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Class
Taught by Sherry Drobner
The students enrolled in our class wanted to read literature that would raise moral and political questions. We read Animal Farm by George Orwell, a story about overworked, mistreated animals who seek justice and equality on their farm. Focusing on comprehension and analysis, students read in and outside of class. Some of the questions that students posed and tackled through their reading were:
• Must one group always dominate in society?
• Is the hierarchical structure a natural order for society?
• How can we share power and authority?
• How do we achieve equality in our society?
As their questions
emerged and group discussion followed, the theme of societal order emerged.
To investigate our own ideas about society, I presented a code —
a pictorial representation of a situation that evokes feelings and contradictions.
For our class the code contained three pictures: a child working on a
production line; a man working in an ammunition factory; and several Native
Americans talking by the lake side. Students were asked to list what was
valued and not valued in each society. Through this process they labeled
each society industrial and non-industrial.
We discussed what we valued in society. Subsequently, we discussed how different roles were valued differently. We tied this discussion to our analysis of the characters/roles in Animal Farm. As we pursued the story we discussed societal roles and how they relate to different government structures. We contrasted systems of economics and governments such as fascism, totalitarianism, democracy, capitalism and communism. We reintroduced the author's assumptions about society and continued to explore the possibilities of creating egalitarian societies in light of our own desires to be “on top” rather than “on the bottom”. Students asked, “does there have to be a bottom?”
With the student’s list of their own ideal society complete, I brought in a bag full of magazines and asked them to find pictorial representations of their words such as abundance, good environment, liberation, and equal value. As a group, students discussed their pictures, their reason for selection and then collaboratively designed the collage. They now had a visual representation, or code, of their ideal society. I used this code as a framework to help them further express their thoughts in creative form.
Wanting them to continue to explore the idea of societal order and possibilities of change, they were presented with the following frame:
We used to.....
But now we....
We are...........
Students worked in pairs to develop their ideas, read their writings to each other and provide each other with opinions. The following session I typed up their work and attached it to a display board next to their collage. The visual representation offered students the affirmation of their own hope for change to contrast with the cynicism of Orwell’s Animal Farm. See below for the poem the students wrote.
We used to see education as a privilege for a few
but now we give education to all.We used to sacrifice family for work
but now we value family more than anything.
We used to take relationships for granted
but now we strive to be better.We are educated.
We are one family.
We are validated.
We used to be cold as strangers
but now we feel warm and open-minded.
We used to have pollution everywhere
but now we have balanced ecology.We used to have family struggles here and there
but now we are supportive.
We are knowledgeable.
We are in control.We are hopeful.