1984 Activity George Orwell 3 lessons Compare North Korea Close Reading & Paragraph Writing

Item description

Are you in need of 1984 curriculum that will make Orwell’s novel more engaging and relevant to your students and our current world today? Then, you will love this three part lesson series because your students will actually be interested in the topics of discussion. I created these lessons because my students were starting to get bored with the novel (and we were only on book 1) and I wanted to get them excited again about the reading. They ended up really enjoying these lessons. Teach this lesson after reading through book 1, chapter 6. 

This product includes three lessons in which students practice close-reading skills, gathering evidence, and making claims. During the first lesson, students read an engaging article about the dating practices in North Korea. This part is always fascinating to my students. The included 30 page slideshow supports studnets with each step of annotating the text as they read. Next, students complete a claims and evidence gathering activity where they make connections between 1984 and the article. This lesson includes step-by-step instruction and leads students into the final writing activity. The third lesson, is a structured paragraph writing activity where students are asked to compare the events from the article to Orwell’s society using their notes and annotations from the previous two lessons. Studnets fill out an outline to support them as they write. The slideshow features step-by-step writing instruction and numerous supports and examples to help students strengthen their writing skills as well as support students of diverse learning needs. The slides review embedding quotes, writing thoughtful commentary, provide sentence starters, and so include much more! 

My students found it very interesting to learn about the lives of young adults in North Korean, since this is a world they know so little about. They also find it interesting to review an article that illustrates that Orwell’s 1984 still exists in our world today. 

INCLUDES…

• 44 page slideshow with step-by-step instructions, teacher tips, and engaging images. The slideshow provides both teacher and students support for all 3 lessons. 

• 3 separate lessons to be completed during three class periods: 

• Lesson 1: Close-read document with nonfiction article and annotation section.

• Lesson 2: Claims and evidence document students complete after reading the article.

• Lesson 3: Structured paragraph writing outline.

• 2 Teacher Keys: The teacher keys include possible annotations for the article and an example paragraph writing to reference if needed.