Lesson 2

Lesson Goals

Texts

Materials

Tools

• Animal Farm: Culminating Task Checklist

• Animal Farm: Storyboard Tool

Reference Guides

• Connecting Ideas Reference Guide

Question Sets

• Animal Farm: Section 4 Question Set

Editable Google Docs

• Animal Farm: Culminating Task Checklist

• Animal Farm: Section 4 Question Set

• Animal Farm: Storyboard Tool

Activity 1: Discuss

We will review the expectations for the Culminating Task and assess where we are in meeting its key expectations.

Step 1

Access and review the expectations for the Culminating Task.

First, review and discuss what you have learned and done in the unit, as outlined by your teacher.

Step 2

Next, review and discuss the six things you will be finalizing and presenting for the Culminating Task:

1. A final interpretive claim about the lasting meaning of the allegory (which you developed in the previous lesson)

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

3. A final cover design that represents your interpretation of the allegory and your character (which you proposed and mocked up for the Section 3 Diagnostic)

4. A poster board presentation that exhibits your final claim, an excerpt from your narrative, and your graphic design for a book cover

5. A design synopsis in which you summarize and explain how you have interpreted Orwell’s allegory and its lasting significance

6. A self-evaluation of your cover design exhibit using the Culminating Task Rating Form

Step 3

Discuss the questions you will be addressing as you finalize and present this evidence of your understanding:

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?

Step 4

Discuss what you will be doing in this and the next lessons to address the expectations of the Culminating Task:

• This lesson: Reviewing and finalizing your first-person narrative, paying attention to its coherence as a story and its correct use of pronouns and verbs

• Lesson 3: Reviewing and finalizing your design proposal for a book cover, now rewriting it as a design synopsis that explains your final design

• Lesson 3: Finalizing your graphic rendering of the book cover that includes one or more images of your character, front cover titling, and back cover copy

• Lesson 3: Finalizing an interpretive claim about the lasting meaning and significance of Orwell’s allegory, which will be used as part of your back cover copy and your final class presentation

• Lesson 4: Creating a visual exhibition of these elements for a class review

Activity 2: Discuss

We will meet again with editing partners to review and finalize the narrative retelling of the Animal Farm storyline from our character’s first-person point of view, which we drafted and submitted for the section 2 diagnostic.

Step 1

Review the draft first-person narrative you submitted for the Section 2 Diagnostic. Note issues your teacher may have pointed out in feedback about the draft, and things you might be noticing now after finishing Section 3 and designing a cover to go with your narrative.

Make a short list of improvements you want to make as you finalize your narrative.

Step 2

Meet again with your previous editing partner who is working on a retelling of the story from the same character’s point of view.

Share and discuss feedback you have received and new thoughts about your draft narrative since the Section 2 Diagnostic. Also share the list of improvements you want to make as you finalize your narrative.

Read through each of your drafts (out loud, if possible) and provide feedback using these review questions to guide your discussion:

1. What is most interesting about how you have retold the story? How might you build from these strengths?

2. What is confusing or unclear about how you have retold the story? How might you improve these issues?

3. How vivid and interesting are the descriptions in the narrative? How might the vividness of the story be improved?

Take notes about the feedback you receive.

Step 3

Now meet with a new editing partner who is working on a retelling of the story from a different character’s point of view.

Read through each of your drafts (out loud, if possible) and provide feedback using these review questions to guide your discussion:

1. What sense of the character’s personality, voice, point of view, and symbolic importance does the narrative convey?

2. What is most interesting about how you have retold the story? How might you build from these strengths?

3. What is confusing or unclear about how you have retold the story? How might you improve these issues?

4. How vivid and interesting are the descriptions in the draft? How might the vividness of the story be improved?

Take notes about the feedback you receive.

Activity 3: Write

Considering the feedback we have received about our draft first-person narratives, we will continue writing and revising our work.

Step 1

Review the notes you took from the two peer reviews you did in the previous activity.

Think also about your own sense of the strengths of your draft narrative and how to build from these strengths.

Consider what you see as issues you need to improve, and plan how to make these improvements.

Step 2

Continue the process of revising and finalizing your first-person retelling of Animal Farm’s storyline from your character’s point of view.

Think about how the narrations and descriptions you are writing reflect your understanding of your character and the character’s role in Orwell’s allegory. Think also about the cover design you are creating to accompany your narrative.

Try to make your retelling of the story as vivid and interesting as possible - so it will match the visual interpretation of your cover design.

Activity 4: Discuss – Write

We will learn about ways to make a narrative read as a unified, coherent story through the use of transitions.

Step 1

Follow along as your teacher discusses ways to unify a narrative and improve its coherence (how clear and connected it is) through the use of transitional words, phrases, and sentences.

Note that the Connecting Ideas Reference Guide, while focusing mostly on how to connect and make transitions among ideas in an explanatory text, also presents some “Transition Words and Phrases” useful in connecting parts of a narrative sequence (on page 5 of the guide).

As a class, review a short example narrative and discuss the ways that separate paragraphs and plot developments have been connected through transitional words, phrases, or sentences.

Step 2

Read through your own draft narrative, noting places where there seems to be a leap or lack of connection. Think about ways to “build bridges” across sections of the draft.

As you finish your draft so that you can finalize it for the Culminating Task, work on building transitions and connections so that your narrative feels unified.

Activity 5: Write

For homework, we will finish drafting our narratives. We will review and respond to the expectations from the Culminating Task checklist.

Step 1

For homework, finish finalizing your narrative so that you have fully retold the story of Animal Farm from your character’s point of view.

You will edit and finalize your draft in the next lesson, then submit it for the Culminating Task.

Step 2

As you finish your draft, keep in mind the “be sure to” expectations from the Culminating Task:

• 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 write 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

As you review your draft in terms of each of these expectations, make changes or revisions that will improve it.

Your draft should be in a finished state, ready for final editing, before the next class session.