Case+Study+Animal+Farm+Rich+Task



 Animal Farm Rich Task

 While at Gymnazium Zlin we were given the opportunity to interact with English classes and design some rich tasks. We were advised that one class was currently reading Animal Farm, a very well known text by George Orwell. This book uses the fictional tale of animals overrunning a farm as a metaphor for the communist regime of the Soviet Union. We knew that a text with such political and cultural themes would make an excellent grounding for rich task work. We were told that the students were planning to prepare a review of the book or film; this was the starting point for our lesson.

We looked at the task that had been introduced (writing a review) and asked ourselves how we could design a task which applies to our research framework. Our main aims for the lesson were to encourage the students to critically evaluate the text, encourage them to engage with the themes of the text, maximize the potential to be creative with the task, and to highlight the relevance of the political themes to their local history.

We decided that the best avenue was to expand the possible ways they could present a review: to free them from the normal options of PowerPoint and essay. We came up with a list of options which they could choose from (noting that we would be open to suggestions of their own):
 * 1) **A presentation (3-4 minutes in length).**
 * 2) **A presentation in the style of a television review programme (3-4 minutes in length).**
 * 3) **A mock interview (3-4 minutes in length).** e.g with George Orwell, or an actor / director.
 * 4) **A pitch for a creative project (3-4 minutes in length).** e.g. a graphic novel, ballet, etc. based on Animal Farm.
 * 5) **Art work with written review.**
 * 6) **An A3 poster which reflects the novel.**
 * 7) **The Journalist.** Comparing the novel to local and/or national history and the experiences of people they know (through conducting interviews).

**Lesson Structure** We were given three lessons with the class to develop this rich task. In the first lesson we introduced the task and fully explained the options we had outlined. We had prepared some additional handouts to help them get ideas: one which offered a true interview with George Orwell and some general quotes of his, one which used the example of //The Lion King// to demonstrate how a story can work in many different formats, and a third which offered examples of artwork inspired by Animal Farm. They were given the choice to work in small groups, in pairs or alone, and we allowed time in the lesson for them to start working on their ideas. This gave them an opportunity to ask questions about their chosen approaches. The second lesson was purely a working lesson, where they had time to develop their review for the following day. We were present to answer questions and offer advice. In the third lesson they presented their diverse reviews to the class. In all the class produced: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">**What Did the Students Think?** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The average rating for this lesson was 9 out of 10. When asked if the class was relevant to their studies, the students commented on the importance of presentation when learning English: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> //Language lessons are about communicating with people. We presented our work in front of the class which was good and helped us to improve our communication skills.//
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Two PowerPoint presentations.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Three articles addressing the political context of Animal Farm and its relevance to the history of the Czech Republic. One piece of work included an interview with a history teacher.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">One piece of artwork: an impressive poster which expressed some of the key themes from the novel.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">In addition, those who investigated the political context found the experience useful: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> //I think we were thinking deeply about Stalinism and communism, we needed this.//

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">The students seemed pleased with the range of formats offered in the task: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> //It was good that I could choose between 7 formats. This was new and I appreciate it.//

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">One student admitted that this type of lesson was more work, but that it was not necessarily a problem: //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">We could do something different than usual. It needed more effort than usually but I think that everybody was happy to spend their free time working on the task because we were free to approach it in the way we wanted. //

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">When asked if they would change anything about the lesson, two students commented that time was a little short to prepare for the task. One student mentioned the value of a common theme across class work: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> //I think the theme could have been different. When reviewing a novel, we’re often talking about the same things.//

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">However, another student specifically praised the variation: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> //I think I would change nothing. We were free to do what we wanted so if somebody didn’t like something they could do something different.//

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">While not exactly scientific, it could be noted that three of our lesson evaluation slips included smiley faces.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">**So How Did It Go?** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In general I think the lesson was a success; the students seemed engaged with the variation we offered them, and the output was diverse and creative. Some seemed particularly keen to explore the political relevance to their national history, and share that knowledge with visitors to their country. It is maybe slightly disappointing that some of the students did not take up more of the “out there” options we offered them, but we must remember that offering them such unusual mediums for the first time is bound to be a bit daunting. On the whole the students embraced this task, performed very well, and we were happy to run this lesson !

Follow the links below to see the work which the students produced.



Historical Comparison Essays:

PowerPoint Presentation:

PowerPoint Presentation and Description:

Below are the four handouts prepared for the lesson: