Lesson 6

Lesson Goals

Texts

Core

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

Materials

Tools

• Analyzing Relationships Tool

• Character Note-Taking Tool

• Animal Farm: Reading Schedule

• Vocabulary Journal

Reference Guides

• Narratives Reference Guide

Question Sets

• Animal Farm: Section 1 Question Set

Editable Google Docs

• Analyzing Relationships Tool

• Character Note-Taking Tool

• Animal Farm: Section 1 Question Set

• Vocabulary Journal

Activity 1: Discuss – Write

We will learn about a new tool used to study relationships among textual evidence, the Analyzing Relationships Tool. As a class, we will develop a tool to analyze a character.

Step 1

Follow along as your teacher introduces (or reviews) the Analyzing Relationships Tool, used to examine the connections and relationships among various details in a text.

As a class, set up an Analyzing Relationships Tool for one of the characters in Animal Farm. With your teacher modeling, consider key passages and details from Chapters 1–5, in which the character is described or plays a role, in response to this text-specific question:

1. Based on evidence from the text, how do you visualize this character? What descriptive words and visual images come to mind?

Enter this question at the top of the class Analyzing Relationships Tool.

Step 2

Identify key scenes in Chapters 1–5 in which the character is described or plays a role. As a class, generate a list of descriptive words and images associated with the character.

For example, if your character is Benjamin, you would find key descriptive passages in Chapters 1 and 3.

For this Benjamin example, you might list these descriptive characteristics:

Chapter 1: oldest, ill-tempered, cynical, never laughs

Chapter 3: unchanged, slow, obstinate, opinionless, cryptic

Select three key passages, descriptions, or images for the character from the list and enter them into the first row (Attend to Details) of the model Analyzing Relationships Tool.

As a class, discuss “how the details are related (e.g., connections, contrasts, patterns, overall meaning)” in relationship to the question about visualizing the character.

Summarize the class discussion in the second (Analyze Relationships) row of the model tool.

Step 3

Individually, review what has been written in the class model, and write several sentences that explain the effects of the details you have examined in relationship to the question.

In other words, write an evidence-based statement about how you visualize the character.

Compare the statement you have written with those written by other members of the class. Explain how your visualization is based on evidence from the text.

Activity 2: Discuss – Write

We will conduct web searches for images related to our character and compare them to our own analysis and visualizations.

Do a Google image search for the character you have just studied using the Analyzing Relationships Tool.

Note how others have visualized and represented the character.

Discuss how the online images you find relate to or contrast with the ways you have described the character on your Analyzing Relationships Tools.

Activity 3: Discuss – Write

In character study teams, we will compare the notes we have recorded on our character-note taking tools and use an Analyzing Relationships Tool to study connections and relationships among key visual details for our character.

Step 1

Rejoin your character study team and compare the notes you have recorded so far on your Character Note Taking Tools. Look for key passages you can review for visual details about your character.

Review the key passages from Chapters 1–5 in which your character is described or plays a role.

Make a list of descriptive words or images for your character based on what you find in those key passages.

Step 2

Set up a team Analyzing Relationships Tool, with the same question you considered earlier as a class at the top of the tool:

1. Based on evidence from the text, how do you visualize this character? What descriptive words and visual images come to mind?

As a team, select three key passages and visual details and record them in the first (Attend to Details) row of the tool.

Discuss the relationships and connections among the details you have selected and recorded. Share visual pictures that come to mind for each member of the team when you analyze the relationships among these details.

Step 3

Following your team discussion, individually write a few sentences in the final row of the tool in which you express and explain how the details of the text have caused you to visualize your character.

Compare what you have written with the explanations recorded by other members of your team.

Activity 4: Discuss

As a class, we will review the differences between third- and first-person narratives and examine a model first-person character self-introduction developed from the class Analyzing Relationships Tool.

Step 1

Follow along as your teacher uses the class model Analyzing Relationships Tool from Activity 1 to think about how a character might introduce themself in a first-person narrative vignette.

Begin by discussing the differences between third-person and first-person narratives. A description can be found in the Narratives Reference Guide.

Discuss as a class how the story might be different (and also similar) if the model character had introduced themself in their own, first-person voice.

Step 2

Review and discuss a model first-person self-introduction in which the character previously examined by the class tells their own story—introduces and describes who they are based on details found in Animal Farm.

Note how details from third-person descriptions in the text and the class model Analyzing Relationships Tool have been translated into and presented in the new first-person narrative.

Activity 5: Write – Discuss

We will draft a first-person self-introduction for our character.

Step 1

Using the class model as an example, individually consider how your character might think about and introduce themself.

Your introduction should tell the reader:

• Who the character is

• How the character might see or respond to the rebellion and other events of the story

Select key details from your study team’s Analyzing Relationships Tool and list of visual details and images.

Step 2

Reread key third-person passages you have identified for your character in Chapters 1–5. Think about how these passages might be similar and different if your character were telling the story in first person.

Select a 1–2 sentence third-person excerpt from the novel and rewrite it in first person, as if your character were talking. This is your practice sentence.

Step 3

Using your practice sentence as a starting point or model, write a first draft of a paragraph in which your character introduces themself, referencing key details from the text as the character might see them.

Try to create a unique “voice” and personality for your character, and talk about how they see themselves relative to the story of Animal Farm and the other characters.

To consider what your character’s “voice” might be, think about what you might hear if you were listening to the character tell the story. What words might they use and how might they give insights into their inner thoughts?

See how a writer has tried to do this in an example provided by your teacher.

Use the following guiding question to help you characterize your character:

1. What words and phrases can I use to reveal specific details about my character to a reader?

Step 4

With a partner from your character study team, read, compare, and discuss the first-person character self-introductions you have drafted. Note similarities and differences in how you have represented your character and the first-person voice you have created.

Activity 6: View – Write – Read

For homework, we will begin to read chapters 6 and 7, noting additional details presented that further complicate the plot, our character, and conflicts in the story.

Do a first reading of Chapters 6 and 7, considering these text-specific questions:

Chapter 6:

1. What new details about the pigs and their evolving relationships with humans further complicate the story’s plot and your character’s situation? What do you find troubling or ironic about the new developments of the story?

2. How does the building of the windmill present “unexpected difficulties”? Why is overcoming these difficulties and putting their stamp on the setting of the farm so important to the animals?

Chapter 7:

3. How do Napoleon and Squealer further scapegoat Snowball to increase their power over the other animals? How does the violent execution of the four pigs who had collaborated with Snowball serve as another key turning point in the story?

4. How does the scapegoating of Snowball further reinforce Napoleon’s position as supreme leader of the farm and contribute to Snowball’s role as Napoleon’s foil?

Overall:

5. How has the character you are studying been involved in or affected by what happens in the rising action of Chapters 6 and 7?

Continue to note key passages and details about your character in your Character Note-Taking Tool.

Record new or interesting words you encounter in your Vocabulary Journal.