Teaching

What key processes and practices (lessons) will facilitate your students learning? How is this related to your principled approach?
Frontloading is largely praised by Wilhelm and Novak as a way to keep the lessons relevant and motivating aesthetic responses in the students. The following lesson is formatted as a front loading session meant to get the students asking themselves/each other highly charged questions. The authors discuss frontloading as a "gateway to life," and this task will allow us to tap into the aesthetic sensibilities within the students by using the "three stages of pedagogically evoking the evocative dimension of literature" (77). By presenting this before the students read //1984//, and giving relevant examples of elements we would like to discuss, the lesson prepares students to navigate the text safely. The second stage "while reading" is an application (through creativity) of the students' principles to engage them in the plot and the lives of the characters involved. The last stage is to find ways to use the text to provide students an appreciation and understanding of their own world and use the curriculum to support their own ideological development. (78-82 See Figure 4.1 on 82 for criteria used)

Warm-up: Watch [] Given the political nature of the video it may be better to find another, but it is at least in the realm of the discussion.

The following scenarios would be a good place to get the students to discover their own understanding of privacy vs. security. It would be an excellent precursor to the novel and is best placed before the text is begun. If this is time prohibitive, hand out scenarios individually for faster/controlled grouping.

Next, read each scenario individually and decide on a course of action. After making your decisions, go back and rate how excusable each potential invasion of privacy would be: 1 being most excusable, 4 being least. Finally, get into groups and come to a consensus. Of course, be prepared to support your decision with sound reasoning.
 * Instructions:** (Prior to passing out the scenarios): In a quick write, address under what circumstances (if any) it is excusable or even necessary to invade someone’s privacy.


 * Scenario A**: You believe your newlywed spouse is cheating on you. He is no longer following his regular routine. He leaves extremely early and usually arrives home late (10-11:30pm). You’ve questioned your spouse and he says he’s working late at the office. However, you asked your friend who works at the same company, and he said your spouse always leaves the office at 6pm. You’ve noticed his clothes sometimes have a faint perfume smell now and that he runs to the shower when he gets home. Also, you were recently driving his car and saw a few long blond hairs on the passenger seat. Your hair is brown. You also found a woman’s scarf pushed under the passenger’s seat, and it smells eerily similar to the scent you found on your spouse’s clothes. Anytime you physically approach your spouse when working on his computer, he immediately logs off and leaves the room. You tried using the computer while he was away but it’s password protected. One evening, though, you find a hand-written list of usernames and passwords. The passwords are all just small variations of the same thing, and you start trying them out. The first one unlocks his computer—you’re in. What do you do next?

Followup question: What would you want him to do in the same situation?


 * Scenario B**: You have recently moved from The Big City to a small, rural town. With that said, you live in a duplex home and have reason to believe that your neighbor could be a murderer. For the last two months, you’ve noticed that he leaves on Wednesday and returns on Friday. Every Friday he arrives with a different woman (a total of seven times). Twice you’ve heard what sounds like a brief physical struggle. However, you //always// hear what sounds like sawing or drilling. For the last two weeks you haven’t been able to sleep when he’s home, so you’ve listened and watched him leave every Saturday morning at around 4 am. He always leaves with two trash bags and no sign of the woman.

You report this information to the police. They say they have no new missing person reports and no other information to go on, aside from your silly speculation. They also say they’ve known your neighbor for years and that he’s a good man. They laugh at you for being a clueless out-of-towner and tell you to come back when you have a body. You’re troubled by this information but know you can resolve the situation. You have a history in home security. You can easily use a lock pick to gain access to the apartment and set up some surveillance equipment. If nothing is happening, you’ll take it down and forget everything. If you find something, you can possibly save some lives. Your neighbor is leaving again soon, so there’s no immediate risk involved in entering the house.

Question: Do you break into your neighbor’s house and plant the surveillance equipment or let someone deal with what is potentially happening next door?


 * Scenario C**: You’re branch manager of a generic company, and your supervisors have recommended that you install a new spyware program on the office computers that will collect personal history and user data without employee permission or knowledge. The company has chosen to do this in order to gain a more accurate view of its employees’ “moral character.” The company has taken a new “moral” initiative and wants to promote and reward employees it considers as “high character” individuals. No standards have been established as to what will constitute “high character” or “low character” habits. Apparently this will be left to the office’s judgment. Also, nothing has been said about what will happen to the employees who fall under the umbrella of “low character.”

