Outcomes and Skills
These outcomes describe what students should be able to do by the end of the unit. They are formative: use them to plan, self-check and give feedback. They do not rank students or record results.
Knowledge
- Know the novel's publication context and its relation to early twenty-first-century science, corporate power and environmental debate.
- Know how the novel is structured across a post-pandemic present and a remembered past.
- Know how narration, memory and delayed revelation shape the reader's understanding.
- Know how worldbuilding and naming do satirical and ethical work.
- Know the difference between a technique, an effect and a claim.
Skills
| Skill | What it looks like | Next step if it is not yet secure |
|---|---|---|
| Close reading | Selects a short quotation, describes what it does, and explains how it shapes the reader's understanding. | Annotate one sentence at a time: verb, image, tone, implication. |
| Structural analysis | Connects a choice of sequence, flashback or delayed reveal to the novel's meaning. | Ask: what would change if this information came earlier or later? |
| Worldbuilding analysis | Explains how an invented detail satirises a real practice or belief. | Name the real-world target and the effect of the exaggeration. |
| Ethical analysis | Identifies a moral question, explains competing answers, and connects it to the novel's construction. | Write one question beginning "Who is responsible for...?" and answer it twice. |
| Critical writing | States a claim, embeds evidence, explains effect, and answers a counter-reading. | Rewrite one paragraph so every quotation is followed by an explanation. |
| Creative and oral response | Makes a deliberate transformation or spoken walkthrough and explains the choices. | Name the effect you wanted, then change one choice to achieve it more clearly. |
Formative success criteria
- I can explain the novel's two main timelines and why they are arranged as they are.
- I can name a choice of narration or worldbuilding and explain what it does.
- I can use a short quotation accurately and explain its effect.
- I can connect one ethical question to the novel's plot and style.
- I can use context to sharpen a claim rather than replace analysis.
- I can explain how the ending shapes the meaning of the whole novel.
- I can respond creatively or orally and explain the choices behind the response.
What progress looks like
Progress is visible when a student moves from describing the dystopian world to explaining how the novel makes that world feel plausible. A stronger response usually has a narrower claim, better-chosen evidence and a clearer account of the reader's experience. The move from "the novel warns about genetic engineering" to "the novel makes genetic engineering feel ordinary by embedding it in brand names, office life and shopping" is the learning.
Teacher note
Choose two criteria for a feedback lesson rather than all seven. Model the difference between "Crake is a villain" and "Crake's plan is persuasive because it offers an escape from suffering, which is exactly what makes it dangerous". The second sentence is the learning.