Lesson Plan for Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World'

Contents

1. Contents

2. Introduction

3. Survey of the lesson plan

4. Specific aspects

5. Detailed lesson plan

6. Proposal for a class test

7. Works Cited

8. Honesty Declaration

1. Introduction

As Brave New World by Aldous Huxley^[1] is one of the fixed novels for the “Leistungskurs” (alternatively in 2008 The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, in 2009 and 2010 Moon Palace by Paul Auster), it will be an essential part of the German “Zentralabitur”.^[2] For that reason, it is obvious to draw up a lesson plan, which guides the teacher and the pupils through this dystopian novel.

The lesson plan at hand tries to cover all important parts of a literary analysis (e.g. characterization, science, everyday life, political system, genre, social classes, author). In this connection there are plenty of exercises to acquaint the students with the novel. The exercises are exclusively devised by myself and they comprise a lot of periods which help to improve the students’ oral skills in the English language.

Brave New World deals to a great extent with genetic engineering and several methods of manipulating people. To secure a full understanding of the topic and to round off the theme, it is reasonable to discuss the subject across the disciplines. The teacher should ask his or her colleagues, if it is possible to discuss the matter interdisciplinarily. Especially the subjects biology, religion, ethics, politics and educational science present themselves in this context.

2. Survey of the lesson plan

The lesson plan is organized as follows: The teacher begins with a pre-reading phase (section 1), continues with the while-reading phase (sections 2 to 8) and closes with a post-reading phase (section 9).^[3] The pre-reading phase makes the pupils curious about the novel and leads them to the topic without anticipating too much. The while-reading phase deals intensively with the text itself, taking everything into consideration which is important for the final exam. The while-reading phase also includes elements which are typical of the post-reading phase, especially concerning the changing of perspectives. Since several exercises present themselves in a particular context, they are given priority to. In the post-reading phase the students are encouraged to have a critical look at the system of the Brave New World and its meaning to our society.

Section 1: making the pupils curious about the book

Section 2: chapter 1 - 3; introducing the system of Brave New World, introducing the main characters, narrator’s point of view

Section 3 : chapter 4 + 5; characterising Bernard Marx, Lenina Crowne, Helmholtz Watson, Fanny Crowne; Soma, biblical aspects

Section 4 : chapter 6 + 7; difference between Bernard and Lenina, Bernard representing opposition, pun

Section 5 : chapter 8 – 10; taboos and senses of right and wrong in both worlds, Bernard and John, Bernard’s plan

Section 6 : chapter 11 + 12; World of Shakespeare

Section 7 : chapter 13 – 15; genre, summing up everything that is part of the brave new world

Section 8 : chapter 16 and 17; Mustapha Mond and his background

Section 9 : consequences for our society

3. Specific aspects

Expert groups: The lesson plan at hand tries to involve the pupils actively in the teaching process. There is a part of about 15 to 30 minutes in each section that is arranged by two to four pupils. Those pupils then have the possiblity to act for the teacher. They acquire knowledge in a particular field which they either present in class or work out together with their class-mates. Beforehand, they build expert groups and work together on their topics. The teacher should be available for the pupils if the tasks are unclear, if there are any questions or further literature needed.

The purpose and substantial argument is to avoid too much input from the teacher and enable the pupils to work the information out on their own.

Organization: The Geman “Leistungskurse” generally have five lessons per week. Two double periods and one single period. The lesson plan at hand is conceived for the two double periods, except the pre-reading phase, which does not need more than one single lesson. The single periods can be used for organisational questions, repeating grammatical structures, practicing vocabulary, etc., so that the double periods are exclusively reserved for talking about literature.

Reading bit by bit: The pupils read the novel bit by bit, instead of pre-reading it. They have to read about 20 to 50 pages for the coming sections. As this requires a lot of work, they have to be made aware of the fact that they will be dealing with the novel for quite a long time and that these lesson units are also a preparation for their A-levels. Reading bit by bit enables the students to occupy themselves intensively with the text and not to lose the thread or forget some important bits and pieces, as well as the context.

Although the tasks are geared to the individual chapters, the students always have to include their knowledge from the previous ones.

[...]

^[1] Huxley, Aldous (1932). Brave New World. London: Vintage.

^[2] Ministerium für Schule und Weiterbildung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen. http://www.standardsicherung.schulministerium.nrw.de/abitur-gost/fach.php?fach=3

^[3] Müller-Hartmann, Andreas & Marita Schocker-von Ditfurth (2004). Introduction to English Language Teaching. Stuttgart: Klett. P 128f