Lesson 1

Lesson Goals

Texts

Core

• • Animal Farm: Introduction to Signet Classic 75th Anniversary Edition, Téa Obreht, Signet Classics, 2020

Materials

Tools

• Animal Farm: Reading Schedule

Question Sets

• Animal Farm: Section 4 Question Set

Editable Google Docs

• Animal Farm: Section 4 Question Set

Activity 1: Read – Discuss

We will use a question by Téa Obreht as an entry point for considering our opinions about the lasting meaning, relevance, and significance of Orwell’s 1945 allegory.

Step 1

As a class, consider and discuss this question posed by Yugoslavian-American writer Téa Obreht in her introduction to the 75th anniversary edition of Animal Farm:

“How, then, are we to read Animal Farm circa 2020? What can we demand of a book that has outlived its own ambitions yet whose pillars…seem as relevant today as they were three-quarters of a century ago?”

Having just read and examined Animal Farm “circa” the present moment in your life and our history, discuss the various ways you might respond to Obreht’s question.

To explain and support your response, refer to specific evidence from your study of the book, your character analysis, the allegory’s historical connections to Stalin’s autocratic rule of the Soviet Union, and your examination of various visual interpretations of the story.

Step 2

With a reading and discussion partner, closely reread the text that leads up to Obreht’s posing of this question, starting with the sentence:

“That was then, and this is now.” (para. 4)

Use these text-specific questions to guide your reading and discussion:

1. In the first paragraph, what reasons does Obreht suggest for why we might see Animal Farm as having “served its purpose”?

2. In the next (second) paragraph, what opposing perspective does she present after she says, “Reader, I jest”?

With your partner, discuss which of the two perspectives and paragraphs is closest to your own view of the book and its continued relevance.

Step 3

Share with the class as a whole how you have interpreted Obreht’s two contrasting thoughts about the continuing relevance of the book, your own take on it, and your answers to her question about how we are to read Animal Farm in the present moment.

Activity 2: Read – Discuss – Write

We will reread the autobiographical part of Obreht’s introduction, in which she discusses her own background as a yugoslavian-American and how the distinction between “Indoor” and “Outdoor” talk has affected her life and reading of Animal Farm.

Step 1

On your own, reread the five-paragraph autobiographical section (paragraphs 7-11) of Obreht’s essay, beginning with:

“I was raised in the former Yugoslavia in the mid 1980’s…”

and ending with:

“…above all, a really keen sense of the difference between indoor and outdoor talk.”

Step 2

With your discussion partner, consider these questions:

1. As explained by Obreht, what is the key distinction between “indoor” and “outdoor” talk?

2. Why does she suggest that distinguishing between these two forms of talk was (and is) important in Yugoslavia, her culture, and her family?

3. Why might she say that the tendency was to “Leave notions like justice and equality to the naïve Americans”?

4. What are her “grandparents’ tendencies” that Obreht recognizes in her favorite Animal Farm character, Benjamin?

Activity 3: Read – Discuss

As a class, we will do a close reading of several key passages at the end of the essay, in which Obreht continues to present two perspectives on the lasting meaning and relevance of Animal Farm in our current world.

Step 1

As a class, we will closely read a passage near the end of the essay and think about the opposed perspectives Obreht continues to present about the relevance of Animal Farm’s message today and the degree to which we have learned (or still need to learn) from Orwell’s allegory.

Discuss the concept of a writer’s perspective and how evidence from a text can both reveal and support a particular perspective—or in this case, multiple perspectives.

Step 2

Before reading, analyze and discuss these two text-based claims about Obreht’s varied perspectives. Based on how you see our current society, decide which you find to be more valid:

Claim 1: Unlike the animals, we now are open to “outdoor talk” that combats the “persistent daily injustices that shape life.” We thus have discovered our “unprecedented power to enact change.”

Claim 2: Like the animals, we have become “distracted, unimaginative, narcissistic.” We thus are “unable to tell the difference between the people who claim to be serving our interests and the enemies to whom they have betrayed us.”

Step 3

On your own, reread the section of Obreht’s essay that begins with the following statement:

“The notion that Western countries are clever and strong enough to both recognize and resist the grip of totalitarianism is a dangerous myth.” (para. 19)

Read the next paragraphs, up to the following statement, looking for places in which Obreht suggests or supports either of the perspectives you have just discussed:

“Perhaps this, too, is a fairy story, and like most, will let us down in ways we can’t yet imagine.” (para. 23)

Step 4

As a class, identify and discuss key things Obreht says that connect to either of the opposed claims you discussed. Use these questions to guide your discussion:

1. In what ways is Obreht suggesting that we have learned the lessons of Orwell’s allegory?

2. In what ways is Obreht suggesting that we have not learned and are still vulnerable to what is satirized in Orwell’s allegory?

3. Overall, do you find Obreht’s perspective about current society to be more hopeful or more cynical?

Activity 4: Read – Discuss

We will read the concluding paragraph of Obreht’s essay, discussing both its cynical and positive perspectives. We will then state and support a claim to communicate our own perspective on the relevance of Animal Farm today.

Step 1

Based on your response to the last discussion question, and whether you find Obreht’s perspective to be more cynical or more hopeful, closely read and analyze one of the following passages that end the essay:

More cynical perspective:

“Perhaps this, too, is a fairy story, and like most, will let us down in ways we can’t yet imagine…”

More hopeful perspective:

“But it’s also possible that we will never be isolated enough to keep signs of danger to ourselves…”

Record key details and ideas from either passage that suggest and support its perspective.

Step 2

As a class, use the following question to discuss Obreht’s analysis:

1. What does Obreht have to say about the relevance of Animal Farm’s allegory and whether or not we have learned from it?

Cite evidence from the essay and also from the book (or one of its interpretations) to support your response.

Activity 5: Write

In a text-based explanation, we will write and support a claim to communicate our own perspective on the relevance of Animal Farm today.

Considering your reading of Animal Farm and Obreht’s introduction to the 75^th anniversary edition of the book, as well as class discussions, form a claim and write one or more paragraphs in response to this overall question:

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

Activity 6: Write

For homework, we will finish writing our responses to the question: what is the lasting meaning and significance of Animal Farm’s allegory to our society and us as readers? we will also review our previous work in writing a first-person narrative and designing a complementary cover for Animal Farm, which we will finalize in the next few lessons for the Culminating Task and class presentation.

Step 1

Finish writing your evidence-based claim and explanation of your response to the following question:

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

Be sure to cite evidence from the book and from Téa Obreht’s introduction as you present and explain your perspective on the lasting relevance of Orwell’s allegory.

Step 2

Compile and review the evidence you have included in your Section 2 and 3 Diagnostic portfolios. In particular:

• Reread the first-person retelling of Animal Farm from your selected character’s point of view, which you developed in Sections 1 and 2.

• Review the design proposal and mockup for a complementary cover to accompany your narrative, which you developed in Section 3.

Ask yourself if reading Obreht’s essay and writing about the lasting meaning and significance of Animal Farm has changed or enriched your understanding of the allegory and your representation of your character in your narrative and cover design.

You will be revising and improving these two tasks over the next few lessons to meet the expectations of the Culminating Task.