Animal Farm: Starter Materials: Ch 1-2

Extracts (text & video) worksheets & answers to help establish the key themes in Animal Farm. Materials are aimed at GCSE English Literature students new to the novel and its historical context.
The focus is on familiarising students with the central story, rather than jumping straight to the allegorical connections with the Russian Revolution. Similarly, characters can be introduced sequentially: Mr Jones, Old Major and other key (non-porcine!) are animals introduced in C1. Those scheming pigs (Snowball, Squealer & Napoleon!) do not appear until C2.

I specialise in adapting classic texts for language learners and reluctant readers - did The Picture of Dorian Gray for Penguin, plus Washington Square, Vanity Fair and Gulliver’s Travels for OUP.

My approach is to encourage students to engage with the fable before bringing in the Russian Revolution. The first names they need to learn are Old Major, Mr Jones and Boxer rather than Trotsky, Lenin & Stalin. Once the students have grasped the essentials of the story they can engage more with the original text and its historical sources.

With Animal Farm I stay close to the original but reduce the density of the text and convert much of the reported speech into dialogue. The chapter structure remains intact, which simplifies cross-referencing for quotes etc. Materials relating to the rest of the novel - including a presentation on the Napoleon v Snowball struggle are available from the eslreading website