Utopian Society Project
Created Oct. 11, 2016 by userBrittany BunceUnit: Novels on Utopian and Dystopian Societies
Driving Question: Is a utopian society a realistic way to run a group of people?
Lesson 1: Grabber and Introduction
Introductory Grabber: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A7CHIlgNW0
-Discuss which elements are utopian and which ones are dystopian
-Introduce what makes something utopian and dystopian
-Have students explain what would be in their utopia and what would be their dystopia
Introduce the Central Question: The students have been reading novels on utopian society and how it affects the citizens of those communities. Utopian societies all have common traits and ideas implemented into them to help aid in running the community and making it better for their citizens. Many dream to achieve the perfect utopian society, but is perfection realistic?
Culminating Activity
Create a Society Activity
Students will be asked to consider the elements of utopian society based on the novels we have read in class. While applying these traits, students will get in groups and create a society of their own.
Introduction: Students will be able to choose groups of 4-5 people for this project. They will try to pick people with similar interests to them making it easier to create a perfect society.
Brief Lecture: As a class, we will go over utopian elements that are present in the novels we have been reading. We will make a list of important traits seen in the novels including societal norms, personalities of the people, rules [or lack thereof], unique elements, and potential flaws of the facade of perfection. This will help guide the students on what they should be thinking about before they complete the activity.
Activity Overview [Two 60 minute class period work time]: After students get into groups of 4-5, they will have to pick a name for their utopia. This name must be appropriate and can reflect the views of their society. Then, students must brainstorm simple traits that they want their utopia to possess. An example of this would be choosing to have their national colors be blue and white.They will need to make a world sign or logo for their society that represents some of their beliefs previously brainstormed. Students will then have to create rules for their governing source or declare if their wont be any rules. They also need to decide if their community will have a protection force or a form of leaders running the community. The next task they must complete is picking how people get jobs and how their utopia is ran. Can people do whatever they please? Will the governing force pick for them? The last important feature of creating a utopia will be how money is handled. Will money be the form of currency? Is there another way citizens will purchase goods? Students must remember that this is supposed to be a perfect society in their terms meaning eliminating any possible drawbacks or negative aspects.
Activity Debate/ Presentation [One 60 minute class period as a whole class]: Everyone in the group must speak for the debate portion of this activity. Students must prepare some sort of presentation or poster that represents their utopian society. This poster must include all of the elements mentioned above and students must know their material before presenting. After groups present their material, the students in the audience must ask questions about the elements of the presenters utopia. The purpose of these questions are to trip up the group who is presenting and to point out how their utopia might actually possess elements of a dystopia. The goal of the students who are presenting is to have a rebuttal on why they picked the elements they did. The presenters want to successfully convince the class that they are a utopian society. The class will then vote on if they believe the group that presented is a utopia or dystopia. The group with the highest number of votes for a utopia gets three extra credit points added to their final score.
Rubric:
Criteria | Outstanding [10-12 points] | Proficient [7-9 points] | Basic [4-6 points] | Below Expectations [0-3 points] |
Expression of Utopian Elements | Goes above and beyond what is expected. Shows a clear and concise understanding of what a utopia is and how it is used throughout the novels. | Above average representation. Shows a clear and concise understanding of what a utopia is with minor mistakes while still understanding how it is used throughout the novels. | Mediocre understanding of what a utopia is. Has some understanding of how it is used throughout the novels. | Little to no understanding of what a utopia is. Does not know how the novels connect to a utopian society. Poor job on all aspects . |
Group Demeanor | Everyone works extremely well together with no conflict. | Everyone works well together with little to no conflict. | Everyone does their part with some conflict and issues. | Everyone does not work well together and many conflicts arise. |
Presentation | The group was extremely well prepared and knew exactly what they were doing when presenting. Did read off the visual aid and used eye contact. | The group was well prepared with some minor mistakes. Students knew what they were doing and barely used the visual aid. Eye contact was present. | The group had somewhat of their material prepared. Students relied heavily on the visual aid. Eye contact was rarely used. | The group had no idea what their material was. Students were not prepared and relied heavily on their visual aid. Little to no eye contact used. |
Visual | The visual was extremely clear and easy to read. Paragraphs of writing were not present and visual was well done. | The visual was clear and mostly easy to read with some minor mistakes. The visual was done well. | The visual was not very clear or easy to read. Paragraphs were present on the visual and did not aid in the presentation. | The visual was not at all clear and did not make sense. It did not aid in the presentation and was completely irrelevant to the topic. |