Introduction to Dystopian genre and unseen poetry interpretation

A stand-alone lesson, which can be completed over two lessons if you wanted to.
This resource introduces the Dystopian genre using ‘The Hanging Tree’ poem/song from ‘The Hunger Games’.
It includes comprehension questions and answer, 2 engaging short videos (one on Dystopian genre and one from The Hunger Games), and questions that encourage interpretation and finding hidden meanings in poetry. There is the chance for extending essay style writing in the last slide, with a structure to aid students.
Some of the interpretation of the poetry may be harder for lower years and the tone can be a bit dark, e.g. murder and suicide can be interpreted in the poem, but students generally enjoy and engage with the lesson as they like film/books and variety of activities. You could use this with mature year 7s, all the way upto KS4 or even KS5 if looking at Dystopian novels.