Authentic learning task Animal Farm

Authentic Learning TaskAzra Asvat 201207131

This part of the learning activity will be done over a week. At the end of the week students will hand in and present what they have been working on.

During class, lessons will be given and activities will follow.

Students will work in groups of four or five and will share a mark for their hardcopy and presentation.

The hardcopy consists of a script which learners will write themselves based on the material provided.

Monday (single lesson-35 mins)

Review the summary of “Animal Farm” (10-15 mins) MAJOR CONFLICT · There are a number of conflicts in Animal Farm—the animals versus Mr.

Jones, Snowball versus Napoleon, the common animals versus the pigs, Animal Farm versus the neighboring humans—but all of them are expressions of the underlying tension between the exploited and exploiting classes and between the lofty ideals and harsh realities of socialism.

RISING ACTION · The animals throw off their human oppressors and establish a socialist state called Animal Farm; the pigs, being the most intelligent animals in the group, take control of the planning and government of the farm; Snowball and Napoleon engage in ideological disputes and compete for power.

CLIMAX · In Chapter V, Napoleon runs Snowball off the farm with his trained pack of dogs and declares that the power to make decisions for the farm will be exercised solely by the pigs.

FALLING ACTION · Squealer emerges to justify Napoleon’s actions with skillful but duplicitous reinterpretations of Animalist principles; Napoleon continues to consolidate his power, eliminating his enemies and reinforcing his status as supreme leader; the common animals continue to obey the pigs, hoping for a better future.

Monday cont. Introduction to dialogues 20- 25 mins

Way 1

The easiest way to write a dialogue is to write the active speaker in the margin like so :

“Freddy: ”

After that, leave a finger space and begin to write what that person has said in quotation marks. (“”)

Freddy: “I do not like the circus. The clowns there disgust me!”

An expression could also be added to increase the emotion of the character.

Freddy (angrily) : “I do not like the circus. The clowns there disgust me!”

Monday cont.

Way 2

Suppose I’m writing a scene in which Aardvark gives Squiggly a present. I write:

“You shouldn’t have!” said Squiggly, and grabbed the box of chocolates.

Or wait—instead of that, maybe I should write

“You shouldn’t have!” said Squiggly, and HE grabbed the box of chocolates,

putting in the pronoun “he” to refer to Squiggly.

In fact, both sentences are fine, but if you’ve started to pay attention to parallel structure in your writing, you might be second-guessing yourself about what to do in cases like these.

Monday cont.Way 3

When you’re having your characters speak or have thoughts, often you’ll want to take what a character is saying or thinking and put it at the front of the sentence, before the attributive—the he-said or she-said part. So instead of writing

Squiggly said, “You shouldn’t have!”,

you might write,

“You shouldn’t have!” Squiggly said,

or

“You shouldn’t have!” said Squiggly.

I’ll call this “quotation fronting.” It’s a useful stylistic option.

However, parallel structure and quotation fronting are on a collision course. For example, they collide in the sentence about Squiggly and the box of chocolates:

“You shouldn’t have!” said Squiggly, and grabbed the box of chocolates.

What is the “and” is connecting? Before it, we have an entire clause: “‘You shouldn’t have!’ said Squiggly.” But after the “and,” all we have is a verb phrase: “grabbed the box of chocolates.”

NB If you want the actions of saying and doing to be more like separate events, then repeat the subject for the verb of doing.

Tuesday (double 70 mins)

Choose groups of four or five people. The task for this week is to write a script

and produce a presentation on Animal Farm by Friday

The script has to be one of the scenes in the book, but it has to be modernised. Eg. Rap the scene, make it business, political, gangster or immature.

Tuesday cont. 20min

Feature of Spontaneous Speech:

Intonation- the pitch of the speakers voice. The way people raise or lower the volume of their voice.

Interruptions- interrupting a speaker when they are talking.

Overlap- people speaking over others or finishing off their sentences.

Pace- the speed at which people talk or respond to each other.

Organisation- Where one speaker has more control over the conversation and the speech is controlled by that person.

