Rights and Freedoms in Society—A Look at Our World Compared to
the Fictional World of Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451
Julie Erlinger, AHTC Summer Institute 2008
To download this lesson as a pdf, please click here.
Abstract: Although the Declaration of Independence
and the Bill of Rights play a huge role in the ways we live our lives, students
often take for granted the rights and freedoms they provide for us. We live in a country that allows us to
do many things that citizens of other countries cannot do. Our founding fathers certainly
envisioned this type of nation as they penned these documents. As students read Ray Bradbury’s
novel Fahrenheit 451, they see a society very different from
ours—one in which most freedoms are taken away. In this lesson, students will look at
the Declaration of Independence and The Bill of Rights to compare our society
to the fictional one of Bradbury’s world. They will place themselves in the roles
of the characters to imagine a Bill of Rights that might exist for them. In doing so, they will also consider how
a society or nation is formed.
Enduring
Understandings/Essential Questions:
- What
does it mean to have rights and freedoms?
- How
much governmental control is good and necessary for a society to function
well?
- What
makes citizens happy and content members of a society?
Assessment: After examining the Declaration of
Independence and The Bill of Rights and reading Fahrenheit 451, students
will write a RAFT in which they assume the role of the government leaders in
451 and draft a bill of rights for the citizens of their society.
Setting the
Purpose: Prior to reading the
novel Fahrenheit 451, students will examine both the Declaration of
Independence and Bill of Rights to understand more fully the documents that set
in place the rights Americans have today. Afterwards, they will begin to
read the novel and discover a very different world—one in which citizens
live with few rights and freedoms. They will ultimately be able to compare and
contrast the two worlds in order to fully realize the opportunities they have
in America today.
Duration: Four to five nonconsecutive days.
Procedure:
- In
pairs, students will begin by examining the opening two paragraphs (by
transcript) of the Declaration of Independence. They will fill out a
written document analysis worksheet as they work through it. Afterwards,
the class will discuss their observations.
- If
students had not brought this up already, I will focus on the line “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness.” I would ask
them to define the pursuit of happiness. In other words, what does it mean
to be happy? What does one
need to do to “pursue” happiness? After discussion of the
definitions, students will put these away, knowing they will be asked to
look at them again at a later date.
- Next,
they will look at Bill of Rights. Instruct students to take out a piece of
paper and divide it into thirds (three equal sections). After reading through the twelve
articles, students should choose the three that they feel are the most
important to them. On each of
the three sections of paper, they will write out their choices (articles)
in their own words, not as they are written in the document. Writing them
in their own words will help me to know their comprehension levels.
- A
large group class discussion will continue afterwards in which students
are able to ask questions, discuss their choices, and argue for why their
choices are the right ones.
Ultimately, they will need to discuss and answer the questions,
“Why are the Bill of Rights important?” and “How does
the Bill of Rights make our society unique?”
- I will
ask the students to keep in mind throughout the novel these two documents
(Declaration and Bill of Rights), as we will return to them both during
and after the reading of Fahrenheit 451.
- Some
time will elapse as students take time to read the novel. We will most likely refer to each
document as they read.
- Upon
finishing the novel, I will ask students to go back to their definitions
of happiness. They will refer
to specific pages of 451 in which characters discuss happiness as
defined by that society. (Pages they will refer to are 10, 12, 54-61 in
the DelRey Ballantine Books edition; they may certainly refer to other
places in the text that they remember as well. Students will think –pair-
share this activity as they determine the differences in definitions of
what happiness is.
- The
final written assessment will be for students to write a RAFT. The RAFT will be written as
follows: Role is Captain
Beatty and other high ranking government officials, Audience is the
citizens of the society in Fahrenheit 451, Format will be a legal document
called The Bill of Rights, and Topic will be to clarify the rights that
they have. This would be
written as a similar document to the one they studied at the start of this
unit. This should be a
challenge, as students will probably not think that these citizens have
any rights. What they write
should be in line with what they read in the novel.
- As a
final discussion, I would go back to the essential questions and discuss
as a whole class: What does it
mean to have rights and freedoms?
How much governmental control is
good and necessary for a society to function well?
What makes
citizens happy and content members of a society?
List of Materials and
Resources:
Written Document Analysis Worksheet. http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/
Declaration of Independence
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=2
The Bill of Rights
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=13
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury