Animal Farm was written by George Orwell, the pen name of Englishman Eric Arthur Blair. The novel, which can be found in full online, was published in 1945 and was written as a satirical allegory of early Soviet Russia.
Many students detest the book when they begin, I’ve found, but by the time they’ve read the first few chapters, they’re usually hooked and give the novel great reviews in the end.
In student teaching, I worked with Ray Robinson at GWHS, where I currently teach. He was the head of the department until he retired two years ago. He had his basic English 12 class reading Animal Farm and tied it in with Dr. Zhivago, which was already one of my favorite movies!
It’s an interesting set of companion pieces, since the film’s backdrop is Russia during World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution that directly followed and washed the country in Communism.
I’d like to get together some materials on the history behind the novel and a viewing guide for the film. I know there are also a number of excellent websites of which I’d like to gather a list. (More to come!)
Available Teaching Materials
- Reading Plan – DOC
- Prereading – DOC
- Quiz #1 (not available for download)
- Quiz #2 (not available for download)
- Quiz #3 (not available for download)
- Quiz #4 (not available for download)
- Quiz #5 (not available for download)
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Most of my teaching resources are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License, which means you can feel free to use them with attribution as long as you don’t use them commercially. If you’re not sure, don’t hesitate to ask me. Unfortunately, I am currently unable to send out my tests and quizzes, but I am hoping to establish a less time-consuming alternative for this in the near future. Sorry!!
