Brave New World. Reading Selections for This Module. Module Description. Module Background. Developed by John Edlund

Brave New World Developed by John Edlund MODULE: TEACHER VERSION GRADE 12 Reading Selections for This Module Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. 1932. New York: HarperCollins, 1998. Print. Works Cited Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. New York: Penguin Books, 1986. Print. Module Description This is a twelfth grade module designed for middle to late in the second semester. It could be used in place of the 1984 module, before it, or after it. This module explores Aldous Huxley s dystopian science fiction novel Brave New World. It opens with some quotations from Neil Postman s book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, which argues that while our society seems to have avoided the ominous authoritarian state of Orwell s 1984, we are actually more in danger from succumbing to the hedonistic but mindless pleasures of Brave New World. While the 1984 module incorporates several additional texts, this module sticks to the novel itself, making it slightly less complex and time-consuming. The culminating writing assignment offers a choice of four prompts, each of which explores one of the themes of the novel. Students are asked to use material from their notes and annotations of the novel to support their position on the issue of the prompt. Module Background Brave New World is often taught in high school in the eleventh or twelfth grade. Although Huxley does not use any overtly Marxist terminology or analysis, he imagines a World State with a planned economy in which citizens are bred, born, and conditioned in lab flasks to fill the various job niches in the society. The society is a consumerist, pleasure-seeking one, controlled by a benevolent dictator. This module divides the novel into three main sections: 1. The World State: Chapters 1-6 introduce the setting, the main concepts, and the main characters of the novel. 2. The Indian Reservation: Chapters 7-9 describe the experiences of Bernard and Lenina on the mesa and introduce John, the Savage, and his mother Linda, who is from the World State. 1

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION 3. The Savage in Civilization: Chapters 10-18 describe the experiences of John, the Savage, as he attempts to live in what he calls, quoting Miranda in The Tempest, the Brave New World. As students work through the module, they will end up with a lot of notes, word activities, sentences, and paragraphs about Brave New World that will be useful in writing the paper at the end. The best way to have all of this material available for use will be to keep a Brave New World project notebook. For formative assessment, you can collect this notebook at appropriate times and respond to their entries. Module Objectives Students will be able to Identify the major themes of a complex full-length novel Analyze character traits and motivation Make predictions about events and the actions of characters Analyze the effects on the reader of stylistic choices and modes of exposition Compare the world of the novel to our own world and make judgments about the social critique of the novel Write an essay about one of the issues raised by the novel, supporting their ideas with evidence from the text Revise rhetorically to meet the needs of their audience Edit with a focus on improving readability Note: The activities for students provided in the Student Version for this module are copied here in the Teacher Version for your convenience. The shaded areas include the actual activities the students will see. The use of italics in the shaded areas generally indicates possible student responses and may be interspersed with notes to the teacher that are not shaded. If there are notes to the teacher within the shaded areas, they are indicated by italics and parentheses. 2 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy Unless otherwise specified, all standards are for grades 11-12. The strategies in this section of the ERWC are designed to prepare students in advance of reading increasingly complex and sophisticated texts. These brief, introductory activities will prepare students to learn the content of California s Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English Language Arts (ELA) and Literacy in the sections of the module that follow. Reading Rhetorically Prereading (Chapters 1-6) Getting Ready to Read This activity can be used as an individual notebook activity or a group discussion that results in notebook entries later. Activity 1: Getting Ready to Read In the foreword to his 1985 book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, author Neil Postman notes that the year 1984 had come and gone without a fulfillment of George Orwell s dark, dystopian vision and that Americans felt satisfied that the roots of liberal democracy had held. Big Brother was not watching, and Americans retained their autonomy, freedom, and history. The nightmare world of Big Brother was just that: a nightmare. However, he reminds us that alongside Orwell s dark vision there was another slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley s Brave New World. In Huxley s vision, no force would be required to deprive people of their freedom. Instead, as Huxley saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think. Postman follows these observations with a series of further oppositions comparing the two visions: What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny failed to take into account man s almost infinite appetite for distractions. In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us. (xix-xx) Postman makes it clear that he thinks Huxley s vision is coming true. Postman, however, blames television for most of the problem. Today, almost thirty years later, the Internet has more influence than television, and Postman s arguments appear a bit dated. Have we avoided Huxley s vision too? Or has the Internet made Huxley s and Postman s vision even more likely? This question will be one of the central issues in this module. MODULE: TEACHER VERSION CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO BRAVE NEW WORLD 3

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION Quickwrite: Take one of the oppositions that Postman describes in the paragraph quoted above. In your Brave New World notebook, write down the sentence or sentences that describe this opposition. Then think about connections with our own world. What is your gut feeling about it? Is Orwell s vision or Huxley s vision more accurate? What kind of evidence would you need to convince someone one way or the other? How would you investigate it? (For example, if students were thinking about the issue of banning books, they might think about books that had been banned in the past or were banned from being taught in school in certain places. They might think about why books are banned when it makes sense and when it doesn t. Then they might think about Huxley s fear that banning books would be unnecessary if no one wanted to read books anyway. They might also think about whether it is not books but ideas that are banned and whether it matters if the banned information or ideas are in books, films, videos, audio clips, or cartoons. The central issue here for Huxley, of course, is what happens when the population is so entertained, distracted, and drugged that no one cares about ideas anymore.) RG Rhetorical Grammar for Expository Reading and Writing Because this is an alternate novel for the ERWC, there are no grammar activities that accompany this module. The strategies in this section of the ERWC are designed to prepare students in advance of reading increasingly complex and sophisticated texts. These brief, introductory activities will prepare students to learn the content of the CCSS for ELA/Literacy in the sections of the module that follow. Exploring Key Concepts Science fiction works such as 1984 and Brave New World ask What if? questions and explore possible results. The following questions introduce some of the major themes of the novel. These could be used as group or class discussion topics or as prompts to generate entries in the students Brave New World notebooks. Activity 2: Exploring Key Concepts Both 1984 and Brave New World are works of science fiction. Science fiction asks What if? questions and explores possible results. Consider the following questions: 1. In feudal societies, people were born into different social classes with specific roles: nobles who governed, scholars who studied, warriors who fought, tradesmen who made things, and peasants who farmed. Do we have similar classes in our society? What if the government decided what your role in society would be? 2. What if science and psychological conditioning could be used by the government to create different classes of people with different abilities and interests as needed? For example, what if it was possible to grow a plumber, a computer programmer, a manager, or a physicist? 4 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO

Reading Informational Text 5a. Analyze the use of text features (e.g., graphics, headers, captions) CA 3. What if babies were grown in test tubes and were raised without parents? What would childhood be like? How would adults raised this way be different from adults in our society? 4. What if sex was strictly for recreation and not for reproduction because all babies were produced artificially? Would there still be love? Commitment? 5. What if the government gave everyone drugs to keep them happy so they wouldn t rebel? Would people actually be happy? Would it keep society stable? Would there be negative consequences? Surveying the Text Have students examine the copy of the book in their hands and discuss or make note of the following items in Activity 3. Activity 3: Surveying the Text Examine your copy of the book, and make note or discuss the following: What, if anything, is on the cover? What does the cover art mean? Are there any blurbs from reviewers or critics on the back or the front? Are there pictures? Is there a summary of the novel on the flyleaf (if present)? Is there a short biography of the author or other explanatory materials? Is there a Foreword or an Afterword? Who wrote them? Do you think you should read them? If so, when? How is the book divided? Are there chapters? MODULE: TEACHER VERSION Reading Informational Text 5a. Analyze the use of text features (e.g., graphics, headers, captions) CA Making Predictions and Asking Questions These activities model strategies that fluent academic readers would use for beginning to read a novel or choosing a novel to read. Activity 4: Reading the First Page In the absence of chapter titles, one way to preview the book is to read the first two paragraphs of the novel. What details do you notice that seem odd? What predictions can you make about the world of the novel from these details? The novel opens in a 34-story building called the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre in the World State, which has the motto Community, Identity, Stability. A hatchery and conditioning center with white coats, rubber gloves, and microscopes is described in the second paragraph, along with the Director s announcement that this is the Fertilizing Room. CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO BRAVE NEW WORLD 5

