Orwell's Animal Farm
Animal Farm Critical Inquiry Unit Plan for English 9-10
Free online resources for Animal Farm
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1999 Movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGzRf0Ow1qU
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1954 Movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b-CMtKhTl0
Syllabus
Week 1
Day 1: Introduction to Orwell and Soviet Union
Day 2-5: Read Animal Farm (popcorn reading, teaching reading, audiobook, individual reading based on class/individual student readiness) with question asking and development
Week 2
Day: 6-10 Read Animal Farm
Week 3
Day 11-15 Choose topics and begin guided research and project
Week 4
Day 16-20: Continue and complete research project
Week 4
Day 21-?: Present research topics to class
*Note: Schedule may be extended based on student needs and readiness
Main Theme
The main theme that will be explored throughout this unit will be authoritarianism. Given the rise of authoritarianism throughout the world as we speak, Orwell’s classic allegory Animal Farm is a fantastic starting point from which to inquire about the relationship between authoritarianism and democracy today. In an increasingly interconnected world, authoritarianism is an issue that impacts our students right now, and will certainly impact our students in the future. For articles about the rise of authoritarianism in today’s world, see the links below.
“National Security Experts Warn of Rise in Authoritarianism” - Olivia Beavers
“Decline In Democracy Spreads Across The Globe As Authoritarian Leaders Rise” - NPR
“Why the rise of authoritarianism is a global catastrophe” - Garry Kasparov and Thor Halvorss
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2017/02/13/why-the-rise-of-authoritarianism-is-a-global-catastrophe/en
Critical Inquiry Approach
As explained on page 10 of Teaching to Exceed the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards: A Critical Inquiry Approach for 6-12 Classrooms, “Critical inquiry is therefore an unfolding and recursive process driven by posing further questions that lead to identifying a range of different reasons or factors associated with a problem or issue.” Given this understanding, some questions that could be posed to the students when reading Animal Farm could be:
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What attitudes allow authoritarian societies to come into existence?
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Who benefits and who is excluded in an authoritarian society?
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Where can we see authoritarianism in our lives today?
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How does authoritarianism in other countries impact our lives?
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What can we do to fight authoritarianism and advance democracy?
Learning Goals
The goals for student learning in this unit are as follows:
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Understand the threat of authoritarianism to a liberal democracy
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Understand the impact of authoritarianism on society, both historical and contemporary
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Understand how authoritarianism, as explored in Animal Farm, has played, and plays out in the world.
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Examine the authoritarian elements elements that exist in our own personal lives.
Additional Texts/Media
Thankfully, there are many other pieces of literature that could be brought to bear on this topic. As the 20th century saw authoritarian states rise on both the left and right of the political spectrum, students have the ability to explore each, or both. Texts worthy of possible inclusion are:
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“The Doctrine of Fascism” - Benito Moussilini Essay explaining the need for fascism from Moussilini’s perspective http://www.sjsu.edu/people/cynthia.rostankowski/courses/HUM2BS14/s0/The-Doctrine-of-Fascism.pdf
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One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Novel depicting the life of gulag inmate in the USSR circa 1950 http://www.kkoworld.com/kitablar/aleksandr_soljenitsin_ivan_denisovichin_bir_gunu-eng.pdf
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One Day in the Life film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B73m3Mvb0_g
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Friedrich by Hans Peter Richter tells the story of a young boy during the Nazi’s rise to power
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The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Though incredibly dense, excerpts from Solzhenitsyn’s work may be incredibly valuable
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Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Novel set in an authoritarian future https://www.idph.com.br/conteudos/ebooks/BraveNewWorld.pdf
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1984 by George Orwell. Orwell’s classic novel on authoritarianism https://www.planetebook.com/free-ebooks/1984.pdf
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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website https://www.ushmm.org/
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Gulaghistory.org has many pieces on authoritarianism in the Soviet Union http://gulaghistory.org/
Controversy
As authoritarianism involves modern day politics, this unit plan will no doubt stimulate controversy in the classroom. Given this inherent controversy, students will be free to examine historical or modern authoritarianism. Likewise, they will be free to choose either leftwing authoritarianism, rightwing authoritarianism, or both.
As noted in Teaching to Exceed (Beach, Haertling Thein, Webb, 2016) “Disagreements with each other can lead students to recognize and critically examine their assumptions.” Given the above, it is important to ensure that the students are being made aware of their other viewpoints and experiences surrounding totalitarianism such as that of women. Good resources for women’s perspectives of totalitarianism are below.
Women and Totalitarianism article http://www.lvivcenter.org/en/chronicle/news/?newsid=980
Scream Quietly by Elizabeth Carlson details the horrors of her family's experience as a German family during World War Two.
Taking Action
Using Orwell’s Animal Farm, students will examine the origins of authoritarianism. They well then look to see areas in which democracy is threatened, either at home or abroad, by authoritarianism today. The goal for the end of this unit is for students to develop a plan that they as both individuals and members of society can resist and diminish authoritarian influences in their lives. Through independent research, they will develop such a plan that may include such issues as:
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Voter suppression
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Manipulation of the Media
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Free Speech/Censorship
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Cyberwarfare
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Fake News
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Combatting White Nationalism
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Universal Education
Meaningful Questions
One of the keys to this unit is getting students to engage through their asking of meaningful questions. To that end, the unit will start with a brief overview of Orwell and the Soviet Union. This is intended to lay the groundwork for student understanding that they can then build upon by inquiring further based on their own experiences.
However, many approaches may be taken to this question posing, and can be started by the teacher. For instance, in the early portions of the text, questions may be posed through a Marxist perspective. Students can be given a set of questions as a “springboard” for their own evolving question. Such questions may be:
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Why does the farmer get to control all the animals?
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What say do the animals have in what happens on the farm?
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What freedom do the animals have?
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Are any animals treated better? If so, why?
From these questions, the students will be able to relate the plight of the animals to their own lives. To foster these connections, teachers may ask questions such as:
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Is the school like Animal Farm? If so, how?
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What say do students have in how the school is run? Do they have more or less say than the animals at Animal Farm?
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Outside of school, are your lives like Animal Farm? If so, how?
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What parts of your life outside of school are like Animal Farm?
Though opportunities for questions such as these are myriad throughout the text, students should be encouraged to make connections with issues that impact their own lives on a daily basis. The teacher can then help the students to further explore their questions through guided research. For instance, if a student asks the question, “Why is Boxer treated so poorly?” This student may be guided to further texts such as The Jungle by Upton Sinclaire http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/140 to further explore working class issues. From such an example one can see how important student research is to this unit. By using Animal Farm as a springboard for student interest, they can then make meaningful connections to issues in their own lives.
Final Project
By the end of the text, students will be asked to come up with a topic based on the questions they have asked throughout. Through researching their questions further, they will choose an issue about which they feel they have a personal connection and wish to know more. This research will culminate in a final project with a format of their choosing, teaching the rest of the class what they have learned about their topic. This project will incorporate learning goals 1-4. In this project, students will be allowed to work in pairs or groups of three. Students will also use resources such as family, community organizations, and community members to discover the role of authoritarianism in the past and in their lives today. They will then develop a personal plan on how to combat the issue they have been researching.
Expectations and Standards
Student expectations for this unit will be high. Students will be expected to analyze the text, develop critical questions, do guided research, develop a final research project, and present that project to the class. As such, the CCSS that will be addressed in this unit are as follows:
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
This standard will be met through student’s analysis of Animal Farm to develop critical questions. In student questions, they must use textual evidence, such as quotes or paraphrasing. Such close analysis of the text will allow them to dig deeper and find issues in Animal Farm that relate to their own lives.
This will help students achieve learning goal 2, 3, & 4 by examining historical authoritarianism as outlined by Orwell, contemporary world and its authoritarian elements, as well as how authoritarian elements impact the students lives today
Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.
This standard can be achieved through multiple points of view. As stated above, the teacher can initiate questions through a Marxist perspective that explore the conditions of the Russian working class as outlined by Orwell. Meeting this standard can also be a springboard into student research including texts that also meet this standard while fostering critical inquiry such as:
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Down And Out In Paris And London by George Orwell https://www.planetebook.com/free-ebooks/down-and-out-in-paris-and-london.pdf
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The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell https://libcom.org/files/wiganpier.pdf
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Condition of the Working Class in England by Frederick Engels https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/condition-working-class-england.pdf
As such, this standard will help achieve the learning goal 4.
Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
This standard will be met through student research and reliance upon evidence to develop and present their final project on an issue of their choosing. It will also facilitate students meeting learning goal 4.
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology's capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.
This standard will also be met through the student’s final research project, meeting learning goals 1-4.
It is also worthy of note that this unit, culminating in the final project, will cover the NCTE/IRA Standards 1-10 https://ncte.org/resources/standards/ncte-ira-standards-for-the-english-language-arts/
Assessment
Assessment throughout the unit will be formative. After each day of reading, students will be asked to submit three reading questions that address the portion of the text explored that day in class. These questions will then be further refined to help students choose a research topic for their final project.
Similarly, throughout the research phase of the unit, students will have to answer an exit ticket that answers “What did you learn today?” This question will allow the teacher to see the types of connections students are making and what areas they may need assistance in.
Student Ages and Background
This unit was designed with students aged approximately 14-16 in mind. The SES of these students is meant to be middle to lower class. The unit is designed for students in a rural area.
It is often felt by students in rural areas that they are detached from larger world events. In examining Animal Farm and authoritarianism, this unit is meant to convey to middle and lower class students in a rural area that they are indeed connected to a larger political and cultural world. As these students are coming closer to being a part of the political process via voting, the goal of this unit is to prepare students to be more prepared members of a democracy because of, not in spite of, their rural setting.
ELL students can be accommodated in a variety of ways in this unit. For help with reading, Animal Farm is available online for free in many languages. Similarly, the audiobook is available for free as listed above. ELL students will be given support through these mediums, as well as monitored through frequent formative assessments such as the exit tickets along with the other students.