Fillers- words or phrases that allow the speaker ‘thinking time’ such as perhaps, maybe, you know, like.

• P – make a point

• E – use an example that you’ve seen, with the use of language in “speech marks”

• A – Explain what this tells you and

• L – always link it back to the question!

• (P) The speech that is particular to this workplace is shown with the teacher. (E) He says, “………” (A) This kind of language is…… (L) This is obviously speech that we would associate with a teacher as……

Tuesday cont.20 min Script Activity 1

Draw lines to link the corresponding ideas.

Tuesday cont. 25 minSentences that are all the same length can sometimes be boring to read.

For example:

‘Sammy was a snake. He liked to slither. He liked eating mice. He slept a lot. He had a big mouth….’

One good way to make writing interesting is to VARY your sentences.

• Think about how you can vary the sentence lengths. Sometimes you can do this to great effect.

• For example, sometimes having a really short sentence can add a real sense of tension.

‘Sammy the snake liked to slither. He slept a lot, but when he was awake, he liked to roam around, looking for mice.

One day, this all changed.’

Tuesday cont.Activity 1

• Tell me where to put the full-stops and commas to make this paragraph more readable.

He left the building the street was silent around him the curtains of all the houses were pulled fast blocking out the darkness wheezing slightly he pulled his coat around himself he shivered it felt like the end of the world.

• Another way to make writing interesting is to be really descriptive.

This means using adjectives; describing words. Adjectives are incredibly powerful in writing, they can change the whole nature of the story.

For example:

A happy man

An angry man

A sad man

A sleeping man

Just adding a different adjective each time changes the whole mood of the character!

Wednesday 70 mins Students will have a lesson for the first

35 mins and after that they will be able to work in their groups on their scripts and presentations.

Wednesday 20 minsOpen your sentence with words indicating location:

Along the canal towpath , the lanky, unkempt fellow ambled slowly...

Start the sentence using a word ending in “ing”:

Ambling along the canal tow path, the intoxicated thief spied his victim...

Use a variety of sentence lengths, from short and punchy, to more complex:

She froze.

They waited.

He fell to the ground, with a thud.

Wednesday cont.Use ‘although’, or ‘despite’ as a sentence starter:

Although he was intoxicated, the thief managed to escape through the deserted canal towpaths which criss-crossed the city...

Despite his intoxicated state, the thief was able to escape through the deserted canal towpaths...

Use a simile or figurative language:

The mugger approached his target like a stealthy cat stalking its prey...

The pickpocket moved as smoothly as a sea snake glides through the water...

Wednesday cont.Start with a question:

“Are you sure its safe to walk by the canal tonight?” asked his anxious girlfriend.

Introduce a new character:

Her name was Morwenna and everyone realised there was something mysterious about her right from the beginning...

Wednesday cont. 15 mins ALWAYS REMEMBER THESE STEPS!! 1 Facts not opinions

2 Topic sentences

3 Organised to emphases cause and effect.

4 Chunked up into stages of process often with helpful diagrams or illustrations.

5 Formal expression

6 Present tense

7 Impersonal style/ 3rd person

8 Simple and compound sentences

9 Use of connectives as a way to guide the reader through the text – temporal and causal.

10 Well organised/logical steps

Things to think about.. Has everyone got enough to do?

Check where you are up to

How much time you have left

What facts have you found out?

Planning a talk

Researching the

Cont. Information Working as a group Getting the work done to a deadline – making sure

everyone is on task all the time What are the effects caused? Who is important in the topic? Why? Why have

they done? Making sure the information is useful – what is the

point? What it is needed for? Overall- are your ideas clear? Do you have the key facts? Can you write your presentation?

Thursday (35 mins) Students are allowed to work on their

scripts and presentations to make it perfect from the layout of the dialogue to the presenting and outfits.

Friday (35 mins) Students will each have 3-5 mins to

present while the students watching will mark them on their performance.

They will given marks or originality, reference to the scene, presentation and language.

Students will hand in a hard copy of their script to attain marks for the language part.

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