How To Read A Dystopian Film

During my school days, my teachers were very keen to show us a variety of films. There is one that sticks with me. In my year 11, we worked with dystopian novels. One of them was “The Hunger Games“ by Suzanne Collins. First, we read the book and for each chapter, we had to write a summary at home. After finishing the book we watched the complete film in sections, which was released that time. Before watching the film our pre-watching task was to reread the summaries we had written. Our while-watching task was to compare the book to the film content chapter by chapter. After watching each sequence that resembled a chapter, we stopped and discussed which similarities and differences we found. Besides, my teacher asked us, to write down how we

Besides, usually, these classes do have lessons of at least 90 minutes which is necessary for watching sequences or even the whole film and discuss it. I think I would watch „1984“ with my class since it is a topic that is very up-to-date.

In stage 1 (lead-in/topic selection) I would start the lesson by greeting my students and then use a silent impulse by showing them a quote from the book on the blackboard “The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better“. (Orwell, 1948) I will not give them any tasks and just look at them inquiringly. During this phase, the students are working student-centered due to the fact that they are able to tell me anything they want and I will not interfere or correct them.

In stage 2 (contextualization) I would ask them from what time they think this quote is from. After hearing their answers I would tell them that the quote is from a book and that it is from the year 1948. Besides I would put this quote into the context of the genre “dystopian novel“. Furthermore, I would talk about the time in which this book was written and which reason led to Orwell writing it. Since I am taking the lead during this phase, it can be described as

The first column shows 5 predetermined topics (technology, politics, everyday life, free-time, medicine). The second column has the headline ‘1984’ and the third column is empty. This tasks is repeated for each section. Then they talk about their assumptions for the film.

During stage 4 (while-watching) I would let them watch five significant scenes. For each sequence, they have to answer the multiple-choice questions about the content of the scene and then fill in the information that fits the predetermined topics. (see possible worksheet). After each section, we would compare the written results so each student has the same answers (consolidating).

In stage 5 (post-listening) the students summarise all the information they found while watching the scenes due to the fact that there will occur a number of doubling. After comparing the results with me they should write down the headline “our world“ in the other column of the chart. There the students should compare the information from the film with situations from the real world and find similarities and