Classroom Activities
School Board Process Drama
Traditionally, I have done the activity described in the introduction when students have read most of the novel. This activity can be used at that time, using text evidence from the book, or could be adapted to use the film as evidence.
Set up
Decide on the framework for the process drama activity. The important piece is to have a central question and a deliberative body who must come to a decision about that question. I have had the class form a board of directors of a school district that is considering banning Fahrenheit 451. If you’d rather use the film and update the activity, a nice way to start might be to ask students to come up with a problem that arises from their discussion of the film. For example, students might identify social media as a problem because it encourages people to focus on getting “likes” and can distort their perception of reality because of fake news. Students could then decide on the question and the body to deliberate – maybe they are legislators aiming to pass a law censoring political content from Facebook. Or, they might remain a school board and question whether to ban the use of social media at school. The key here is to have students focus on a problem that is brought up and considered by the dystopic elements of the novel and film.
Students should be given specific roles so they can prepare for the activity. In the school board activity, nine students were school board members, six students played parents, six students played students, several students acted as teachers and the rest were other stakeholders in the school community. I assigned students a “position” so that at least some students would be forced out of their own personal opinion and to make an argument they didn’t necessarily agree with (though school board members were allowed to “switch” when they voted).
Students were given a graphic organizer to prepare the key arguments on their side of the issue and organize evidence in support (mainly from the text, but they were invited to add real-world examples). This prep took the majority of a 40 minute class period so students had ample argument and evidence for the activity.
Activity
I allotted a 40 minute period for the “school board meeting” and vote. I created an agenda for a meeting that included time for introducing the problem, parents, students, teachers and community members to give short statements, school board members to discuss and time for a vote. The specific times for each part can vary depending on class size and student willingness to share. An easy modification for classes reluctant to participate is to assign speaking spots ahead of time so students know when they will be asked to speak and for what duration (I suggest 2 minutes).
After the activity, students should reflect (in writing or discussion) on how their own views aligned or diverged from the arguments of their role and the arguments of other stakeholders in the discussion. They should also reflect on ways that the activity helped to stretch their own thinking on the topic and to what extent it changed or complicated their opinion.
Book Chat
At the end of the novel, Montag joins a group of vagabonds who have each memorized a book to preserve; this scene is mirrored in the film, though the people and books are much different.
This activity asks students to imagine they are in a world in which books are banned and select a book that they believe is worthy of saving. They should then select a passage (between 10-20 lines) to memorize and present to the class. They should also write a short essay that explains why they chose the book, calling on themes and ideas that arise in class discussion of the book and film. For example, a student might select a book that they feel connects to their identity, much like the characters in the film.
I have had students “present” their passages by sitting around a campfire, as though they are one of the vagabonds that escaped the city in the novel. The campfire could be adapted to mirror the film (though, it is fun to create a fake fire out of paper and have campfire sounds and s’mores as snacks).
After students have shared, they should reflect on the difficulty of memory as a way of preserving literature and whether it is an effective method of preservation (specifically in reference to the end of the film, where the human books are complemented by storing the data in the bird DNA). They should also reflect on the text choices and what might be missing from their collection. I have also asked students to reflect on the value of literature in general – to what extent should we treasure it? Why is it something we keep and study in school? These are big questions that can begin with the novel, continue with the film and be further dealt with in this activity and culminating project.
Curriculum Addition – Group Activity
Students should select a text that they believe should be added to the curriculum at their school and write an essay that argues for its inclusion. Their essay should include references to the ideas in Fahrenheit 451, both novel and film, but should also draw on other sources. The first step is for students to create criteria for placing a text in the curriculum, which can include text difficulty, cultural diversity, themes and skills to be taught, etc. Most importantly, students should generate this list based on their reading and viewing of the novel and film.
Students should work in a group to select and read a text, write the argumentative essay and create a presentation to share with the class. The parameters of this activity can be adjusted to meet the needs of your students. I have used groups of 4-5 and given free rein on text selection; you might make the groups smaller and vary the requirements of the essay or give more specific instructions for book selection.
One of the key challenges of this assignment is collaborative writing; you may want to instruct students directly in group management skills or assign specific roles to group members. Students who are more advanced in collaborative work can have more freedom to design their own roles.
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