Utopia – Dystopia

Day 1: Introduce the idea of Utopia from Thomas More w/this Quotes Handout from ArtsEdge excerpt and fill out this Definition Map. Next we will read “The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas” and create discussion questions. Circle Discussion.

Day 2 & 3: Start out by explaining the characteristics of dystopian literature. Then watch the film, Gattaca.  Students will be required to fill out this chart to show which characteristics of a dystopia are in movie.

Day 4: After reading “Harrison Bergeron“, we’ll fill out this Discussion Web from ReadWriteThink using an assortment of Essential Questions, such as:

• Has the concept of utopia changed over time and/or across cultures or societies?
• Is utopia attainable? At what cost would it be worth attaining?
• By attempting to eradicate disease and disfigurement, are we moving toward or away from utopia?

Day 5: Prepare for debate; you will be assigned a side. (Debate Rubric)

Day 6: Debate; Review for final.

 

 

Links

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/03/10/pm_body_computing/

http://www.aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf PIZZA order

http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb.html Harrison Bergeron

http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson405/PropagandaTextList.pdf Propaganda in various mediums

http://harelbarzilai.org/words/omelas.txt The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

http://www.george-orwell.org/ Full text of many works from Orwell

http://snarkerati.com/movie-news/the-top-50-dystopian-movies-of-all-time/  Top dystopian films