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION The second paragraph of the novel is mostly about the character of the harsh thin light that comes through the windows. There are images of death, the pale, corpse-coloured rubber of the gloves, and the frozen, dead ghost-like light. Only the yellow microscopes give off light of a certain rich and living substance... like streak after luscious streak of butter. Activity 5: Flipping Through the Book Flipping through the pages of a book can reveal some important elements in the contents. Flip through the book looking for unusual typography, illustrations, or other features that stand out. If you don t find anything else, try reading the first sentences of a couple of chapters in different parts of the book. What do these features mean? How do you think they fit into the story? Write down some of your observations in your Brave New World notebook. (Students may notice that the first line of every chapter is italicized. Reading some of these first lines might give the reader some expectations about what the nature of the book is and what it is about. Students may also notice that the typography of pages 47-56 is unusual because the paragraphs are so short. This section consists of snippets of various conversations that are going on simultaneously in different places. Reading some of these snippets may also allow them to make predictions.) Activity 6: Making Predictions Based on your interpretation of the details on the first page and the details you noticed from flipping through the book, write a paragraph describing what you think the world of the book will be like and what the story might be about. Language 4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 11-12 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. a. Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence, paragraph, or text; a word s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. b. Identify and correctly use Understanding Key Vocabulary The first chapter uses a lot of scientific vocabulary related to human reproduction. It may be useful for students to discuss these words and concepts with a biology teacher at some point during the reading. You might even invite a science teacher to speak to the class. Some of the terms and concepts have not changed, but others have been created by Huxley as he imagines how test-tube babies might be produced. An expert could help students think about what updated technology would look like. Activity 7: Understanding Key Vocabulary The words in the list below are all related to human reproduction. You may remember some of them from your biology class. Look over these words to see which ones you know and which you don t. As you read the first parts of the novel, pay attention to what parts of the process for creating new human beings 6 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO

patterns of word changes that indicate different meanings or parts of speech (e.g., conceive, conception, conceivable). Apply knowledge of Greek, Latin, and Anglo- Saxon roots and affixes to draw inferences concerning the meaning of scientific and mathematical terminology. CA c. Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., college-level dictionaries, rhyming dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning, its part of speech, its etymology, or its standard usage. CA d. Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary). 6. Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression. in the World State are a normal part of human biology and what parts were imagined by Huxley. fertilize a sperm combines with an ova incubator a machine to control temperature and other conditions for the development of life ova female gametes or eggs ovary a female organ that produces eggs gametes cells that combine for reproduction sterilize make infertile salinity saltiness viscosity thickness of a liquid liquor a liquid containing dissolved components spermatozoa male gametes peritoneum the lining of the abdominal cavity morula a mass of cells that will become an embryo embryo an early stage in the development of a fetus placentin an insulin-like protein thyroxin a hormone of the thyroid gland corpus luteum a female organ that secretes hormones blood-surrogate blood substitute freemartin infertile female with some masculine characteristics MODULE: TEACHER VERSION CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO BRAVE NEW WORLD 7

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION Reading Literature 1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. Speaking and Listening 1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (oneon- one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11 12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. a. Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence from texts and other research on the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, well-reasoned exchange of ideas. b. Work with peers to promote civil, democratic discussions and decision-making, set clear goals and deadlines, and establish individual roles as needed. c. Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning Reading (Chapters 1-6) Reading for Understanding The reading questions are designed to give students a focus for their reading and to provide topics for later discussion. The goal is to provide guidance for their first reading, or a sense of what to attend to, without interrupting the natural flow of the reading. Some students may want to focus on reading to answer the questions; others may want to simply skim the questions, read, and then return to the text to find answers. Activity 8: Reading for Understanding First, read the questions below just to get an idea of some of the items you will be looking for. Then read Chapters 1-6, keeping these questions in mind along with the predictions you made in Activity 6. As you are reading, put checks in the margins when you find a passage that may be relevant to these questions or your predictions (or use sticky notes if you can t write in your book). Don t worry if you don t find something for every question. You will be able to go back later. Chapter 1 1. What is the purpose of the Hatchery and Conditioning Center? It creates human embryos by matching a sperm with an egg and then controls the environment in which the embryo grows to produce a human with the appropriate characteristics for his or her job assignment. 2. What does the Director mean when he says that particulars, as everyone knows, make for virtue and happiness; generalities are intellectually necessary evils? This is a complex statement. In the World State, each citizen needs to know how to do his or her job, but he or she is not supposed to think too much about the big picture. 3. What is Bokanovsky s Process? What is the purpose? For many jobs, the World State needs groups of people who are all almost the same so that there is no conflict. They achieve this by using Bokanovsky s process to produce large numbers of individuals from the same embryo so that they are all virtually identical. 4. What is social predestination? The hatchery anticipates where the individual will be assigned and what job he or she will do. The role the individual will play in society is predestined, and the individual is conditioned to perform it. 5. Why does the hatchery purposely keep some embryos from developing high intelligence? The World State sees intelligence as necessary only for certain kinds of jobs. If an elevator operator had high intelligence, the individual would quickly become bored and unhappy with the job. 8 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO

and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives. d. Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives; synthesize comments, claims, and evidence made on all sides of an issue; resolve contradictions when possible; and determine what additional information or research is required to deepen the investigation or complete the task. Chapter 2 6. What is the purpose of conditioning the Delta babies to be afraid of books and roses? For individuals of this caste, books are considered to be a waste of time, and they might also interfere with their conditioning. Love of nature is a problem because nature provides beauty for free, so individuals seeking nature consume transport but nothing more. 7. Why is it necessary for the masses to consume transport and other products? Does efficiency of production lead to oversupply? The World State economy, like ours, depends on people being conditioned to consume products in order to keep the economy growing. 8. Why is Henry Ford, who invented assembly line manufacturing along with the first Ford automobiles, treated almost as a deity in the World State? The assembly line is the basis of the whole World State. Even humans are created using procedures that are like an assembly line. 9. Why did early attempts at sleep teaching fail? How did they improve it? Repeating facts without understanding them was useless. They switched to using sleep teaching for moral education, where no understanding was necessary, just blind obedience without questioning. 10. What is taught in Elementary Class Consciousness? Do we have a similar course in our educational system? Would it be a good idea? The World State is a caste-based system. Each individual is conditioned to be content within the limitations of his or her role. Some are intelligent and make decisions while most do simple routine tasks. In our society, we allow individuals to use their own natural abilities to succeed, whatever background they have, though we do have the rich, the poor, and the middle class, and children tend to stay in the class where they are born. Some would argue that our society is actually not essentially different from the World State. Others would argue that because we do have social mobility, even though it is limited, we are different from the World State. Chapter 3 11. What is Centrifugal Bumble Puppy? Why is it important for games to require a complicated apparatus? Simple games do not require citizens to consume products and therefore are not good for an economy based on ever-increasing consumption by its citizens. 12. In the World State, children are encouraged to engage in erotic play. In our society, they are discouraged. Why is the World State society different? The sexual morality of the World State is in some ways a mirror image of our own. 13. Mustapha Mond quotes Henry Ford saying, History is bunk. Henry Ford really did say that. What do you think he meant? MODULE: TEACHER VERSION CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO BRAVE NEW WORLD 9

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION Some say that those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it. However, it is also true to say that history is written by the victors and that there are alternative views. Ford may have meant that science and technology would free humans from the patterns of the past. 14. What are the feelies? Do you think you would like to go? Feelies appear to be movies with some kind of apparatus for sensory stimulation. Students may be reminded of 3D movies. 15. Why is it smutty to talk about mothers and fathers? Natural conception and birth don t exist in the World State. Humans are produced scientifically and raised without mothers and fathers. 16. Is Mond s description of family life and its problems accurate? Do you think that the World State is a good solution? Students will probably see Mond s description as having at least some truth in it. 17. What is a Pregnancy Substitute? Why would someone take one? The World State does not seem to have been able to completely control the natural instincts of human beings. There are still some mood swings and unhappiness caused by hormones. 18. Why does Mond sometimes call Our Ford Our Freud? This is a reference to Sigmund Freud, who invented psychology. Ford and Freud have been blurred together. 19. Why does Fanny think that it is bad that Lenina has been going out with no one but Henry Foster for four months? The sexual morality of the World State is the opposite of our own. The citizens are conditioned to believe that a permanent relationship with a member of the opposite sex will lead to unhappiness. 20. Mustapha Mond says that stability of society is the primal and ultimate need. Do you agree? (People will disagree about this.) 21. Why is Bernard Marx considered to be strange? He is short for an Alpha, and he likes to be alone. Chapter 4 22. What is soma? It appears to be a drug that produces a feeling of well being. 23. What do Alphas in the World State use for personal transportation? Helicopters appear to be as common in the World State as automobiles are in our own society. 24. What is Obstacle Golf? 10 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO

