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This PBL unit is based on the real-world problems students have explored in their readings of 1984, Brave New World, and Frankenstein. It asks them to identify connections between these dystopian world and ours. What is dangerous in our world today? What might go so wrong that our world would change dramatically? They will research problems that exist in the real world, and then use their creativity to imagine that these problems have somehow gone terribly wrong in a fictional world.
This PBL honors the 4C’s: Critical Thinking Written Communication Spoken Communication Collaboration Creativity |
Before We Started
We began the semester by discussing their summer reading, 1984.
Essential Questions for 1984: How much does the government control our lives? How much should the government control our lives?
We had class discussions on the topics of government surveillance, government corruption and oppression, and injustice.
We then began reading nonfiction informational and argument articles and used Kelly Gallagher’s Article of the Week strategy.
Essential Questions for 1984: How much does the government control our lives? How much should the government control our lives?
We had class discussions on the topics of government surveillance, government corruption and oppression, and injustice.
We then began reading nonfiction informational and argument articles and used Kelly Gallagher’s Article of the Week strategy.
Next we transitioned from paper articles that I copied for them, to using Flipboard, an app that allows you to "flip" articles from any online source and collect them in your own magazine. I created the magazine “Of Literary and Rhetorical Interest” for the AP students, and “Current Issues” for the CP students. I uploaded new articles every week and allowed students to choose an article and complete the AOW (article of the week) assignments.
When we began working on the PBL, I created a third magazine, "The Dangers of Unintended Consequences", for the AOW assignments. They read and wrote reflections on articles on global climate change, terrorism, abuse of power, air and water quality, food security, poverty, equality of opportunity, biodiversity loss, educational policy, and other topics with dystopian potential.
We continued with our reading and discussions of British literature and read Frankenstein and Brave New World.
Essential Questions for Frankenstein:
Essential Questions for Frankenstein:
- How do we judge & treat “the other” (someone who is frighteningly different)?
- How should we judge & treat “the other”?
- What breaks a person?
Essential Questions for Brave New World:
- What is the relationship between humanity and technology?
- What happens to people when they get everything they say they want?
While reading these novels, we also completed a unit on descriptive narratives using Carol Booth Olson's Memory Snapshot unit, which is found in The Reading/Writing Connection. This provided students with practice using "show not tell" strategies which they also used in the narrative PBL assignment.
Kick Off Event
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To begin the unit I wanted something to engage and maybe even shock them. I chose Paul Root Wople’s TED Talk "It's time to question bio-engineering. In it Bioethicist Paul Root Wolpe describes an astonishing series of recent bio-engineering experiments, from glowing dogs to mice that grow human ears. He asks: Isn't it time to set some ground rules? |
Mini-Lessons and Activities
After watching this TED Talk:
- The class created a Think Map on real world problems
- Each student began his or her MLA Bibliography with citations for all the sources they examined from this point on
- Practiced using Google Advanced Search
- Each student watched two more TED Talks, took notes, and created citations for their bibliographies.
The Art of Hyperlinking
Each student begins researching 3-5 real world problems that interests him or her, and they create a hyperlink assignment to document their research. Bee Deaths May Have Reached A Crisis Point For Crops Infographic
Group members confer and create Timeline for the team's fictional dystopian world with exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement of their dystopia. Use a Flow Think Map to include each team member's real world problem in this fictional world. Use Easel.ly to create a graphic of your timeline. Set up Dystopian World Weebly Site
Teams create Website to house their documents: hyperlink assignments, TED Talk Videos, infographics, news articles, descriptive narratives, and bibliographies. Descriptive Narratives
Students adopt the persona of a person living in his or her dystopian world. Show what it would be like to live there. You may use any format: a journal, a dialogue, a short story. Nathan, English 4 student
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Collaboration
Students form Dystopian Worlds (using Google Form)
Create Collaboration Contract due (along with resident signatures by all characters in your world) Fictional Newspaper Informational Article
Each student writes a fictional news article imagining what might have gone wrong...if the real world problem he or she warned about in his/her Ted Talk was not heeded. Use of visuals, headline, byline, Who, What, When, Where, How, Why, use of interview and structure. TED Talks
Process Writing:
Cayley, AP Lang student
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