Unit Overview
Unit Title & Grade Level: "A Book About Banning Books That Was Banned Itself" — 10th Grade College-Prep English
Book Synopsis: Guy Montag is a fireman. He lives in a dystopian world where television reigns supreme and book reading is on the brink of extinction. Book reading is actually illegal and firemen, like Montag, start fires rather than extinguish them. His job is to destroy the most illegal of items, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden as valuable contraband. Montag never questions the actions he is asked to perform and returns each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television. When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. He starts hiding books in his home, and when his pilfering is discovered, the fireman has to run for his life.
Main Themes/Motifs: Censorship, Collectivism vs. Individualism, Knowledge vs. Ignorance
Book Synopsis: Guy Montag is a fireman. He lives in a dystopian world where television reigns supreme and book reading is on the brink of extinction. Book reading is actually illegal and firemen, like Montag, start fires rather than extinguish them. His job is to destroy the most illegal of items, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden as valuable contraband. Montag never questions the actions he is asked to perform and returns each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television. When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. He starts hiding books in his home, and when his pilfering is discovered, the fireman has to run for his life.
Main Themes/Motifs: Censorship, Collectivism vs. Individualism, Knowledge vs. Ignorance
Unit Calendar
Week One
Lesson 1: Intro - Historical Book Burning - Kurt Vonnegut's Letter "I Am Very Real"
Lesson 2: Unit Vocabulary
Lesson 3: Figurative Language - What's the book's central conflict?
Lesson 4: Close Reading of Pages 8-28 - What does the Hound represent? - What does this fictional society value?
Lesson 5: Finish Part I - Deeply analyze Beatty's speech
Week Two
Lesson 6: Read article about AI and formulate arguments regarding benefits and costs of technology
Lesson 7: Discuss the plan of Montag and Faber
Lesson 8: Discuss what the women at Mildred's party reveal about their society and how they reacted to Montag's poem
Lesson 9: Read and analyze Matt Arnold's "Dover Beach" poem. Discuss why Bradbury put the excerpt into his novel
Lesson 10: Analyze, then interpret the irony present at the end of Part II
Week Three
Lesson 11: Study 'anti-heroes' and discuss why Montag is one
Lesson 12: Discuss how and why Bradbury used suspense in this novel via structure
Lesson 13: Characterization: Characterize the men by the fire with which Montag converses
Lesson 14: Discuss and analyze the symbolism behind the river and the phoenix
Lesson 15: Final Assessment for Unit - Complexity Wheel
Lesson 1: Intro - Historical Book Burning - Kurt Vonnegut's Letter "I Am Very Real"
Lesson 2: Unit Vocabulary
Lesson 3: Figurative Language - What's the book's central conflict?
Lesson 4: Close Reading of Pages 8-28 - What does the Hound represent? - What does this fictional society value?
Lesson 5: Finish Part I - Deeply analyze Beatty's speech
Week Two
Lesson 6: Read article about AI and formulate arguments regarding benefits and costs of technology
Lesson 7: Discuss the plan of Montag and Faber
Lesson 8: Discuss what the women at Mildred's party reveal about their society and how they reacted to Montag's poem
Lesson 9: Read and analyze Matt Arnold's "Dover Beach" poem. Discuss why Bradbury put the excerpt into his novel
Lesson 10: Analyze, then interpret the irony present at the end of Part II
Week Three
Lesson 11: Study 'anti-heroes' and discuss why Montag is one
Lesson 12: Discuss how and why Bradbury used suspense in this novel via structure
Lesson 13: Characterization: Characterize the men by the fire with which Montag converses
Lesson 14: Discuss and analyze the symbolism behind the river and the phoenix
Lesson 15: Final Assessment for Unit - Complexity Wheel