The Conventions of Dystopian Fiction

A lesson planned and taught at KS3 designed to introduce students to the conventions of the dystopian genre. First, students are encouraged to guess the definitions of ‘utopia’ and ‘dystopia’ from images. Second, they are presented with dystopian texts they might be familiar with to discuss prior knowledge. Third, they watch a series of film trailers and take notes. Fourth, the teacher provides feedback by adding to ideas. Finally, the plenary task gets them to recall key ideas from the lesson.