Standard 3: Critical Reading and Writing

Students will apply critical thinking skills to reading and writing.

READING: Students will comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and respond to a variety of complex texts of all literary and informational genres from a variety of historical, cultural, ethnic, and global perspectives.

Understanding 

Objectives 

Approaching 

12.3.R.2

Students can evaluate points of view and perspectives in more than one text and explain how multiple points of view contribute to the meaning of a work.

12.3.R.1

Students will evaluate the extent to which historical, cultural, and/or global perspectives affect authors’ stylistic and organizational choices in grade-level literary and informational genres.

Developing 

12.3.R.1

Students can recognize the extent to which an author’s  historical, cultural, and/or global perspective affects their stylistic and organizational choices.

12.3.R.1

Students can recognize the extent to which an author’s  historical, cultural, and/or global perspective affects their stylistic and organizational choices with guidance.

12.3.R.2

Students can identify points of view and perspectives in more than one text and explain how multiple points of view contribute to the meaning of a work. 

12.3.R.2

Students can analyze points of view and perspectives in more than one text and explain how multiple points of view contribute to the meaning of a work.

12.3.R.2

Students can evaluate points of view and perspectives in more than one text and explain how multiple points of view contribute to the meaning of a work.

12.3.R.2

Students will evaluate points of view and perspectives in more than one grade-level literary and/or informational text and explain how multiple points of view contribute to the meaning of a work.

12.3.R.3

12.3.R.3

Students can analyze how authors use key literary elements to contribute to meaning and interpret how themes are connected across texts with guidance.

12.3.R.3

Students can analyze how authors use key literary elements to contribute to meaning and interpret how themes are connected across texts.

12.3.R.3

Students will analyze how authors use key literary elements to contribute to meaning and interpret how themes are connected across texts.

12.3.R.4

Students can identify literary devices to support interpretations of literary texts.

12.3.R.4

Students can evaluate literary devices to support interpretations across literary texts with guidance.

12.3.R.4

Students can evaluate literary devices to support interpretations of texts, including comparisons across texts.

12.3.R.4

Students will evaluate literary devices to support interpretations of texts, including comparisons across texts.

12.3.R.5

Students can identify how authors writing on the same issue reached different conclusions because of differences in assumptions, evidence, reasoning, and viewpoints with support.

12.3.R.5

Students can compare/contrast how authors writing on the same issue reached different conclusions because of differences in assumptions, evidence, reasoning, and viewpoints.

12.3.R.5

Students can evaluate how authors writing on the same issue reached different conclusions because of differences in assumptions, evidence, reasoning, and viewpoints.

12.3.R.5

Students will evaluate how authors writing on the same issue reached different conclusions because of differences in assumptions, evidence, reasoning, and viewpoints.

12.3.R.6

Students can analyze the structures of multiple texts/content and infer connections between the texts.

12.3.R.6

Students can analyze the structures of multiple texts/content and provide textual evidence to support inferred connections with guidance.

12.3.R.6

Students can analyze the structures of multiple texts/content and provide textual evidence to support inferred connections.

12.3.R.6

Students will comparatively analyze the structures of texts (e.g., compare/contrast, problem/solution, cause/effect, claims/counterclaims/evidence) and content by inferring connections among multiple texts and providing textual evidence to support their inferences.

12.3.R.7

12.3.R.7

Students can make connections (e.g., thematic links, literary analysis) across multiple texts and provide textual evidence to support their inferences with guidance.

12.3.R.7

12.3.R.7

Students will make connections (e.g., thematic links, literary analysis) between and across multiple texts and provide textual evidence to support their inferences.

 Instructional Guidance 

• Guide students in a discussion about two movies that they have seen.

• Students may be given time to turn and talk to a partner about how the movies are similar and how they are different.

• Explain that readers use a similar process of making connections as they read 

• This lesson works well as an introduction to the novel 1984.

• Ask students to share anything that they know about the year 1984. What have they seen on television or read in books? What were the major events of the year? If desired, use the Wikipedia list of events for 1983and 1984to set the context for the Macintosh commercial, or use a similar list from a reference book.

• Display and read the Voiceover Text from the "1984" Macintosh Commercialusing an overhead projector, or pass out copies of the text and read the passage to the class.

• Ask students to share their immediate reactions to the passage with the class. Note their observations on the board or on chart paper.

• Show the "1984" Macintosh commercial to the class, or have students view the commercial in a computer lab.

• Apple's 1984 Commercial

• Ask students to review their original reactions to the Voiceover Text and consider whether their feelings have changed now that they have examined the text in its original context.

• Lead a discussion on the interplay between the commercial's voiceover and images. If desired, pass out copies of the "1984" Macintosh Commercial Analysis Worksheet, and use the sheet to record observations during the discussion.

• Use the following questions to lead the exploration of the commercial:

• How would you describe the workers depicted in the commercial?

• How does the runner compare to the workers?

• How do these characters display dystopian characteristics? What type of dystopian controls are used in the society depicted in the commercial?

• What characteristics of a dystopian society are present in the commercial?

• How are setting and characterization used to show that the protagonist in this commercial is trapped by this society and is trying to escape?

• What is the protagonist in conflict with in the commercial?

• What is the symbolic meaning of the protagonist's action of throwing the hammer and destroying the screen?

• What negative aspects of the dystopian world in the video are highlighted through the actions of the protagonist?

• What comment or criticism is being made about our society through this dystopia?

• If desired, show the commercial again at this point, as students may notice different features now that they have discussed it.

• Pass out Scene-by-Scene Summary of the "1984" Macintosh Commercial, for students to use as reference while they work on a more specific analysis of words and images from the commercial. 

• Begin your exploration of the novel by pointing out some of the obvious connections (e.g., the televised image of a Big Brother-like speaker).
• As they read, ask students to watch for descriptive passages and specific symbols in the novel that connect directly to the commercial.
• After students have completed the novel, play the commercial for the class again, and ask them to rethink its use of dystopian characteristics. Students may notice images and symbols that were less obvious before they read the book.
• Ask students to return to the journal entry that they wrote at the conclusion of this activity and reconsider it in light of the novel, focusing on how their original assessment of the message about society in the commercial compares to the messages about society that Orwell explores in his novel.
• The text connection questions can be use before, during, and after reading as appropriate: Ask students to think about the following questions.  You may choose to write these on the board or chart paper for students to see.
• Focusing on text-to-self connections:
• What does this story remind you of?
• Can you relate to the characters in the story?
• Does anything in this story remind you of anything in your own life?
• Focusing on text-to-text connections:
• What does this remind you of in another book you have read?
• How is this text similar to other things you have read?
• How is this text different from other things you have read?
• Focusing on text-to-world connections:
• What does this remind you of in the real world?
• How are events in this story similar to things that happen in the real world?
• How are events in this story different from things that happen in the real world?

Deeper

Acquisition 

• Students can find modern examples that thematically relate to 1984.

• Watch a video production of 1984. How is the book different from the movie? Was it easier to understand or more difficult? Were scenes left out or changed, and if so, how did those omissions or changes affect the way you interpret the book?  

• Place the book on a historical timeline. What happened before the book was published? What has happened since? Discuss: Which of Orwell’s predictions have become a part of history, not only in communist countries but in the free world?

• From the Afterword by Erich Fromm, debate the following topics: (a) Can man forget he is human? (b) Can man create a perfect society? (c) The greatest deterrent to achieving goals is hopelessness. (d) The arms race provides essential economic growth. Require students to provide evidence for the debate.