Tips and ideas for teaching high school ELA
Tips and ideas for teaching high school ELA
One of my favorite parts of British literature is teaching Animal Farm. It’s short. It’s accessible. It’s always a hit. One of the great things about Animal Farm is that there is more to it than meets the eye. At the surface level, it’s a fun novel (novella?) about a bunch of farm animals who grow tired of their alcoholic farmer/owner mistreating them, so they stage a coup and run him off. On a deeper level, it’s a wonderful allegory of the Russian Revolution and the beginnings of the Soviet Union. With topics of power and corruption, Orwell’s novel is an excellent tool for allegorical and literary analysis.
Below are some of my Animal Farm activities.
If you’ve read some of my other posts, this should come as no surprise – the best pre-reading activity? Stations. Over the past few years, I’ve become a huge fan of using stations for a variety of reasons (Read more about those reasons and ideas here).
Take that old intro presentation and turn it into an interactive pre-reading stations activity. Students rotate through different stations, reading articles and watching short videos covering historical context, author bio, and more. It’s the same content they would have gotten sitting through your intro presentation, but in a more enjoyable, student-centered way.
Suggestions for Animal Farm intro stations:
You have the background information/context. Now for the fun part: reading.
Another activity for teaching Animal Farm that my students really enjoyed was this Make Your Class Animal Farm lesson plan from Teachers.net. The last time I taught the novel I had a small class (special education resource), so this activity didn’t really work. My first time though? It was a huge success. The things high school students will do for some candy. It can be brutal.
The basic premise of the activity is this: the class is divided into groups – human, dog, raven, horse, or pig. Each group “runs” to become the leading party. Once the party is chosen, their privileges increase while their responsibilities decrease (similar to the novel). After students finish reading the novel, they do research on their historical counterparts:
The great thing about this activity is that it lasts the entirety of the novel. The lesson plan breakdown covers six weeks, but could easily be adjusted to accommodate different schedules.
Have students interact with the novel using student workbooks. These workbooks were designed to engage students by allowing them to go beyond basic comprehension questions and dig into the novel.
Breaking up content into smaller digestible chunks not only helps students retain knowledge but also prevents overwhelm of yet. another. packet.
Animal Farm is ripe for character analysis. Have students analyze each character throughout the text. Alternately, assign students a specific character to focus on – even better if you can tie their character(s) into their “animal” from the Make Your Class Animal Farm project!
These character analysis graphic organizers are a perfect way for students to hone their analysis skills and provide textual evidence for their stances. Students provide examples of indirect characterization, chose and analyze a key quote, trace the character’s impact on theme development, and more.
One of the recurring motifs is the herd mentality of the sheep. A quick Google search will reveal tons of examples of political cartoons involving sheep. Have students use a method such as OPTIC to analyze the cartoons. This is also a great time to review satire. Then, have students use a program such as Canva to create their own political cartoons about a theme from the novel.
What student doesn’t love movie day? There are several film adaptations of Animal Farm – this 1999 live version. and this 1954 animated version.
It’s time to put it all together. Here are two of my favorite after-reading activities when teaching Animal Farm.
If you’re looking to bring some engagement and competition into your classroom, escape rooms are the way to go! (Read more about how to use escape rooms in the classroom here).
Students off with their introduction – they were playing as an animal who lived through the Rebellion and Napoleon’s reign (narrative element = instant buy-in). Each of the four tasks (plot, characters, close reading, and encrypted message) moves students through a different stage of their life as this animal.
Offer the first team to successful escape the Rebellion some candy or extra credit on a test. Wanna see some cut-throat competition? Offer a piece of candy. Or a sticker. Students will do just about anything for a sticker (at least mine will).
Another review/wrap-up activity that has been met with great success is a soundtrack project. The great thing about this project is that it can be repurposed for any novel.
Students chose a minimum of 6 songs:
They then create a soundtrack using songs that relate to each category. For each song, they had to include:
In addition to the novel itself, I like to bring in supplemental resources – especially in the way of nonfiction. If you’re looking for additional texts, check out CommonLit.org. They have a whole section of related texts for Animal Farm.
For connections to real life, check out this Life under Stalin video.
So there you have it. Some of my favorite Animal Farm activities.
Looking for a done-for-you Animal Farm unit plan? Check out the Animal Farm Unit Activities bundle.
Looking for more Brit Lit curriculum ideas? Check out 7 Units for a Complete Brit Lit Curriculum.
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