Another complicated game that requires apparatus. 25. Why does Lenina hate the color khaki? Why is she glad she is not a Gamma? Lenina has been conditioned to believe that her own caste is best. 26. Why is Bernard Marx insecure? He is short, so he suspects that lower castes don t respect him because he does not physically appear to be an Alpha. 27. Helmholtz Watson is smart and popular with girls. Why is he dissatisfied? He is too smart to fit into the World State. Also, he has artistic tendencies, and he wants to create something different. MODULE: TEACHER VERSION Chapter 5 28. What happens to citizens of the World State when they die? They are cremated, and their remains become fertilizer. 29. In what way are all the citizens of the World State equal? They all end up becoming fertilizer. 30. Henry and Lenina dance to a song called There ain t no Bottle in all the world like that dear little Bottle of mine. What is this song about? Instead of mothers, World State citizens come from bottles. 31. What is Orgy Porgy? Is it a religious ritual? Is it a wild party? It appears to be a little of both. Chapter 6 32. What does Bernard like to do with his leisure time? What does Lenina like to do? Are they well matched? Bernard wants to be alone. Lenina likes to play games or go to feelies. They do not seem well matched. 33. When Lenina says, Never put off until tomorrow the fun you can have today, Bernard says, Two hundred repetitions, twice a week from fourteen to sixteen and a half. What does he mean? Bernard is in charge of sleep teaching. He knows exactly how many times a particular lesson or platitude is repeated. 34. What does Bernard mean when he says, it might be possible to be adult all the time? Why doesn t Lenina understand? Bernard thinks that the citizens of the World State behave like children all their lives. 35. When Bernard goes to his boss to get a permit to go to the reservation, what story does the Director tell him? The Director also went to the Reservation. He brought a girlfriend along, but she disappeared. CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO BRAVE NEW WORLD 11

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION Activity 9: Revisiting Predictions Look at the paragraph you wrote in your notebook about your predictions regarding the world of the novel. Which ones were confirmed? Which ones were wrong? Which ones are still undecided? Write another paragraph updating your first one. FA Formative Assessment Reviewing the paragraphs in which students have updated their predictions could provide you with a window into their reading, self-monitoring, and self-correcting processes. As you review these paragraphs, you might watch for patterns of predictions (true and false) that students formulated. A discussion about their predications and what contributed to them could help students and you become more aware of how their particular, personal background knowledge may shape their interpretations and comprehension of the text. Sharing Answers Divide your students into groups. Assign each group a set of questions from the list above. Each group then discusses the questions until they have answers they can share with the class. Students write down answers to questions they didn t discuss in their notebooks, so everyone ends up with some notes about each question. Activity 10: Sharing Answers Discuss the questions assigned to your group from the above list. In answering them, refer to specific page numbers and passages in your copy of the novel. Share your answers with the class. Write down the answers to the other questions that other groups came up with if they are different from your own. Reading Literature 3. Analyze the impact of the author s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters/ archetypes are introduced and developed). CA 5. Analyze how an author s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a Considering the Structure of the Text Questions like these are designed to cause the students to focus on the choices made by the author. Considering authorial choices helps them see themselves as potential authors, and helps them think critically about the text. 12 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO

story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact. Speaking and Listening 1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-onone, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11 12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. Activity 11: Considering the Structure Much of the first part of the novel describes a tour of the Hatchery and Conditioning Center by a group of students led by the Director himself. What are the advantages for the author of setting up the novel in this way? This is a classic device for delivering exposition. Huxley needs to give the reader a lot of information about the World State. He has to find a natural way to deliver this information. Describing an expert giving a tour to students allows Huxley to tell us almost everything we need to know. MODULE: TEACHER VERSION Reading Literature 4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. Language 1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. a. Apply the understanding that usage is a matter of convention, can change over time, and is sometimes contested. b. Resolve issues of complex or contested usage, consulting references (e.g., Merriam- Webster s Dictionary of English Usage, Garner s Modern American Usage) as needed. Noticing Language In this activity, students will select words that they are interested in learning and engage in a number of activities that will help them acquire the vocabulary. The heart of the activity is a group exchange of selected words and sentences. This should generate a lot of discussion about both language and the novel. Encourage the students to ask about words they are uncertain about. After the group exchange and discussion, students look up the words to see if the meanings they came up with are accurate, and they write their own sentences using the words. They may create sentences that use the words incorrectly or do not demonstrate the meaning, but you can check these when they turn in their notebooks. If you yourself are uncertain about the meaning of a word, which is always a possibility with a writer like Huxley, you might suggest that the class look up the word again. Activity 12: Noticing Language Reading a novel means encountering many unknown words and words of which you have only a vague understanding. The situation and the surrounding text will provide some contextual clues about the meanings of unknown words. Knowledge of Latin and Greek roots can also help. It is possible for a reader to read and understand a novel without knowing all the words. However, reading novels can significantly increase your vocabulary. After you have read Chapters 1-6, for each chapter, choose one or more words either that are unknown to you or that you are uncertain about. Choose words that seem to be important or interesting because of their context, frequency, or level of interest. Keep choosing until you have 10 words, which means you will have more than one for some chapters. For each word you choose, do the following: Copy the sentence in which you found it in your Brave New World notebook. Underline or highlight the word. CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO BRAVE NEW WORLD 13

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION Describe what part of speech it is in its sentence. Write down what it might mean and why you think so. Don t be afraid to be wrong. You are just making an educated guess. In your group, take turns sharing the words and sentences you chose. Ask group members to help you define your words more accurately. Some will probably know your words better than you do. You will probably know more about other words that they have chosen. Look up your words in a good dictionary or online. How close were you and the group to the dictionary meaning? Write your own sentences using the words. Reading Literature 4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. Language 3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening. a. apply an understanding of syntax to the study of complex texts when reading. 5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g., hyperbole, paradox) in context and analyze their role in the text. Analyzing Stylistic Choices These questions focus on points in the text where the stylistic choices highlight important issues in the novel. Activity 13: Analyzing Stylistic Choices In your group, discuss the assigned question. 1. What man has joined, nature is powerless to put asunder. What does this mean? What does it parody? Brave New World has numerous phrases and references like this that echo language from our own world. What is the effect on the reader? This statement echoes the traditional wedding ceremony. One effect on the reader is to create the impression that the World State is a twisted version of our own world. When we encounter such a statement, we experience a kind of double-voiced discourse in which we understand what the speaker in the World State means, but we also experience an echo of what a similar statement means in our own world. 2. What is the stylistic effect of the series of sentences with the subject omitted in the description of Henry Foster s explanation of the operation of the Decanting Room that begins Told them of the growing embryo on its bed of peritoneum...? Students will have different impressions, but the style packs a lot of exposition into a few words and creates an impression of inevitability. 3. Chapter 3 begins with a scene of children playing in the sunshine. It says, The air was drowsy with the murmur of bees and helicopters. Is this sentence beautiful, funny, ironic, or strange? What effect does it have on the reader? The unexpected combination of the natural and the mechanical is in some ways an appropriate image for the World State. Helicopters existed when the novel was written, but were not common, so this phrase would have been even more striking for Huxley s original readers. 14 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO

b. Analyze nuances in the meaning of words with similar denotations. Speaking and Listening 1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (oneon-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11-12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. 4. The first part of Chapter 3 moves back and forth from Mustapha Mond s lecture to the students to the Henry Foster viewpoint. The last part of Chapter 3 is mostly a series of disconnected thoughts and phrases from the different conversations. What is the effect on the reader of this stream of disconnected consciousness? Is it confusing? Or is it a very efficient way of giving the reader a sense of the whole society? The technique allows Huxley to juxtapose different aspects of the society of the World State and amounts to a very efficient way of revealing a lot about the world and its characters in a few pages. (Students will have different opinions about whether this technique is effective or ineffective. Some readers will find it confusing. Others will find it effective for seeing the contrast between both worlds laid out side by side.) 5. The characters in Brave New World have names like Benito Hoover and Bernard Marx that echo famous political and historical figures. Why does Huxley do this? What is the significance? Brave New World is a science fiction novel with a strong political element, and the names will remind the readers of the political ideas Huxley is exploring. However, because the World State citizens know almost no history, the significance and irony of the names is lost on them. 6. Lenina is full of aphorisms and sayings, often about soma, such as A gramme in time saves nine, and One cubic centimeter cures ten gloomy sentiments. Where does she get these sayings? What is the effect on the reader? Find as many of them as you can. Discuss what they mean and how they are similar to sayings we are familiar with. These sayings come from sleep teaching, which is why they have little effect on Bernard, who is in charge of developing sleep teaching methods. Many of them have to do with soma. They parody familiar sayings and folk wisdom from our own culture. MODULE: TEACHER VERSION Reading Literature 2. Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text. Writing 2. Write informative/ explanatory texts to examine and convey complex Postreading (Chapters 1-6) Summarizing and Responding This activity is an opportunity to assess how well the students understand the basic concepts of the novel before they proceed to the next section. Activity 14: Summarizing and Responding Imagine that a friend who has not read Brave New World finds out that you are reading it. At this point you have only read the first six chapters. Your friend asks what it is about. Write a paragraph in which you describe the World State and some of the people in it. What is it like to live in the World State? How is it different from our own society? Would you like to live there? CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO BRAVE NEW WORLD 15

