Animal Farm speaking and listening lesson one Objectives To speak and debate in character based on passages from the text and students' own ideas. Main activity Students adopt the character of either Snowball or Napoleon and debate the pros and cons of building the windmill. Introduction How do Snowball and Napoleon get along? What are the differences in their characters? What is the big dispute they have in chapter five? Development Scan chapter five and make a list of Snowball's arguments in favour of the windmill and Napoleon's arguments against it. Then add to the list with your own ideas based on what you know of the character of each pig. For Will provide electricity — light and heat in the stalls, a circular saw, a chaff-­‐cutter, a mangel-­‐slicer and a electric milking machine. In the end it will save labour — the animals will only have to work three days a week. It will only take a year to build — there is already plenty of stone. Key vocabulary: Comrades, labour, work, electricity, stalls, machinery Against If they waste time on the windmill they will starve to death. Snowball says it will require dynamos and cables, but doesn't say where we will get these. It will leave the farm more vulnerable to an attack by Jones. Electricity contradicts the principles of Animalism. Key vocabulary: Comrades, Animalism, humans, food production, starve Main activity Option one — Whole class debate © Education Umbrella, 2014 1 Divide the students into three groups — Napoleon, Snowball and other animals (Mollie, Boxer, Clover, Benjamin, Moses, the sheep). Debate as a class, giving each student a chance to speak and ask questions. Option two — Pair work Put students in pairs. Student A plays the role of Napoleon, student B plays the role of Snowball. Students debate for five minutes while teacher monitors, offering prompts and asking questions where necessary and taking notes. After five minutes review any important points as a class. Then move all the As one place so they are with a new B. Students switch roles and conduct debate again. Plenary Who ultimately wins the debate on the windmill and how? Why do you think Napoleon chose this moment to chase Snowball off the farm? Can you think of any real-­‐life examples of debates similar to that about the windmill? That is, a large project that will take a long time, cost a lot of money but will bring a lot of benefits. Homework Students find a real-­‐life example (past or present) of a large project similar to the windmill on Animal Farm. They must bring in something that describes the project, e.g., a newspaper/magazine article, a book, etc. and summarise the positions for and against. © Education Umbrella, 2014 2