Animal Farm: the pigs and power
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Threads
Why this why now
This unit uses and builds on pupils' understanding of power from 'Lord of the Flies'. In 'Lord of the Flies', pupils saw how power corrupts and destroys communities; in 'Animal Farm', they see how how power corrupts ideals and leads to the downfall of utopian dreams. Pupils are also enhancing their earlier novel reading by critically analysing themes and ideas in more detail. This unit prepares pupils for their deep dive units on 'Animal Farm', particularly the first deep dive 'barriers to leadership', where they see how certain groups have inbuilt power advantages, which creates inequality.
Prior knowledge requirements
- Pupils can make clear inferences about texts.
- Pupils can comment on the language choices of an author.
- Pupils can comment on character development as part of structural analysis.
- Pupils understand that the social and historical context of text impact our interpretation of it.
- Pupils can write clear topic sentences.
- Pupils can select evidence from a text to support their analysis.
- Pupils can structure their arguments using Single Paragraph Outlines.
- Pupils have an understanding that power corrupts.
- Pupils can use noun appositives to give greater detail about characters.
- Pupils can use conjunctions to explain their inferences.
Threads
Why this why now
This unit uses and builds on pupils' understanding of power from 'Lord of the Flies'. In 'Lord of the Flies', pupils saw how power corrupts and destroys communities; in 'Animal Farm', they see how how power corrupts ideals and leads to the downfall of utopian dreams. Pupils are also enhancing their earlier novel reading by critically analysing themes and ideas in more detail. This unit prepares pupils for their deep dive units on 'Animal Farm', particularly the first deep dive 'barriers to leadership', where they see how certain groups have inbuilt power advantages, which creates inequality.
Prior knowledge requirements
- Pupils can make clear inferences about texts.
- Pupils can comment on the language choices of an author.
- Pupils can comment on character development as part of structural analysis.
- Pupils understand that the social and historical context of text impact our interpretation of it.
- Pupils can write clear topic sentences.
- Pupils can select evidence from a text to support their analysis.
- Pupils can structure their arguments using Single Paragraph Outlines.
- Pupils have an understanding that power corrupts.
- Pupils can use noun appositives to give greater detail about characters.
- Pupils can use conjunctions to explain their inferences.
Literature
Animal Farm: the pigs and power
In this unit, pupils start their exploration of Orwell's 'Animal Farm' by focusing on the pigs and how they weild power. Pupils first read the book before exploring symbolism, key characters and Orwell's methods. They finally hone their essay writing skills and write about the pigs' use of power.
26 lessons in unit
slide decks, worksheet PDFs, quizzes and lesson overviews. You can select individual lessons from the Animal Farm: the pigs and power unit and download the resources you need, or download the entire unit now. See every unit listed in our Edexcel secondary english curriculum and discover more of our teaching resources for Edexcel secondary english programmes.