From Plato to JG Ballard
Questa unità didattica si concentra sul genere utopico e distopico (dalle origini all'età contemporanea). E' costituita da una carrellata di prosa utopica e distopica nel tentativo di metterne in luce gli elementi comuni e, al tempo stesso, di contestualizzare le opere. Le immagini che corredano l'unità (copertine, locandine, luoghi ed eventi storici) sono volte a stimolare la discussione in classe.
LESSON PLAN
TARGET: 5th year high school students
PREREQUISITES: having read at least a couple of dystopian books knowledge of the historical background of the 19th and 20th centuries
LESSON PLAN: 2/3 modules for reading and discussing the contents and carrying on the class discussion
AIM:
- to highlight the main, distinctive features of each utopian or dystopian work;
- to frame each of them within the appropriate cultural/historical context;
- to encourage students to think more critically and autonomously about the contents they are given to study at school;
- to provide some hints for cross-curricular work in the perspective of the leaving exam.
BROADENING activity:
the students can be asked
• to summarize the contents or the conclusion they have come to during the class discussion in a slideshow
• or choose an author/work to delve in and create their own contribution on that subject to be shown in class
• suggest a few more example of recent books which can be called dystopian or have similar features (to be continued).
Practical tip for carrying out the lesson: the students can be given only the text of the unit, while the photos of the extended version, which the teacher may project, can be used as prompts for class discussion or during students' interviews.
Word files : Utopian and dystopian fiction hand-out (shorter version – no photos) : Utopian and dystopian fiction (extended version with photos and lead-in and lead out activities)