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Classroom Discussion Starters & Writing Prompts

• Have students write papers describing what they think the world in 1984 would look like. Have them expand to describe the world in 2004 if it progressed at the same rate as 1984.

• Track the history of some ideas presented in 1984.

• Discuss or have students write about the current state of government control compared to that in 1984.

• Have students discuss or write papers regarding one aspect of 1984. Expand that to have them write about one idea they disagree with and one idea they agree with.

• Have students research local laws still on the books and tie them to ideas into 1984.

• Focusing Responses to 1984 (Jeannine Hirtie, McCullough High School, The Woodlands, Texas from Ideas Plus Book 6, NCTE, 1988)
  George Orwell's 1984 generally evokes strong responses in readers. After students read the book and discuss some of the more disturbing images and issues conjured up by Orwell's prose, these writ­ing activities can help students focus their thoughts and responses. To allow for individual differences and the varying levels of difficulty of the assignments, students might be asked to choose one or two as­signments to respond to in detail. 

• Take a column from a newspaper on Abu Ghuarib and substitute the word "torture" for the word "abuse" - have students do this in class and then write about the results - tone - effect on reader - sentences and meaning and so on... (Ken Bill, DePaul University)

• The book by Mark Dunn, Ella Minnow Pea was chosen by me for my AP Language students' summer reading. I just finished rereading 1984 as a book to complement the reading of Dunn's book. I think the two make a great combination. Some ideas I will be using with my students are to begin the novel Ella Minnow Pea where certain letters have been banned and students cannot use them. If you haven't read Dunn's book, it is an excellent satire on the use language. It can also be suggested as a supplemental reading with 1984. (Jessica Hawkins, Palm Springs High School)

• Teach excerpts from Politics and the English Language by George Orwell along with 1984.  Reading the essay from beginning to end can be a little dry for high school students but much of what Orwell is talking about in the novel is explained here in different ways. While he grounds what he's talking about in the political writings of his day, it becomes easier for students to make the correlation between what happens in 1984 and what is happening (or could happen) today when reading this piece along with the novel. Along with this, it's helpful for students to look at pieces of political writing currently being published and to consider how carefully or carelessly writers choose their words, and to what effect. (Sally Crossley, Binghamton, New York) 

• Teaching 1984. Rationalizations in turn lead us into unconscious inconsistencies and self-contradictions...(Donald Lazere, University of Tennessee)

• Victoria Shannon at DePaul University plans to use some sections of Margaret Atwood's book A Handmaid's Tale to make comparisons to 1984. 
  

• Orwellian phrases for discussion (Harriet Malinowitz, Long Island University):