Lesson 2

Lesson Goals

Texts

Core

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

Materials

Tools

• Character Note-Taking Tool

• Animal Farm: Reading Schedule

• Summarizing Text Tool

• Vocabulary Journal

• Animal Farm: Vocabulary List

• Vocabulary in Context Tool

Question Sets

• Animal Farm: Section 1 Question Set

Editable Google Docs

• Character Note-Taking Tool

• Animal Farm: Section 1 Question Set

• Summarizing Text Tool

• Vocabulary Journal

• Vocabulary in Context Tool

Activity 1: Read – Discuss

We will examine the first four paragraphs of Animal Farm and discuss what we initially learn about the story, its setting, and the characters who are introduced.

Step 1

As a class, reread the first paragraph of the story closely, paying attention to words that describe the setting and the first character you are introduced to, Mr. Jones. Discuss the first text-specific question from your homework reading:

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

In considering the setting of the story, discuss the second homework question:

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

Step 2

With a reading partner, make a list of the animal characters who are introduced in paragraphs 2–4, noting the details of the initial descriptions of the key characters (Old Major, Clover, Boxer, Benjamin, Mollie, the cat). Select one of those characters, and with your partner, discuss this text-specific question from your homework reading, focusing on what you learn about your chosen character:

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

Step 3

As a class, discuss the six animal characters who have been introduced so far and how Orwell has described and characterized them. Refer to specific words and details that you find in the first five paragraphs of the novel.

Using the Summarizing Text Tool on which you took notes during your homework reading, discuss other key details that are presented in the opening scenes of Chapter 1.

Activity 2: Read – Discuss – Write

We will consider what we learn about old major from his initial description in the novel, his first-person self-characterization, and the speech he delivers to the animals. We will be introduced to the character Note-Taking Tool.

Step 1

As a class, discuss two ways you can learn about a character in a story, through descriptions of the character by the narrator (third-person characterization) and through the character’s own words and self-characterization (first-person characterization). Find and read the following two descriptions of Old Major:

“He was twelve years old…”

“I have had a long life...”

1. In terms of what you learn in the two descriptions, which details are similar and which are different?

2. What is different about how the two characterizations are presented—one in third-person and the other in first person?

Step 2

Follow along as your teacher introduces and models another tool you will use as you study Animal Farm and follow the development of its characters: the Character Note-Taking Tool.

Note the two character descriptions for Old Major that you have just considered and how you might code them in the tool.

Step 3

Turn to the speech by Old Major that expresses his beliefs about how farm animals are treated and precedes his teaching of the song “Beasts of England.”

Briefly discuss what you have noted during your reading of Chapter 1 as the key details of the speech and what they suggest about Major’s view of humans.

Listen as your teacher reads excerpts from Old Major’s speech, and continue taking notes about him based on what you hear and read in the speech’s excerpts.

As a class, discuss what Old Major says in the speech and how it tells you more about him as a character, his view of the world, and his thoughts about the plight of the animals.

Find and read the quotation by Old Major that begins with “No animal in England…” and ends with “...that is the plain truth.”

Discuss the examples he provides to support these claims about the lives of animals.

Step 4

Identify other related claims made by Old Major in his speech. Record further details in your Character Note-Taking Tool for Old Major.

In light of your examination of the speech, reconsider this text-specific question from your homework reading:

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

Activity 3: Read – Discuss – Write

We will examine the song old major teaches the animals, “Beasts Of England,” and how it connects to his speech and contributes to the exposition of the story’s plot and themes.

Step 1

Turn to the lyrics for “Beasts of England,” the song from Old Major’s dream that he teaches to the animals.

Listen to the lyrics being read aloud or to a recording of an interpretation of the song provided by your teacher.

Step 2

Read the first two stanzas (eight lines) of the song closely, noting details of what it predicts as “a golden future time.”

Discuss the ways in which the song might be predicting what might happen as the novel’s plot develops.

In your Learning Log, make and explain a prediction you have at this point in your reading about what will happen as the narrative develops and the story plays out.

Activity 4: Read

We will begin working with vocabulary and adding words to our Vocabulary Journals. We will learn how to use the Vocabulary in Context Tool.

Step 1

For this activity, you will use the unit’s Vocabulary List and a Vocabulary Journal, which you will maintain for the entire unit.

You might use a Vocabulary in Context Tool for words you can decipher from the text; for others, you might use morphology to decipher the meaning, or a reference resource to check if your meaning is accurate. For some words, your teacher might present you with definitions.

Record the words and definitions in your Vocabulary Journal. For each word, identify the vocabulary strategy (e.g., context, morphology, reference resource) you used to determine its meaning.

Step 2

Follow along as your teacher models how to use the Vocabulary in Context Tool with a vocabulary word from Animal Farm.

Use the following questions as you use the tool:

1. How does using context clues help you define the word paddock—a technical term used in farming and ranching?

2. How does the dictionary definition differ from the one your teacher wrote down on the tool?

3. Is the dictionary definition essential to understanding the text?

Step 3

Work with a partner or group to respond to the vocabulary exercises, as directed by your teacher.

Activity 5: Read – Discuss – Write

For homework, we will read chapter 2 of Animal Farm, using a character Note-Taking Tool to record key details for a character we are interested in.

For homework, read Chapter 2 of Animal Farm.

Set up a Character Note-Taking Tool to record key details for a character you are interested in following more closely.

Consider the following text-specific questions as you read and think about what happens in the second chapter of the narrative.

1. What are the key details of what happens “during the next three months” as presented in Chapter 2?

2. How does the plot of the story move in a new direction during the “sudden uprising” of the animals against the humans?

3. After the rebellion, the animals gather on the knoll to view what is now “theirs,” make a “tour of inspection of the whole farm,” and even enter the farmhouse “with the utmost care.” What do their actions suggest about how the meaning of the farm has changed for them?

4. At the end of Chapter 2, what do we learn about the pigs and how they have prepared for managing Animal Farm?

5. What do the Seven Commandments of Animalism suggest about how the animals will live together on Animal Farm?

Using a 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.