Brave New World Anticipation Guide – Pre-Reading Discussion & Theme Essay

Item description

Engage your students with this low-prep anticipation guide to introduce Brave New World! This guide includes a printable anticipation guide, an editable copy, and a Google Forms document to administer it electronically. Quick and easy setup plus clear teacher directions make this activity a great way to introduce the work and lead an interactive discussion to interest students in reading the novel!

Here’s what you’ll get:

• Detailed Teaching Instructions: 2 pages explaining implementation with various adaptations
• Printable: a printable 2-page PDF of the anticipation guide
  • 10 Agreement Statements
  • 6 open-ended questions encouraging personal connections to the universal themes

• Digital:
  • a Google Docs format of the anticipation guide for editing
  • a Google Forms document containing the agreement statements

• Enrichment: a set of questions making connections with universal themes to the real world/news media, ethical situations, musical connections, and more (Printable and Digital-Google Slides)
• Extension: a graphic organizer and suggestions for turning the activity into an essay (Printable and Digital-Google Slides)

One of the greatest challenges of teaching a classic work like Brave New World is getting students excited about reading. Anticipation guides are effective in grabbing students’ attention and focusing them on the big ideas of a literary work prior to reading it. The universal themes are written as opinion statements with which students AGREE or DISAGREE. This makes a text-to-self connection with the work for students producing a personal investment that stimulates reading interest.

Whether you are conducting this lesson as in-person learning in a classroom or leading a virtual distance-learning class, this anticipation guide provides the structure you need to launch an interactive discussion. If you have a narrowed focus for the work, use the Google Docs or Google Forms version to edit the statements and tailor to your students’ needs and your instructional focus.

As an in-person or video-conferencing activity, this guide is the perfect framework for a debate on the issues among your students. For movement in the classroom, display AGREE and DISAGREE (for 4 corners, add STRONGLY) to each side of the classroom. Read each statement and have students move to their positions. Each side should try to persuade the other to join them by providing their reasons why DIS/AGREEING is the “right” position on the topic. Students will love interacting with each other using a debate format!

After reading the literary work, revisit the anticipation guide to determine if the work itself supports or refutes the statements. Students will use textual evidence (line or page #’s) to support their claims. This is also a great springboard for a thematic essay on the work. Students can organize their evidence to build a thesis and write a summative composition after reading the work.

This is an excellent way to address Reading Literature Standards with students in a fun, engaging way. Example: CCSSRL.9-10.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

Your students will love your activities with the anticipation guide! They will be out of their seats engaged in discussion and debate on issues relevant to their lives.

Prep is quick and easy–just print and distribute or share document with virtual students and your discussion is launched!

Teacher Feedback on My Anticipation Guides:

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 A really great way to start the play. Students loved discussing the ideas

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 Great anticipation guide questions! I had the kids answer them for homework and then in class I had them move to one side of the room or the other for “agree” or “disagree” and then they debated on each statement.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 My students enjoyed the discussion that this activity allowed. They were extremely engaged. I will go back to it to finish when we read the end of the book.

IMPORTANT:

If you use the PDF version, you must open it in Adobe Reader (free) in order for it to work properly with embedded fonts and styling. If you try to print this file from your web browser or in preview (Mac), it may not work. It’s easy to do:

1. Open your downloads folder.
2. Right click this file.
3. Click OPEN WITH.
4. Select Adobe Acrobat Reader.