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. 10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences. FA Formative Assessment After students write the paragraph for Activity 14, you might engage them in a conversation based on their answers focusing on what it would be like to live in the World State, how it is different from our own society, and whether or not students would like to live in such a state. Selected student paragraphs might be shared with the whole class. This discussion could help you determine the depth and richness of your students comprehension of the novel and suggest which concepts presented in the novel might require further elaboration. Reading Literature 1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. 3. Analyze the impact of the author s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters/ archetypes are introduced and developed). CA 6. Analyze a case in which grasping point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement). Speaking and Listening 1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-onone, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11 12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others ideas and Thinking Critically The questions below concern some of the major themes of Brave New World. One way to introduce them would be to form the students into panels that focus on one of the questions. One panelist could introduce the question; others could cite and explore some examples from the novel that deal with the question; and still others could focus on connections between the question and our current society. Another variation would be to have students take on the roles of different characters and argue from a specific character s point of view. Activity 15: Group Discussion Topics Your teacher will give you directions for dealing with the following topics. 1. Fanny and Lenina appear to believe that promiscuity is a kind of social duty of which they sometimes tire. They are conditioned not to have strong feelings about anyone. Mustapha Mond explains that love is like water under pressure in a pipe. If the pipe is pierced once, a strong jet is the result, but if it is pierced many times, each jet is just a small leak. Mond argues that strong feelings lead to instability: No wonder these poor pre-moderns were mad and wicked and miserable. Their world didn t allow them to take things easily, didn t allow them to be sane, virtuous, happy. What with mothers and lovers, what with the prohibitions they were not conditioned to obey, what with the temptations and the lonely remorses, what with all the diseases and the endless isolating pain, what with the uncertainties and the poverty they were forced to feel strongly. And feeling strongly (and strongly, what was more, in solitude, in hopelessly individual isolation), how could they be stable? (41) Are we the pre-moderns to which Mond refers? Is he right that we are emotionally unstable? Is his description of our situation accurate? Do love, marriage, and strong attachments create the problems in our society? Is the avoidance of love, marriage, and strong attachments to children and other individuals a good solution to the problems of our society? 16 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO

expressing their own clearly and persuasively. a. Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence from texts and other research on the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, well-reasoned exchange of ideas. b. Work with peers to promote civil, democratic discussions and decision-making, set clear goals and deadlines, and establish individual roles as needed. c. Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives. d. Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives; synthesize comments, claims, and evidence made on all sides of an issue; resolve contradictions when possible; and determine what additional information or research is required to deepen the investigation or complete the task. 2. In Chapter 4, Lenina rides up to the roof in an elevator operated by a monkey-like Epsilon Minus Semi-Moron, who lives in a dark annihilating stupor (59). In the World State, humans are bred to fit into castes ranging from Alpha Plus to Epsilon Minus. Each individual is bred to have the appropriate amount of intelligence for the job to which he or she will be assigned and then is conditioned to be happy doing that job. Although Alpha Plus Bernard Marx seems to be a little too bright to be completely satisfied with his job, the elevator operator appears to be happy with his existence. Is this caste system with its careful breeding and conditioning superior to the somewhat random way that people are educated and employed in our society? MODULE: TEACHER VERSION CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO BRAVE NEW WORLD 17

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION The strategies in this section of the ERWC are designed to prepare students in advance of reading increasingly complex and sophisticated texts. These brief, introductory activities will prepare students to learn the content of the CCSS for ELA/Literacy in the sections of the module that follow. Prereading (Chapters 7-9) Making Predictions and Asking Questions The Reservation is the opposite of the World State. Huxley is setting up a kind of thought experiment: What will happen when the conditioned and sheltered citizens of the World State encounter the hard realities of a more natural life? The passage below is a sort of summary of the differences. Students may find the elliptical presentation confusing, but it is essentially a list of facts about the Reservation. Students should be able to take what they know from reading the previous chapters and put it together with these facts to form a prediction of what will occur when Bernard and Lenina visit the Reservation. Activity 16: Making Predictions At the end of Chapter 6, the Warden tells Bernard and Lenina that in the Reservation there are... about sixty thousand Indians and half-breeds... absolute savages... our inspectors occasionally visit... otherwise, no communication whatever with the civilized world... still preserve their repulsive habits and customs... marriage, if you know what that is, my dear young lady; families... no conditioning... monstrous superstitions... Christianity and totemism and ancestor worship... extinct language, such as Zuñi, and Spanish and Athapascan... pumas, porcupines, and other ferocious animals... infectious diseases... priests... venomous lizards... (103) Lenina responds by saying You don t say so? but that is because she has just taken half a gramme of soma. From what you know of Bernard and Lenina and the world that they live in, how do you think they will react when they actually get to the Indian Reservation? Write a paragraph in your notebook about your predictions. Reading Literature 1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. Reading (Chapters 7-9) Reading for Understanding As noted above, the reading questions are designed to give students a focus for their reading, and to provide topics for later discussion. The goal is to provide guidance for their first reading, a sense of what to attend to, without interrupting the natural flow of the reading. Some students may want to focus on reading to answer the questions while others may want to simply skim the questions, read, and then return to the text to find answers. 18 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO

Activity 17: Reading for Understanding As you did for the first part of the book, read the questions below just to get an idea of what you will be looking for. Then read Chapters 7-9, keeping these questions in mind along with the predictions you made in Activity 6. As you are reading, put checks in the margins when you find a passage that may be relevant to these questions or your predictions (or use sticky notes if you can t write in the book). Don t worry if you don t find something for every question. You will be able to go back later. Chapter 7 1. Why is Lenina so startled by the old man and the women nursing babies? Citizens of the World State don t visibly age and usually die at age 60. Similarly, children in the World State are decanted from bottles and do not have mothers. Lenina has never seen an old person or anyone breast feeding a baby. MODULE: TEACHER VERSION 2. Why doesn t Lenina want to imagine being a mother? She has been conditioned to think that childbirth and motherhood are obscene. 3. Why does Lenina like the drums even though she doesn t like anything else? The drums remind her of Orgy Porgy. 4. What can you tell about Indian society from the ritual that Bernard and Lenina observe? What does John say is the purpose of the ritual? The ritual seems to be a combination of Native American and Christian elements. John says that the purpose of the ritual is to make the rain come and the corn grow by pleasing the gods. 5. Who is John? Why is he attracted to Lenina? John is the son of Linda, who came from the World State, and the Director of Hatcheries. He doesn t fit in the society of the reservation. Lenina is the first girl he has seen who looks different from the Indians. 6. Who is Linda? Why is Lenina disgusted by her? Linda is the girl left behind by the Director of Hatcheries when he visited the Reservation. She has grown old and ugly. She has been drinking mescal. 7. Why do the Indian women hate Linda? Are they justified? Linda has been conditioned to think that it is normal to have multiple sex partners, so she sleeps with their men. Chapter 8 8. What kind of childhood did John have? A very confusing one since Linda does not know how to raise a child. He has no father, and he is different from all the other children. He does not know who to be. CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO BRAVE NEW WORLD 19

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION 9. What two books has John read? A technical manual on caring for embryos and the complete works of Shakespeare. 10. Why does John try to kill Popé? What is Popé s reaction? John is jealous of Popé s relationship with his mother. He doesn t think that his mother s relationship with Popé is right, and Popé brings mescal to his mother. Popé laughs at him but thinks he is brave. 11. Who is Mitsima? What does he teach John? Mitsima takes pity on John and tries to teach him some Indian crafts. 12. Why can t John go into the Antelope Kiva? It is only for Indians. 13. Why is John happy that Bernard is not married to Lenina? John has a crush on Lenina. Chapter 9 14. What is a soma holiday? Why does Lenina go on one? A soma holiday is a drug trip. Lenina s experiences on the Reservation have so overwhelmed her that she wants to escape. 15. When Bernard leaves, he asks the pilot if Lenina will be safe. The pilot responds Safe as helicopters. What does he mean by that? Apparently, helicopters are considered to be very safe. 16. Why does Bernard go back to the World State? Why does he call Mustapha Mond? Bernard wants to get permission to bring Linda and John back to the World State. 17. John visits the house where Bernard and Lenina are staying. What does he do? John goes through Lenina s possessions and sees her sleeping while in the soma trance. He is reminded of passages from Romeo and Juliet as he watches her in her sleep. 20 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO

