Classroom Activities
Introduction Activity: Rights, Responsibilities, and Resistance
I currently teach an in-class writing activity called “The Role of a Citizen” as part of my Citizenship unit. This activity helps me see how well students can write and what they know about their rights as U.S. citizens. For this unit, I’ve updated the activity and now call it “Rights, Responsibilities, and Resistance of a Citizen.” That name might change. My aim is for students to start the unit by thinking about what they already know about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in a democracy. This helps reveal what they understand and what they might not know yet. Students will do a timed writing exercise in class, responding to three prompts in paragraph form. I want them to focus on sharing their thoughts, not just giving the ‘right’ answer, even if they are not familiar with the concepts. First, they will think about the rights U.S. citizens have, where those rights come from, who protects them, and why they are important. Next, they will look at the responsibilities that go along with those rights, considering what people owe to their communities, the government, and each other. Finally, they will tackle a bigger question that is central to the unit: When, if ever, should citizens question or resist authority? For all three prompts, students should use examples from what they already know, history, current events, or their own lives. Since this writing happens before any formal lessons on the unit’s topics, their responses will give me useful insight into their assumptions and possible misunderstandings, and will introduce the main questions we’ll explore throughout the unit.
Bill of Rights: Rights under Tyranny
After learning about their rights and responsibilities as U.S. citizens, students will work together to look at the Bill of Rights through the lens of authoritarianism. In small groups, they will put an assigned amendment into modern words and then think about how the Party in 1984 might change or remove that right, explaining why an authoritarian government would see it as a threat. Each group will create a visual display showing the original amendment, their modern version, a "Big Brother" version, and a short explanation connecting the amendment to ideas like tyranny, censorship, surveillance, or resistance. The class will finish with a gallery walk and a group discussion, encouraging students to think about which rights are most important for protecting individual freedom and reminding everyone that protecting rights depends on citizens who are informed and involved.
Poetry Annotation Activity: “First They Came”
At the end of our unit on tyranny and resistance, students will take part in a guided annotation activity using Martin Niemöller's poem “First They Came.” Since many of my seniors have little experience with poetry analysis, I will start by showing them how to look for repetition, structure, word choice, and theme. After that, students will work together in small groups to annotate the poem. As they find literary and rhetorical devices, they will discuss how each one adds to the poem's main message about silence, complicity, and moral responsibility. For example, the repeated phrase, "Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me,"29 highlights one of the unit's main ideas: resistance does not always mean open rebellion. The poem shows how failing to question injustice or stand up for others can make oppressive systems stronger. After annotating and discussing the poem, students will write a short response connecting its message to 1984 and to the bigger themes of tyranny, resistance, and human agency we have studied. This lesson gives students a step-by-step way to read poetry and helps them practice close reading and thematic analysis across different types of texts.
Reflection Activity: Conversation with their former selves
At the end of the unit, students will take part in a reflective activity that connects back to the writing they did on the first day. Before class—or more likely, in the first few minutes—I will hand back each student's original timed writing on the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, without any feedback or changes. At the start of class, students will reread what they wrote and mark parts that show their assumptions, misunderstandings, or ideas that have stayed the same. I will give clear definitions for these terms to help them. Then, students will write a reflection that responds to their first ideas, using what they have learned from the literature, nonfiction, poetry, and history we studied. Instead of just listing what they learned, students will explain how and why their thinking has changed, using specific examples from 1984, The Origins of Totalitarianism, “The Pedestrian”, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, Man’s Search for Meaning, “First They Came”, and the contemporary nonfiction we covered.
After writing their reflections, students will take part in a gallery walk. Anonymous excerpts from both their first writings and their final reflections will be posted around the classroom. As they read each other's work, students will leave comments that point out growth, new perspectives, or interesting ideas. The lesson will end with a group discussion about this question: How has your understanding of resistance changed? Students will be encouraged to see that resistance is more than just rebellion. They will think about different forms of resistance, like telling the truth, standing up to injustice, refusing to go along with wrong actions, keeping their humanity, and showing moral courage when facing oppression. By looking back at their original writing, I hope students finish the unit with a clear sense of how they have grown as analytical readers and how much more they understand about the complex links between tyranny, resistance, and human agency.
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