The Machine Stops tasks: discussion and writing unit (dystopia)

Using a copy of The Machine Stops (E M Forster) which may be found here: http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html
NB: students should have read story before lesson.

Challenge Question (on board at the start of lesson): what would your most frightening dystopian future be? (connect it to the world as it is now...) - share best on paper pinned to the board for later inspiration for others.

Discuss rules for effective group work - one speaker at a time / listen actively / build on ideas...
1. 3 or 6 groups (equal size) each discuss and make notes on one of the three discussion tasks (tasks are increasingly complex: character, genre, concept)

2. form new triads made up of one student from each of the three tasks - share ideas with a new central Q: What might readers find difficult to understand in the story? how would you explain it to them?

3. Students work independently on the personal response section - pause after twenty minutes to peer review progress and give feedback before editing and finishing.

Additional idea: use http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heAVOA8iyCw
(top ten dystopian film ideas - some moderate violence included)
students should draw, describe or act out a trailer for a new dystopian book idea.

Could be followed up with some study of other dystopian fiction:
V for Vendetta - Alan Moore
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
The Maze Runner - James Dashner
1984 - George Orwell