Reading Literature 4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. Language 3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening. 5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g., hyperbole, paradox) in context and analyze their role in the text. b. Analyze nuances in the meaning of words with similar denotations. Analyzing Stylistic Choices The questions below are both about Huxley s literary technique. Activity 18: Analyzing Stylistic Choices For each question below, write a paragraph in your notebook. 1. Chapter 7 begins with a striking simile: The mesa was like a ship becalmed in a strait of lion-coloured dust. The ship metaphor continues for several paragraphs. It has a prow, a gunwale, and a deck, and it is situated in the middle of a strait. Bernard and Lenina are used to traveling in helicopters and may never have even seen a ship. Why does Huxley begin the visit to the Reservation with the image of a stone ship? One the one hand, Lenina and Bernard are on a journey that will take them to another place and time. On the other, the Reservation is stuck in time, not changing or progressing, and its people are not allowed to leave. Thus we have metaphors of travel and of stasis, mixed together. 2. At the end of Chapter 7, Linda tells her story. At the beginning of Chapter 8, John tells his story. This is all what fiction writers call exposition. The reader needs all of this information in order to understand the later behavior of the characters, so the writer has to figure out how to include the information in a somewhat natural way. Does it seem natural for Linda and John to tell their histories to Bernard and Lenina when they first meet? What other ways might Huxley have chosen to help us understand these characters? Would it have worked if Linda had kept a journal that Bernard reads to Lenina? Or if the Indian guide explained what had happened to Linda? Can you think of another way? Exposition is always a challenge for a novelist, especially a science fiction writer who is presenting a world very different from that of the reader. Linda enters the room, sees Bernard and Lenina, and blurts out her story in a disconnected stream of statements, observations, and questions. In the next chapter, Bernard asks for John s story from as far back as you can remember. John repeats as far back as I can remember, and then the narrative unexpectedly shifts to a third-person account with John as the viewpoint character. The result is that the reader has a lot of necessary information about John and Linda. Students may disagree about whether these techniques feel natural or not. Huxley tends to favor efficiency of delivery to subtle narrative technique. MODULE: TEACHER VERSION Reading Literature 2. Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact Postreading (Chapters 7-9) Summarizing and Responding This comparison is designed to help students focus on the differences between the two ways of life. This sets up some of the major themes and questions of the novel. CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO BRAVE NEW WORLD 21

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION and build on one another to provide a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text. Writing 2. Write informative/ explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. 10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences. Activity 19: Summarizing and Responding In your notebook write a paragraph comparing life in the World State with life on the Reservation. Where would you prefer to live? Why? FA Formative Assessment For Activity 19, students might construct a three-column chart to help them compare features in the World State and on the Reservation. You could begin by asking students to generate a list of features in the two domains that could be compared, such as work, class structures, sexuality, friendship, entertainment, and attitudes toward aging and death. These features would be written in the first column. Then students could describe in the second column of the chart how those features play out in the World State and in the third column how they play out on the Reservation. This activity may help students construct and organize their knowledge of the two societies and, in turn, give you opportunities to observe how your students have conceptualized differences in major features between the two. The chart may also help students approach the essay prompts later in the module with deeper knowledge and understanding while providing them with a resource from which to draw information for their selected essay. The strategies in this section of the ERWC are designed to prepare students in advance of reading increasingly complex and sophisticated texts. These brief, introductory activities will prepare students to learn the content of the CCSS for ELA/Literacy in the sections of the module that follow. Prereading (Chapters 10-18) Making Predictions and Asking Questions Students should, at this point, have lots of ideas about how Linda and John will be received in the antiseptic and conditioned environment of the World State. Linda and John will be cultural outsiders, and many students have probably had similar experiences. Activity 20: Making Predictions and Asking Questions Do you think that Linda will be happy to return to the World State? How do you think she will be received? Why? What about John, who has never lived in the World State? Will he know how to behave? Will he be accepted? Will he be happy? Write a paragraph in your notebook about how you think Linda and John will do in the World State. 22 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO

Reading Literature 1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. Reading (Chapters 10-18) Reading for Understanding Now students should have a good understanding of the contrast between the World State and its citizens on one hand and John and the Reservation on the other. The major themes of the novel are about to come to fruition. This would be a good time to have your students review their notebooks to see if everyone is ready to proceed to the final chapters or if there are areas of confusion that need to be cleared up. Activity 21: Reading for Understanding This part of the novel contains several scenes that dramatize and explore the major themes of the novel. In your notebook, answer the questions for each scene. Chapter 10 1. The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning has decided to get rid of Bernard Marx by sending him to Iceland. He says, The greater a man s talents, the greater his power to lead astray. It is better that one should suffer than that many should be corrupted. Consider the matter dispassionately, Mr. Foster, and you will see that no offence is so heinous as unorthodoxy of behavior. Murder kills only one individual and after all, what is an individual? With a sweeping gesture he indicated the rows of microscopes, the test tubes, the incubators. We can make a new one with the greatest of ease as many as we like. Unorthodoxy threatens more than the life of a mere individual; it strikes at Society itself. (148) The Director accuses Bernard of being an enemy of Society because of his heretical views on sport and soma, by the scandalous unorthodoxy of his sexlife, and by his refusal to obey the teachings of Our Ford. Are these accusations true? What does the Director mean by unorthodoxy of behavior? Is Bernard an enemy of the World State? Do you agree with the Director that the society is more important than the individual? These are big philosophical questions that humans have been debating for thousands of years. The larger question is whether the stability of the society is more important than the happiness or well being of one individual. Most societies try to achieve some kind of balance between the needs of the many and the needs of the few or the one. The other question is about Bernard s individual guilt, which is complicated by the fact that most readers probably agree with Bernard rather than the director, but that is because we are looking at his actions from the point of view of our own society and values. Another topic is Bernard s intentions. Is he trying to bring down the society, or is he simply trying to find happiness in his own way? 2. It turns out that the Director has also made a visit to the Reservation and that his companion was Linda, whom he was having at the time. MODULE: TEACHER VERSION CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO BRAVE NEW WORLD 23

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION While they were at the Reservation, Linda had an accident, and he left her behind, where she bore his son John. What is his reaction when he and Linda are reunited? Does he deserve what happens to him? Why or why not? The Director s actions are consistent with the view that individuals are not important. However, most students will probably not have much sympathy for him. Chapter 11 3. Lenina takes John, who is now known as the Savage, to a feelie called Three Weeks in a Helicopter. I don t think you ought to see things like that, he said, making haste to transfer from Lenina herself to the surrounding circumstances the blame for any past or possible future lapse from perfection. Lenina doesn t understand. John calls the film horrible, but she thinks it was lovely. Lenina expects John to come into her apartment, but John says goodnight and leaves. What is going on here? Why are they so confusing to each other? Who is right? John s sensibilities are perhaps more in tune with our own society than that of Brave New World, but many students will probably see him as prudish and old-fashioned. Chapter 12 4. Bernard organizes a party with many important people who all come to see the Savage, but John refuses to come out of his room, cursing at Bernard in Zuñi. Bernard is humiliated, and his guests leave early, including the Arch-Community-Songster, who leaves with Lenina. Why does John refuse to come out? Is he justified? Students will probably feel sympathy for John. He is being treated like a circus animal. 5. Why does Helmholtz call Shakespeare a marvelous propaganda technician? What does he think is the source of Shakespeare s power? Do you agree? Helmholtz thinks that Shakespeare is powerful because he had so many insane and excruciating things to get excited about. He thinks that making people think and feel things is the business of a propaganda technician because even someone as smart and well educated as Helmholtz has trouble thinking outside the context of his own society. Chapter 13 6. John proposes marriage to Lenina and declares his love. How does Lenina respond? What is John s reaction? Why is it hard for them to understand each other? Lenina has no concept of marriage. She cannot understand his words or his behavior. 24 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO

