The Quest for a Perfect World

UTOPIA UNIT INTRODUCTION

Throughout this unit, students will be exploring the concept of utopia and society’s changing definition of the ideal as represented in literature, the arts, history, society, and their own lives. We will also link the readings to the social studies unit on REVOLUTION.

ABOUT THIS UNIT:

In groups of four or five, your group will discuss UTOPIA, using the following questions as a guide. Here are your instructions:

On a sheet of poster paper, draw a circle in the center. Divide the poster paper into quadrants (see board for example).

ACTIVITY 1: GENERATING IDEAS ABOUT UTOPIA

In section 1 of your poster, write your group’s responses down to the following questions:What words come to mind when you think about utopia? What are some examples of how our world tries to achieve a UTOPIA?

What examples of utopia have been shown through books and movies?

What kinds of things or places might be considered utopian?

What do things that are “perfect” have in common?

SECTION 1: DEFINITION

In section 2 of your poster, write your group’s responses down to the following questions:How has the progression of time changed the definition of utopia?

What ideas about utopia would be likely to differ or change, depending on the time and place?

What ideas about utopia would be likely to be the same, no matter when or where it is envisioned?

How are the ideas that are likely to differ or change different from those that are likely to be the same?

SECTION 2: UTOPIA AND CHANGE

For this section, I’d like you to categorize the ideas you came up with in Section 1. Put your ideas and examples into groups and give each group a title. You will use the questions on the next slide to guide your categories….

SECTION 3: CATEGORIZING IDEAS ABOUT UTOPIA

Category discussion questions:**You don’t have to write down the answers to

these questions – but be prepared to EXPLAIN your groups and group titles!Review the ideas you’ve written down. What is similar about some of the ideas? Should these ideas be grouped together based on this similarity? Why or why not?

What name could you give each category? Why?Do all of your ideas fall into a group? Might some of them belong in more than one group?

Is there a different way to categorize some or all of your ideas? What other categories might you use?

SECTION 3: CATEGORIZING IDEAS ABOUT UTOPIA

Now, write a brief explanation of your thought process as you categorized ideas in Section 3 on your chart paper.

SECTION 3: CATEGORIZING IDEAS ABOUT UTOPIA

For this section, you will brainstorm non-examples of utopia. You will have about five minutes.

SECTION 4: NON-EXAMPLES OF UTOPIA

In Section 4 of your chart paper, record your ideas about NON-EXAMPLES of utopia:

In what ways do your non-examples of utopia differ from your examples?

What prevents your examples from being utopian? Are they non-examples of utopia because of characteristics they have, because of characteristics they lack, or both?

How do dystopias form?

SECTION 4: NON-EXAMPLES