In this lesson, students who are reading Animal Farm, by George Orwell (All rights reserved-Copyright), will evaluate the behaviors of different animals. Students will then research the individuals/groups represented by these characters and they will start to make connections as they think about why the author chose certain characters to represent certain people. Once students have a better understanding of the characters and who they represent, they will choose one character and trace the development of that character throughout the text. 

In this lesson, students who are reading Animal Farm, by George Orwell (All rights reserved-Copyright), will evaluate the behaviors of different animals. Students will then research the individuals/groups represented by these characters and they will start to make connections as they think about why the author chose certain characters to represent certain people. Once students have a better understanding of the characters and who they represent, they will choose one character and trace the development of that character throughout the text. 

Students will evaluate the arguments in the Declaration of Independence and then they will write their own declaration of independence to separate their school from the district. They will also plan for what will happen after the separation. This is a great connection to Animal Farm, but does not have to be taught while reading this book. 

In this minilesson, students explore the dystopian characteristics and symbols presented in the "1984" Macintosh commercial and analyze the comments that it makes about contemporary society. This activity is also an effective introduction to George Orwell's 1984 because of the direct allusions to the novel in the commercial or can also be used as a follow-up.