Animal Farm

In literacy Rm22 are currently extending their knowledge and focusing on 'the classics'. We are investigating what makes a novel a classic, with the idea that the messages within the story can apply to all eras - they are timeless. In the upcoming term we will be looking at George Orwell's Animal Farm.

Before reading the first chapter we began by looking at what an Allegory is. We decided it is when an author uses a fictional setting to teach the reader about complex real situations in history. We looked at the different types of 'ISM's" in politics and at Karl Marx. George Orwell uses this story to tel the tale of 'absolute power corrupts absolutely", in particular Stalin and the story of the Russian Revolution.

Although this novel contains some complex language and themes the children benefit hugely
from the discussions and ideas the novels promote. We get exposed to the classic ideas of 'Good Vs Evil' and ' absolute power corrupts absolutely'. We especially want to understand the idea of 'inferential information' in stories eg. what connections can we make about the story/characters that the author hasn't written in the text (reading between the lines).