Chapter 14 7. Linda is dying in the hospital for the dying. Why is there a group of eight-year-olds touring the hospital? Why does John have so much trouble dealing with the children and the Head Nurse? The group of Deltas are being death conditioned, so that they will not fear death. John has not been conditioned in the beliefs of the World State, so he cannot understand their casual attitude toward death. Chapter 15 8. What causes the disturbance in the hospital? How do Bernard and Helmholtz get involved? John wants to stop the nurse from giving soma to the children. Bernard and Helmholtz try to help their friend. MODULE: TEACHER VERSION Chapter 16 9. The core of this chapter is the debate between John, the Savage, and Mustapha Mond, the World Controller. John is delighted that Mond has read Shakespeare. He asks why old things are banned even when they are beautiful. Mond says, Beauty s attractive, and we don t want people to be attracted by old things. We want them to like the new ones. John presses the point. He says the feelies are not as good as Othello. Mond agrees, but says, You can t make tragedies without social instability. The world s stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and the never want what they can t get. They re well off; they re safe; they re never ill; they re not afraid of death; they re blissfully ignorant of passion and old age; they re plagued with no mothers or fathers; they ve got no wives, or children, or lovers to feel strongly about; they re so conditioned that they practically can t help behaving as they ought to behave. And if anything should go wrong, there s soma. (220) Mond says that sacrificing real feelings and emotional attachments is the price the society has to pay for stability. Do you agree with him that this price is worth paying? Of course, this is not an easy question. Is it better to be in a permanently neutral emotional state or to experience great happiness and great sadness? If education and conditioning eliminate shock, sadness, uncertainty, and pain, is life better or too boring to live? 10. John asks Mond why they have to have whole groups of identical Deltas. Why not make everyone an Alpha Plus like Bernard and Helmholtz? Are you satisfied with Mond s answer? Mond argues that intelligent people are unhappy doing routine work. Students may be uncomfortable with the idea of designing some people to be dumb so that they will be happy doing routine but necessary work. Our society tends to teach that anyone can rise to the top with sufficient drive and hard work. 11. What does it mean to be sent to an island? Why was Mustapha Mond almost sent to one? CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO BRAVE NEW WORLD 25

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION Smart people with unconventional ideas and desires are sent to an island so that they can t contaminate the rest of the society. Chapter 17 12. Mustapha Mond says, God isn t compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness. John makes a number of arguments about why religion is necessary, but Mond defeats each one. Or does he? What do you think? Of course, there will be various views on this issue. Chapter 18 13. Why won t Mustapha Mond allow John to go with Bernard and Helmholtz to the island? What does John decide to do instead? Mond seems to think that having John in the World State is an interesting experiment. John tries to live away from the World State by himself, but that doesn t work out either. Postreading (Chapters 10-18) Reading Literature 2. Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text. Writing 2. Write informative/ explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. 10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences. Summarizing and Responding This is an opportunity to assess how well your students have read and understood the novel. Activity 22: Summarizing and Responding Look back at the paragraph you wrote for Activity 14. Now that you have finished reading the novel, add another paragraph that summarizes the rest of the story. Then write down some of the big ideas and questions the novel is about. FA Formative Assessment If for Activity 22 you ask students to generate big idea questions the novel interrogates, consider asking them to write a question paper. You could give students 10-15 minutes to write all the questions they can that the novel appears to pose along with questions that troubled them as readers of the novel. Sharing these question papers in class can serve as stimulating feedback to your students and to you. Just remind students that all they can write on their question paper is questions no answers, even though some students will find that keeping a focus on questions is not easy. 26 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO

Reading Literature 1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. 3. Analyze the impact of the author s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters/ archetypes are introduced and developed). CA 5. Analyze how an author s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact. 6. Analyze a case in which grasping point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement). Thinking Critically There are many ways to look at John s suicide. Should Mustapha Mond have let him go to the island with Bernard and Helmholtz? Should Mond have worked with him to try to reconcile his conflicting beliefs? Is John himself at fault for being too rigid and being unwilling to grow? Students should have a lot of ideas about this. Activity 23: Thinking Critically John attempts to live by himself away from the World State. He begins to return to an Indian lifestyle, but he is tormented by news reporters and tourists from the World State. Even Lenina can t help; in fact, she makes him worse. Finally, he is too tormented to live. What are the reasons that drive him to take his own life? What, if anything, could have been done to help him? Write a paragraph in your notebook. MODULE: TEACHER VERSION CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO BRAVE NEW WORLD 27

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION The strategies in this section of the ERWC are designed to reinforce students learning of the content of the CCSS for ELA/Literacy in the preceding sections of the module and transfer that learning to other settings. Reflecting on Your Reading Process The following questions will help students reflect on what they have learned from reading Brave New World, including its significance and relevance. Activity 24: Reflecting on Your Reading Process In your notebook, answer the following questions: What have you learned from reading and discussing Brave New World? Did it meet your expectations? What surprised you about the novel? What reading strategies did you use or learn in this module? Which strategies will you use in reading other texts? How will these strategies apply in other classes? In what ways has your ability to read and discuss complex novels like this one improved? Will this experience change the way you read? FA Formative Assessment Formative Assessment: Teachers may want to ask students to keep in mind that answers to questions in Activity 24 will contribute to their repository of evidence for what they have learned about reading, reading strategies, and self-regulation in learning from this module. Classroom conversation about students reflections will be warranted. The Brave New World notebook can also serve as a resource to which they later return when reviewing their growth as readers, writers, and learners at the end of the academic year. Writing 5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. Connecting Reading to Writing Discovering What You Think Considering the Writing Task The module provides four possible writing tasks, each based on themes of the novel. The first, Entertainment as a Form of Control, returns to the passage from Neil Postman s book that begins the module and asks students to compare the society of Brave New World to our own. The second, Community, Identity, Stability, takes the motto on the wall of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center as a starting point and asks students to explore the sacrifices that the World State has made in order to achieve stability. These first two explore issues that are quite central to the novel and may be the easiest for students to understand and respond to. The third topic takes up the role of women in the World State and offers an avenue for critique of the book. The fourth is about the educational practices of the World State and the implications for our own society. These final topics 28 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO

are about narrower issues that are not as central, so they might be used as alternative topics for students who have a special interest in them. Activity 25: Considering the Writing Task Read the writing task assigned by your instructor. As you think about what it asks you to do, flip through your notebook looking for possible connections to the topic. Writing Task 1: Entertainment as a Form of Control Core Question: Have we become a trivial culture preoccupied with entertainment? For this writing topic, we return to where we started with the quotations from Neil Postman s book, Amusing Ourselves to Death. Here is how this module began: In the foreword to his 1985 book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, author Neil Postman notes that the year 1984 had come and gone without a fulfillment of George Orwell s dark, dystopian vision and that Americans felt satisfied that the roots of liberal democracy had held. Big Brother was not watching, and Americans retained their autonomy, freedom, and history. The nightmare world of Big Brother was just that: a nightmare. However, he reminds us that alongside Orwell s dark vision there was another slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley s Brave New World. In Huxley s vision, no force would be required to deprive people of their freedom. Instead, as Huxley saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think. Postman follows these observations with a series of further oppositions comparing the two visions. What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny failed to take into account man s almost infinite appetite for distractions. In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us. (xix-xx) Postman makes it clear that he thinks Huxley s vision is coming true. Postman, however, blames television for most of the problem. Today, almost thirty years later, the Internet has more influence than television, and Postman s arguments appear a bit dated. Have we avoided Huxley s vision too? Or has the Internet made Huxley s, and Postman s, vision even more likely? MODULE: TEACHER VERSION CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO BRAVE NEW WORLD 29

