This semester, I will be focusing on the 2nd goal, which is developing better ways to keep

my ELL students involved in the lesson by engaging them with real world examples. For this

curriculum and learning goal, I am planning on reading and teaching the novel Animal Farm to

my students. Teaching in a high ELL population which is considered to be high risk, it is crucial

to engage students through activities that they can relate to and help them achieve a better

understanding of the novel.

In teaching this novel, the first activity I will use to engage the students will be for them

to create their own propaganda flier. In the novel, the animals of Manor Farm unite together and

overthrow the humans who run the farm. The pigs Napoleon and Snowball fight for power of the

farm and Napoleon ultimately wins. When we get to this part of the novel, I will have the

students create fliers in which they will decide who would be the best animal to run the farm.

They will need to have a slogan and an image which will represent their animal of choice. This

activity will engage the students in a few different ways. First, it will allow them to think

creatively. They will need to develop an image which will represent the character they wish to

run the farm. It will also allow them to think critically about the novel and recall knowledge

about each of the animals on the farm before making their decision.

Another activity I will be implementing with the students as we are reading will be to

develop their own country. In Animal Farm, the pigs develop a type of “government” which they

call “animalism.” The pigs develop seven commandments which all the animals are required to

follow. To engage the students, I will have them develop their own countries. They will need to

design a name for their country, a flag, and come up with seven commandments of their own.
This activity will give a connection into their world by allowing them to create a country that is

entirely theirs. This is a great real life connection activity and it will also allow them to make

connections to the text.

In addition to these activities, I will also be incorporating vocabulary into the unit. This

will be done on a bi-weekly basis and spelling/vocab quizzes will be given. To connect the

vocabulary words to the text, I will give the words to the students prior to reading that section of

the novel. Their task will be to identify the vocabulary words during active reading and write the

sentence in which the word was found. This will help the students with context as well as word

identification. It will also help them with literacy, which is a task that many of them struggle

with.

Through completing these activities, my goal is to allow the students to make connections

to the text while utilizing activities that will keep them engaged and excited about the learning

process. It can be a difficult task at times to achieve this, but by having them make connections

to their own lives with creating their own country and coming up with a flier for who they feel

would be best suited to run the farm, they will continue to be engaged in the lesson and the

reading.