Dystopian literature is a popular genre in this class. Students love the Hunger Games, the Maze Runner, Divergent, and more. Needless to say: the class was pumped. Ms. Baldwin had a powerpoint where she discussed the different elements of dystopian literature. Class ran out of time before getting too far into the powerpoint. However, the kid were pretty psyched to get cruising.
The book the students will all be reading was not yet introduced. Ms. Baldwin only said that she wants to stress that it is a dystopian book written far before the more present day, famous novels like The Hunger Games. She wanted to address the misconception that this genre was new.
The class opened an online chat about the role of dystopia vs. utopia. Students responded to each other's comments. This was a good way to have a discussion where every student gets involved. Rather than calling on raised hands, all students had to address the prompt, refer to each other's comments, and then audibly discuss if they had questions.
It was fun to see the introduction of a new unit in this way. I like this discussion idea and I think I might use it!
Good example of a way to hook students into the beginning of something new.
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