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Lesson 3: Building Background Knowledge: Allegory and Symbolism
50 min
California CCSS: Focus Standards
California CCSS: Supporting Standards
ELD Standards
Student Lesson
Lesson 3: Building Background Knowledge: Allegory and Symbolism
Student Learning Objectives
1
Content
Students will analyze the development of theme in allegory, examining characters, actions, and events, and their symbolic meanings.
2
Language
Language Students will explain symbolic meaning and author’s message by using comparative language (represents, stands for, parallels), abstract nouns (arrogance, flattery), and explanation frames (“The character symbolizes . . . , which shows . . .”), supported by textual evidence.
Essential Question
How do propaganda and rhetorical techniques influence what people believe and how they act?
Connections to
Knowledge-Building:
Students build their knowledge of allegories and symbolism by analyzing how allegorical stories can present lessons or messages through characterization, actions, and setting that influence readers’ beliefs and actions.
Enduring Understanding:
Allegories can influence beliefs by making a message feel “true” through a simple story that mirrors human behavior or society.
Future Lessons:
In Lesson 4, students will begin reading Animal Farm and analyze Old Major’s speech and how it establishes initial themes of the novel. In Lesson 5, students will continue reading and analyzing Chapter II of Animal Farm.
Unit Performance Task:
Students build background knowledge of allegories and will use this knowledge to understand the themes and central ideas of Animal Farm’s allegorical symbolism throughout the unit.
Lesson Pacing
| Lesson Flow | Purpose of Learning Experience |
|---|---|
Launch15 Minutes | Students will discuss how stories can influence people’s beliefs and actions and will be introduced to the literary terms allegory and symbolism. |
Learning in Action30 Minutes | Part A: Analyze Theme Development in Allegory (RL.8.2, RL.8.3) Students will read and analyze two allegorical fables to identify symbolism that develops a theme about human behavior or society. Part B: Evaluating Allegory as Persuasion (SL.8.1) Students will engage in a Four Corners Debate to take positions on allegories as persuasion. |
Look Back5 Minutes | Students will complete a check for understanding identifying one character or event from the fables and explaining what it might represent about human behavior or society. |
Vocabulary
Vocabulary Addressed in Lesson
- allegory
- a text like a story or poem or a visual image in which the characters, objects, and events are symbolic and, together, represent an underlying message or idea
- symbolism
- using objects, colors, or characters to represent abstract ideas or emotions that build on a theme; authors often include symbolism through repetition and emphasis
Material List
- Unit 2 Lesson 3 Student Edition
Routines
- Think-Pair-Share
- Table Talk
- Four Corners Debate
- Quick Write