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION After reading Brave New World, do you think that Postman was right? Is a constant barrage of entertainment making us passive and self-centered? Are we being controlled and conditioned by pleasure as effectively as we would be by a secret police armed with guns and nightsticks? In other words, how similar is our world to the World State depicted in Brave New World? And what is the trend? Are we becoming, as Postman suggests, more like Brave New World or less? In answering these questions, identify some important aspects of each society that you want to compare. Then, using your notes from your reading to support your arguments, discuss the differences and similarities between Brave New World and our own society on each of the aspects you have chosen. You may want to also draw some conclusions about what steps we should take to avoid problems in the future. Writing Task 2: Community, Identity, Stability Core Question: Is social stability worth the price? The motto of the World State depicted on the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre is Community, Identity, Stability. This is a statement of values. Mustapha Mond says that sacrificing real feelings and emotional attachments is the price the society has to pay for stability. Mond himself has made sacrifices for the sake of social stability and uses his power to place limits and controls on science and the arts if instability might result. Individuals who threaten this stability are sent away to live on an island. What is the significance of community and identity in this motto? And how are these related to the stability of the individual? Of society? Do you think that the sacrifices that the World State requires of its citizens are a price worth paying to maintain social stability? To answer this question, go through your reading notebook to find as much evidence as you can that the World State insures that individuals are happy, productive, and compliant. Analyze the positive and negative aspects of each of these practices. Then write an essay arguing whether or not such social stability is worth the price the World State is paying. Support your arguments with details from the book and examples from our own world. Writing Task 3: Gender Equality Core Question: Are men and women equal in Brave New World? There are no housewives in Brave New World. None of the traditional roles of women are represented. Marriage has been abolished. Child rearing is done by professionals conditioned for the job. Cooking is never mentioned. In fact, food is rarely mentioned, and no one is described eating a meal. Food preparation does not seem to be an issue. Cleaning house is not either. When John offers to sweep the floor for Lenina, she says, But there are vacuum cleaners... and Epsilon Semi-Morons to work them. Because housewives do not exist in the Brave New World society and because the society is founded on rational scientific principles, there would seem to be no reason men and women could not finally be equal. But are they? If the traditional roles of men and women have been abolished in the World State, what evidence do we have that leads us to think there may or may not be 30 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO

equality? What is the essential difference of men and women in the World State, and do these differences reinforce gender roles as we know them? In responding to this question, look through your reading notes for examples of the role of women in the society of Brave New World. Then write an essay discussing what the gender roles are in Brave New World and whether or not they make sense in the context of that society. Writing Task 4: Reading and Education Core Question: What should an educated person read? In Brave New World, the citizens of the World State can read, at least the Alphas and Betas, but they read very little. Most of their education is delivered through hypnopaedia, or sleep teaching. Deltas and below are conditioned to dislike books. Linda, who is a Beta Minus, brings one book to the Reservation, The Chemical and Bacteriological Conditioning of the Embryo: Practical Instructions for Beta Embryo-Store Workers, which is a job manual. She gives it to John and teaches him to read. Later Popé brings him The Complete Works of Shakespeare, which he found in an old chest in the Antelope Kiva. John s education consists of those two books plus whatever Mitsima taught him about making pots, bows, and other crafts. There are thus three types of education represented in Brave New World: sleep teaching, in which very little reading is done; book learning, in which a few books are read very thoroughly; and the hands-on teaching of crafts without any reading at all. Sleep teaching clearly has advantages. It is less work for the student, and it doesn t waste time. It also doesn t require teachers. However, the crafts and skills that John got from Mitsima s ancient form of hands-on teaching were clearly useful to him, and the complex concepts and principles that he got from reading Shakespeare certainly helped him understand the society of the World State, even though Shakespeare was forbidden there. Judging from Brave New World, what role should reading have in education? Should it be replaced by some other technology? Should a few very rich and complex books like The Complete Works of Shakespeare be taught? Or could books be eliminated and replaced by hands-on learning? Finally, are the examples explored in the novel relevant to our own society and educational system? In answering these questions, discuss examples of the effects of these three forms of learning on the characters in the novel and the implications for our own society. MODULE: TEACHER VERSION Writing 5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. 9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts Taking a Stance: Trying on Words, Perspectives, and Ideas One way to practice looking at the situation from multiple perspectives is to engage students in an activity in which they adopt different personas. For Brave New World, you can have students take the issue of the writing prompt and think about it from different perspectives based on characters in the novel and other people they know. If students are completing different writing prompts, you could divide them into groups based on the prompts and have each student argue from a different perspective in a debate or a panel discussion. CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO BRAVE NEW WORLD 31

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION to support analysis, reflection, and research. Speaking and Listening 1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (oneon-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11 12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. Activity 26: Taking a Stance Trying on Words, Perspectives, and Ideas The core questions in the writing prompt follow: Writing Task 1: Entertainment as a Form of Control Core Question: Have we become a trivial culture preoccupied with entertainment? Writing Task 2: Community, Identity, Stability Core Question: Is social stability worth the price? Writing Task 3: Gender Equality Core Question: Are men and women equal in Brave New World? Writing Task 4: Reading and Education Core Question: What should an educated person read? In your group, discuss the core question of the assigned writing prompt. Each member of the group should then take on the persona of either a character in the novel or another person you know. What would that person say or argue about the core question? For example, What would Mustapha Mond say? What would Lenina Crowne say? What would Fanny Crowne say? What would Bernard Marx say? What would Helmholtz Watson say? What would the Director of Hatcheries say? What would your teacher say? What would the football coach say? What would your favorite movie character say? What would say? Then, at the end of the discussion, What do YOU say? FA Formative Assessment What s clear? What s fuzzy? Following Activity 26, in which students explored the module s writing options, you might ask your students to complete a sheet of paper or an index card with information about what s become clearer to them about the novel on one side and what is still fuzzy on the other side. Taking a look through these pages or cards may provide you with information you can use to make decisions about what aspects of the novel may require further discussion in order to reduce fuzziness in the minds of your students. 32 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO

Writing 7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation. 8. Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation including footnotes and endnotes. CA 9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. Gathering Evidence to Support Your Claims In the previous activity, students tried on different viewpoints based on different characters and people, culminating in a statement of what they themselves think. At this point, they should begin gathering the evidence they need to support their positions. The following questions will help: Activity 27: Gathering Evidence to Support Your Claims What is your position on the issue of the writing prompt? Can you state it in one sentence? Why do you think this? What evidence do you have for this position? Go through your notes, annotations, and other materials for Brave New World. What can you use to support your argument? Do you need to go beyond the novel itself? Do you need to do some research? What would people who disagree with you say? What evidence supports their position? How can you argue against them? Is the issue too complex to be stated as a black-and-white, right-or-wrong, yes-or-no position? Are there degrees of probability or certainty? For example, no one can know for certain that our society is becoming like the World State or even that such a development would be bad. Is there enough evidence to suggest that the possibility is strong enough that we should take some action to prevent it? How will you handle a nuanced argument like this? MODULE: TEACHER VERSION Writing 5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning,, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. 10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences. Getting Ready to Write One or both of the activities below may help your students get started on their writing. The question of who is the audience for a paper like this is crucial. This is not literary criticism that will be submitted to an academic journal. An audience of general readers, including high school teachers and students along with other members of the community who are concerned about political trends or interested in Brave New World is more likely. A secondary purpose might be to convince readers that Brave New World still has important issues to raise and points to make. CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO BRAVE NEW WORLD 33

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION Activity 28: Getting Ready to Write Do exercise 1 or 2 below. 1. Rhetorical Quickwrite Who is your audience for this writing? What is your plan? What do you want to tell them? What are your most important points? What are you passionate about on this issue? How will you convey these ideas and this passion? How do you want your writing to affect the reader? Write a quick paragraph in response to these questions. 2. Scratch Outline With the novel and all of your notes and annotations arranged around you, make a scratch outline of your writing plan. What is your main idea? What comes first? How will you support it? What comes next? After that? How will you conclude? Writing Rhetorically Entering the Conversation Writing 2. Write informative/ explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. 4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task purpose, and audience. 9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. 10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences. Composing a Draft At this point, your students are more than ready to write a first draft. Remind them that first drafts are exploratory and experimental. They are writerbased in that what is most important is getting ideas on paper. Sometimes writers change their minds when they actually begin writing. Activity 29: Composing a Draft With your audience and purpose in mind, but focusing mainly on getting your ideas on paper, begin writing a first draft of your paper on Brave New World. 34 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO

Writing 2. Write informative/ explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. a. Introduce a topic or thesis statement; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information so that each new element builds on that which precedes it to create a unified whole; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension. CA b. Develop the topic thoroughly by selecting the most significant and relevant facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience s knowledge of the topic. c. Use appropriate and varied transitions and syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts. f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented (e.g., articulating implications or Considering Structure Different writers go through different processes, so your students may resist this pause for reflection in the middle of the process. It can, however, lead to more efficient writing because some problems may be solved before they are inscribed. Activity 30: Considering Structure As you pause midway in your writing, think about what you have done so far and where you are going. If you made a scratch outline before you started writing, you may find that your plan is working, but it is also possible that the writing is taking you in a different direction. You may find that as you write about them, the arguments connect together in a different way than you imagined or that you have thought of completely new arguments while you are writing. As you make adjustments in your organizational structure, keep the audience in mind. Will your reader be able to follow along with your reasoning? In your Brave New World notebook, write a note about your writing plan and changes you have made to it so far. MODULE: TEACHER VERSION CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO BRAVE NEW WORLD 35