If you install this spyware, you will receive an enormous raise and be placed on a fast track to corporate management. The alternative to not installing the spyware is blocking all sites not seen as “productive to the work day.” You know blocking 97% of the Internet will damage office morale, thus damaging your branch’s productivity and job security.

Questions: You have a spouse and four children. Do you install the software or not?


 * Scenario D**: You run the world’s largest social networking site. A company (similar to Amazon) has approached you about buying your users’ personal information. They have no malign purposes for the data; they simply want to use it for advertising. Their offer is $100,000. You easily cover operating costs, so the money doesn’t appeal to you. You reject their offer.

They decide to appeal to your philanthropic side: they increase the offer to $500,000, which will then be given to the charity or cause of your choice—all without ever touching your hands. Also, to avoid tying any transactions to you, they propose a solution: create a weak spot in your security net—one that will allow their company to extract the information without your direct knowledge. Proper steps will be taken to make sure the security breach is never detected. If for some reason the breach is ever discovered, the damage and any connection to you will remain unknown.

Question: Do you create the weak spot in your network in exchange for the donation of your choice?


 * Moving Forward:** After discussing the scenarios, have students develop criteria they can use to evaluate future situations that involve invasions of privacy. This is a key metacognitive step that requires students to think about and reflect on their own thought process. It will help them to identify and evaluate their core values and beliefs so they can apply them to new situations. They are likely to end up noting the general intrusiveness of the invasion, the personal motivation (emotional vs. practical), and the outcome or intended effect.

Your group must prepare an interview for //60 Minutes//. You must have at least 5 questions and 5 answers that challenge/support your interviewees actions in your Scenario.

This assignment may be possible in all courses depending on classroom participation and student preparedness.

Following Warm-up: After the novel has begun... Would it be okay for the government to put a camera into every room of your house in the interest of security?Why/why not? What if it was available to your parents as well? Or your teachers? Could you be convinced otherwise?

Part A: Make assumptions based on the first 3 chapters of 1984

In one sentence each, answer the following questions...

1) What is censorship to you?

2) What does the word “goodthink” invoke for you (the reader)?

3) How about the word “crimethink”? a. Can thought be a crime? b. Make an assumption based on the first 3 chapters of 1984

4) How do you police thoughts?

5) What is the purpose of Orwell’s use of children in Chapter 2? a. How does their conversion affect the future of //1984// society

Part B: Collect Ideas In groups of 3 or more, discuss these terms from your limited knowledge of them. For any assumptions that need to be made use whatever skills you have. Dissect the words into parts, use the previous readings, or just guess. Make sure the students keep their own ideas separate from those of their classmates for now.

Part C: Homework After the next section of readings (assume Chapter 4-6), answer the questions again using everything discussed in the groups and with additional knowledge of how in-depth the censorship is in //1984// society. (Having the students keep both sets of answers would be good practice as they can view their changing viewpoints)

In the novel 1984 Julia and Winston do not end up together. They end their relationship in response to the pressures of conforming to Big Brother and the Ministry. In this assignment, you are asked to consider an alternate ending. Imagine that Julia is pregnant with Winston’s baby. Create a scrap book that Julia creates to share her story with her unborn child. You should include a letter, poem, news article, song, and at least three photos you believe Julia would choose. Julia wants her child to know about her father, so make sure to include a page dedicated to Winston. What information would you share? How much information would you omit? In your letters create an alternative ending that puts an unexpected twist to the story.
 * //__Scrapbook__//**

Proverbs can be found in cultures all around the world. They are short, concise sentences that convey a message and are designed to make a reader think deeply about the world around them. Below are some examples of proverbs: // The nail that sticks out will be hammered down. // Japanese proverb // I am because we are, we are because I am //. African proverb // Like iron sharpens iron- so do we. // Nigerian proverb // When elephants fight, the grass suffers. // Cameronian proverb Pick three characters from the list below and a topic from the theme box below. Create ten original proverbs, related to you chosen theme, for each character. The proverbs should reflect what you believe are the main lessons the character you have chosen learned from the events in the story.
 * //__Proverbs__//**

Julia Winston O’Brien Syme Mr. Charmington Parsons ||
 * **// Characters //**

Oppression Individuality Sexuality Conformity Humanity integrity ||
 * **// Themes //**

Pretend you are a daughter to one of the characters, a psychologist, a columnist for Newspeak, or a journalist for a rebel newspaper intent on writing an expose about the Ministry. Come up with a list of 10 questions and their corresponding textually supported answers you would ask the author or one of the characters listed from the novel. Come prepared to ask your question or present your answer during class discussion.
 * //__Hot Seat__//**