Big Idea Web Quest Lesson Plan

Introduction
Students have explored the Big Idea of World War II and Its Aftermath. In this lesson, they will explore postwar literature. After reading these different selections, students will write a short poem or prose as a commentary on a current issue that is important to them.

Lesson Description
Students will read about postwar British Literature on two Web sites: http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761558048_6/English_Literature.html and Animal Farm http://www.teachervision.fen.com/politics/fiction/3307.html, and then they will write a short poem or prose as a commentary on a current issue that is important to them. Students may wish to use allegory, parody, or satiric elements.

Instructional Objectives

1. Students will use the Internet as an information resource.
2. Students will explore different selections about postwar literature.
3. Students will write a short poem or a one- to two-paragraph prose commentary on a current social issue that is important to them.

Student Web Activity Sample Answer
The words that I speak just hang in the air–
Were they in English? ‘Cause you just sit and stare.
You pretend to listen and you seem to care
But when I speak, you act like I’m not there.
When the tables turn and the words come from you
I’m expected to listen and find that I don’t want to.
I just want to be understood, for someone to care –
Not someone to pretend and vanish in thin air.