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION the significance of the topic). 4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. 9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. Writing 8. Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation including footnotes and endnotes. CA Using the Words of Others (and Avoiding Plagiarism) As the first draft nears completion, students should consider how they have used sources. Activity 31: Using the Words of Others (and Avoiding Plagiarism) As you use the material from your notes, ask yourself the following questions: Do you have page numbers for quotations and paraphrases? Do you have a good balance between quotations and paraphrases? Did you quote only when you have a good reason to (i.e., that the language itself is important)? Have you framed quotations, especially block quotations, by introducing them first and then responding to them afterwards? For example, Mustapha Mond, the World Controller argues that society has to give up old books like Shakespeare to achieve social stability. He says, You ve got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art. We ve sacrificed the high art. We have the feelies and scent organ instead. (220) However, what Mond doesn t say is that when he says you have got to choose, the individual doesn t actually choose. Mond chooses for him. Reading Informational Text 6. Determine an author s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text. Negotiating Voices The activity below might be done as a peer sharing activity in which students give each other feedback on the management of voices. Activity 32: Negotiating Voices In the example above, it is clear that the block quote is in Mond s voice and the surrounding material is in the essay writer s voice. However, when there are multiple sources, sometimes the different voices get confused. As you read through your paper, ask yourself the following questions: 36 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO

Writing 2e. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing. Language 3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening. Writing 1f. Use specific rhetorical devices to support assertions (e.g., appeal to logic through reasoning; appeal to emotion or ethical belief; relate a personal anecdote, case study, or analogy). CA 2c. Use appropriate and varied transitions and syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts. 2d. Use precise language, domain-specific vocabulary, and techniques such as metaphor, simile, and analogy to manage the complexity of the topic. 2e. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing. Is it clear who says and believes what? Is my own voice consistent in tone? What kind of ethos have I created? Who do I sound like? Revising and Editing Revising Rhetorically This activity could also be done as a pair-share or in a read-around. For a pair-share, students share their papers and discuss the questions. In a readaround, in groups of three or more the papers are shifted to the right or left so that each student gets feedback from two peer readers. Sometimes it is helpful to move whole sets of papers from one group to another so none of the papers being read was written by anyone in the group. This can be organized around a simple question like Which paper is the best in this group? Tell why. Activity 33: Revising Rhetorically Now it is time to think more about the reader and begin moving toward a reader-based draft that is ready to submit to your instructor for feedback. Think about the following questions: Have I provided the reader with what he or she needs to understand my ideas? Do I have enough support for each point? Do my arguments work together? Do I have transitions between different parts of my arguments? Does my conclusion follow from the rest of the paper? Is it more than just a restatement of the introduction? Have I accomplished my rhetorical purpose? Have I engaged the reader s interest? Have I changed the reader s mind? Have I allowed the reader to see the book more clearly? After thinking about these questions, create a short revision plan for your paper. Write it down in your Brave New World notebook. MODULE: TEACHER VERSION CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO BRAVE NEW WORLD 37

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION 4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task purpose, and audience. 5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by revising, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. Reading Informational Text 1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. 5. Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging. 6. Determine an author s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text. Speaking and Listening 1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-onone, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11 12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. FA Formative Assessment This could be an optimum time to collect and review students plans for the further development and refinement of their essays. Answers to questions that students have given from Activities 32 and 33 should indicate how well each student is progressing on the management of voice and in rhetorical revision. You could review and return the notebooks to students, perhaps with commentary from you about how students might best progress with their composition. (As an alternative to collecting notebooks, you might consider having students complete index cards with answers to questions for Activity 32 on one side and answers to Activity 33 on the other.) 38 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO

Language 3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening. a. Vary syntax for effect, consulting references (e.g., Tufte s Artful Sentences) for guidance as needed; apply an understanding of syntax to the study of complex texts when reading. Writing 1f. Use specific rhetorical devices to support assertions (e.g., appeal to logic through reasoning; appeal to emotion or ethical belief; relate a personal anecdote, case study, or analogy). CA 2d. Use precise language, domainspecific vocabulary, and techniques such as metaphor, simile, and analogy to manage the complexity of the topic. Considering Stylistic Choices This activity asks students to self-identify stylistic areas they are unsure about. This helps to create a collaborative atmosphere and demonstrates that the most effective writing is writing that readers can understand. Activity 34: Considering Stylistic Choices You should also think about the language and sentence structure you used before you turn the draft in to your instructor. Read your draft with the following questions in mind, and mark areas where you think you might have a question or a problem. Then ask for advice from your teacher or one of your fellow students. Are any sentences too long or confusing? Are there any long quotations that could be paraphrased? Are there any words you are unsure about? Are any words too informal for an academic paper? MODULE: TEACHER VERSION Language 1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. a. Apply the understanding that usage is a matter of convention, can change over time, and is sometimes contested. b. Resolve issues of complex or contested Editing the Draft This is an area where peer sharing is unlikely to be helpful. Students may not be very effective at editing their own drafts either, but it is important that they get in the habit of doing this before they turn in a paper. Over time, they will learn to implement the feedback they get from instructors. Activity 35: Editing the Draft You should also proofread your paper to make sure there are no grammatical errors or usage problems. Try the following strategies: Think about problems your teacher has identified in past papers. Try to see if you have made the same mistakes again. CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO BRAVE NEW WORLD 39

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION usage, consulting references (e.g., Merriam- Webster s Dictionary of English Usage, Garner s Modern American Usage) as needed. 2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. a. Observe hyphenation conventions. b. Spell correctly. Writing 5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by editing, (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1 3 up to and including grades 11 12.) Writing 5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. Read your paper from the last sentence to the first sentence, sentence by sentence. This breaks the flow of the reading and enables you to be more aware of the construction of an individual sentence. This is an especially good way to catch sentence fragments. (Reading it aloud in this way may be even more effective than reading it silently.) Responding to Feedback Students need feedback on their writing. Some of this can be from peers during the revision stage, but instructor feedback is essential. Although responding to drafts and conferencing with students is undoubtedly time consuming, it is important to intervene in the writing process at the most useful points and to make comments that are well-targeted to both the assignment s demands and the student s needs and language development processes. The most valuable point for students to receive feedback is before they revise and edit, so they can actively apply what they learn from your response to the next draft. One particularly effective time for instructor response is after students have produced their first revised, reader-based draft. Students can then use instructor feedback to revise and improve the final draft they will submit for a final grade. As students see their own writing evolve, an improved grade can serve as additional motivation for them to put sustained effort into revisions. Most writing instructors make a distinction between global issues, such as thesis, focus, and arguments, and local issues, such as grammatical and usage errors. While all students need both global and local responses, English learners will benefit from more frequent and extended opportunities to receive and respond to feedback. English learners may also benefit from instructor response to specific aspects of the English language, such as particularly difficult or idiosyncratic grammatical forms that English learners are still in the process of acquiring. 40 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO

For this particular assignment, the biggest problems are likely to be with quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing material from the novel and integrating it into the writer s own text. This could be the main focus of your comments. Activity 36: Responding to Feedback When you receive the paper back from your instructor, look carefully at the marks and comments. Try to understand what the feedback means and why the reader responded the way he or she did. The biggest mistake that many writers make is just to delete sentences that have problems. That will not make the essay more effective. As you make a plan for revision, think about the following questions: Do I need to reorganize parts of my essay? Do I need to add material to support my arguments? Where will I get it? Do I need to reconsider some of my arguments? Do I need to rewrite some sentences to make them clearer? Do I need to reword some parts? Do I need to correct some errors? Do I know how? How will I find out? MODULE: TEACHER VERSION The strategies in this section of the ERWC are designed to reinforce students learning of the content of the CCSS for ELA/Literacy in the preceding sections of the module. Writing 10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences. Reflecting on Your Writing Process After students have turned in the revised draft of the paper for a grade, they should reflect on the following questions. Activity 37: Reflecting on Your Writing Process After you have turned in your revised draft of your Brave New World paper, answer the following questions in your notebooks. What have you learned about your writing process? What were some of the most important decisions you made as you wrote this text? In what ways have you become a better writer? How will the experience of writing this paper change the way you work on your next paper? CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO BRAVE NEW WORLD 41

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION 42 BRAVE NEW WORLD CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE SEMESTER TWO