The Handmaid's Tale: Activity Pack for AS and A Level
- OCR A Level
- AQA A A Level
- AQA B A Level
- Edexcel AS and A Level
Not only has the dystopian genre captured the imagination of readers in recent decades, but Atwood’s depiction of a society ravaged by environmental disaster – that finds solutions in a regime of distorted traditional and ultraconservative values – has eerie echoes across the world today. This invaluable, detailed activity pack affords students the opportunity to explore gender, social values and themes of power through a variety of ready-to-use handouts covering the whole text, for you to mix and match to suit your class.
A very comprehensive resource, which will suit a range of learning styles
Activities include:
- engaging questions
- critical thinking
- close reading
- pair and group tasks
- visual, audio and kinaesthetic tasks
- further research
Accessible for every level and linked to the AOs throughout!
Plus! Answers to all activities included.
-
Prepare
Pre-reading exercises provide a starting point for study -
Explore
Appealing chapter-by-chapter tasks guide students through the text, allowing them to gain understanding and analytical skills while remaining engaged -
Reflect
Whole-text activities show the bigger picture, exploring key areas of: Characterisation • Relationships • Genre • Themes • Attitudes and Values • Writer's Use of Language • Form • Structure • Context • Critical Reception
The diverse range of close textual analysis activities throughout is particularly impressive as they avoid any potential monotony with a text of this length
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What do teachers say about this resource? (9125)
This is an amazing and comprehensive resource. It has been so useful in helping us design our curriculum for a new text choice... I particularly like the interesting and varied teaching activities... It has helped [my students] to deconstruct and analyse the text... I would definitely recommend this resource to other teachers who are looking for new and inventive ways of teaching the text.
A great resource to support with delivering the novel to a very able A level group... I particularly like this resource because tasks are varied, matched to specific assessment objectives and well resourced. I particularly like the indicative content provided at the back to help with delivering the content confidently... The emphasis on AOs and encouraging students to engage personally with the texts, forming their own interpretation is invaluable in helping them to secure higher grades... It is better than other resources because it address thoroughly all of the individual assessment objective and matched according to the needs of students... Thorough, comprehensive and everything you could need to deliver the novel in an engaging way.
Absolutely superb from start to finish! The depth of knowledge displayed is excellent... The emphasis on intense textual engagement, independent student research and active group discussion is extremely useful... I particularly liked the consistently forensic examination of Atwood's crafting of the novel itself. This emphasis on AO2 is essential as it supplies the bedrock for any nuanced interpretation of the novel. The diverse range of close textual analysis activities throughout is particularly impressive as they avoid any potential monotony with a text of this length... The resource works very hard to use available online criticism the basis of exploring AO3 and AO5... The constant encouragement to form personal interpretations from considerations of existing interpretations is invaluable... The provocative and thoughtful open-ended questions and debate topics will allow students to really expand their understanding of Atwood's wider social concerns and use of genre conventions... It really is top class!
A very comprehensive resource, which will suit a range of learning styles... I really liked the wide variety of different activities in the resource, this allows the students to be engaged in the content of the novel and access more complex aspects such as the narrative perspective, symbolism and genre... I particularly liked the tasks on narrative voice, the charts, quotation tasks and research topics and the fact that there are answers to the tasks to save teachers time.
A thorough and useful resource that is really well focused around developing students’ interpretation and encouraging them to think critically about the text. This is often an area students struggle with and it is pleasing to see a resource address it throughout. The contextual tasks will also allow students to ground their ideas in the historical and literary context of the period... The links to wider reading and critical thinking are wonderful.
Keywords
- A level English Literature
- A Level OCR English Literature (H472)
- Comparative and contextual study
- Dystopia
- A Level AQA B English Literature (7717)
- Paper 2: Texts and Genres
- Elements of political and social protest writing
- A Level AQA A English Literature (7712)
- Paper 2: Texts in shared contexts
- Modern Times: literature from 1945 to the present day
- A Level Edexcel English Literature (9ET0)
- Component 2: Prose
- Science and Society
- A Level Activity Packs
- A Level English Literature Activity Pack
- Margaret Atwood
- Prose