Lesson Plans

Alongside our resources for individual entrants, our lesson plans support teachers to use The Orwell Youth Prize in the classroom.

These lessons are designed to invoke debate, discussion, reading and the formation of an entry in response to each year’s theme. While they follow the steps of our Submissions Pathway, they can be used in any order (or individual lessons can be used as a one-off), and can form activities for use in the classroom, in an afterschool club, or as a homework task.

INSPIRATION

Three lessons to get you inspired about this year’s theme!

1. Lesson One: What is Freedom?

2. Lesson Two: Toads and Freedom

3. Lesson Three: Freedom in Dystopia

RESEARCH

A lesson to help you begin your research! With thanks to Orwell Youth Prize Winner, Bella Rew.

4. Lesson 4: Research

FIND YOUR FORM

Explore and experiment with different forms of writing, to find the perfect form for your own writing!

5. Lesson 5: Find Your Form

If you’re interested in exploring the form of Game Design with your class, Orwell Youth Fellow and 2023 Orwell Youth Prize Winner, Heike Ghandi, has created this helpful presentation which talks through the possibilities and features of game design and how to start planning a game design entry OYP Game Design Presentation. Heike also made this Game-Design-Template which can be used alongside the presentation.

And if you’re interested in exploring the form of poetry with your class , Orwell Youth Fellow and 2021 Orwell Youth Prize Winner, Bella Rew, has created this helpful resource about the possibilities poetry gives you… Bella’s Poetry Guide.

START WRITING

6. Lesson 6: Start Writing

A lesson to help you conquer the blank page and start writing!

GAME DESIGN – Created by Orwell Youth Prize 2023 Winner, Heike Ghandi

A template and worked example to support students to develop their ideas in the form of a game design.

KEY QUESTION: CLASS DISCUSSION & DEBATE

We are asking all young people who enter their work into the Orwell Youth Prize this year to also submit a short answer to the following question:

If you had one minute with the Prime Minister, what would you ask him to do, to benefit young people?

We’d really like to encourage you to debate this question with your students. Ideas might link back to freedom, but their responses to this question can be completely separate from their entry to the Prize. Beyond the Prize itself, we are interested in the collective response from young people and trying to take these ideas to those in positions of power.

We’re hoping students will think personally and tangibly about this question – and something small and local could be linked to a global problem. What would it take to make this change happen? And what’s standing in the way?

TECHNICAL TIPS