KS3 and KS4: Exploring Dystopian Fiction Creative Writing Unit

I am very pleased with this. We have a problem with retention of English students at A-Level at our place - the English GCSE is just VERY boring. So, part of the plan to address this is to make the sorts of lessons that kids will remember in Key Stage 3; make them fall in love with the subject so to speak.

This is my best efforts at doing just that.

The first lesson covers the basics of Dystopian Fiction - you will need some Dystopian Fiction extracts for this. I picked from the following texts:

The Hunger Games
Maze Runner
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
The Handmaid’s Tale
Ready Player One
1984
Battle Royale

I cannot sell the resource if I put the extracts up on here, but finding your own examples shouldn’t be too tough. But, I did find a free version of the Hunger Games Chapter 1 at the following link:

http://www.scholastic.com/thehungergames/media/hungergames-chapter1.pdf

The second lesson (lessons really) focuses purely on the first chapter of The Hunger Games. Here, we analyse and explore the text before giving the students the chance to write creatively.

The last lessons in the largest power point are a lot of fun. Essentially, the lessons require the students to write a series of mission logs as they flee from a devastated earth, only to be forced to return. There are two versions: one with no music and one with LOADS of atmospheric music attached.

Both powerpoints have a load of set-up animations which run automatically. I advise you go through the powerpoint several times before putting it in front of the kids. And when you do, make sure you have the volume up.

This is one of those lessons they won’t forget in a hurry, I promise.

ADDITION: So I tried this with my Year 10s. They loved it too…

ANOTHER ADDITION: I’ve chucked a debate boxing lesson on the end - it assumes a lot of knowledge of The Hunger Games (shouldn’t be a problem with the films).