Farm, paying attention to how this exposition phase of the novel introduces its setting, characters, initial events, and possible themes. We will use the Summarizing Text Tool to record notes about key details in preparation for a class discussion of the novel’s exposition.

Step 1

For homework, read Chapter 1 of Animal Farm, which presents the story’s exposition. Consider the following text-specific questions as you read and think about what happens in the first chapter of the narrative.

1. What do you learn in the first paragraph of the story about its setting and the character of Mr. Jones?

2. Why do you think Orwell might have chosen the setting of a farm for his allegory? What might the farm represent or symbolize?

3. How are the animals introduced and what do you initially learn about them?

4. What are your initial thoughts about Old Major: his speech, his dream, and the song he teaches the animals?

Step 2

Using a new Summarizing Text Tool, record key details you notice as you read and think about these questions in preparation for a class discussion in the next lesson.