Understanding dystopias
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can understand and identify features of a dystopian setting.
Key learning points
- A dystopia is a fictional, futuristic society in which there is great suffering and injustice
- The setting is the time and place in which a story takes place
- The opposite of a dystopia is a utopia, which is an imagined place where everything is fair and perfect
- Dystopian settings are often used to make a point about our current society
Keywords
Futuristic - a futuristic place is in the future with advanced technology
Society - a society is a big group of people living together
Suffering - if you suffer, you experience extreme pain
Injustice - there is injustice when things are not fair
Convention - a rule within a genre
Common misconception
Pupils may mistake dystopia and utopia as the words are similar
Explicitly explain the difference between the two and explain that they are antonyms
Teacher tip
You may want to use another dystopian story that pupils will be aware of instead of The Hunger Games or Noughts and Crosses.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What is a noun?
Q2.What is a verb?
Q3.What is a simile?
Q4.What is a simple sentence?
Q5.Which literary technique is this? Directly comparing an object to another thing.
Q6.What is the purpose of an adverbial phrase?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What is setting?
Q2.Which word means 'a bad and difficult place'?
Q3.What is the opposite of dystopia?
Q4.Choose the main characteristics of dystopia.
Q5.Pick parts of our society that writers may want to show in their dystopian novels.
Q6.Which of the sentences below are dystopian sentences?
To help you plan your 7 English lesson on: Understanding dystopias, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 7 English lesson on: Understanding dystopias, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 3 English lessons from the Dystopian settings: descriptive writing unit, dive into the full secondary English curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.