1. “Animal Farm” & “I Have a Dream”
Close Reading: Speeches as Political Tools

2. “Animal Farm” Question 1
DIRECTIONS: Answer the following in two to three complete sentences. Use evidence from chapter one of “Animal Farm” to back up your claims.
When the animals met in the big barn for Old Major’s speech, what was his goal?

3. “Animal Farm” Question 2
DIRECTIONS: Answer the following in about two complete sentences. Find specific, text-based answers and use quotes to support your response.
How did Old Major get the animals to assemble in the barn? Did the animals’ experience that evening match their expectations? How do you know?

4. “Animal Farm” Question 3
DIRECTIONS: Respond to the following with a list, then with a sentence that explains your list.
After reviewing Old Major’s speech, what rhetorical devices or key words do you see more that once? List these words or phrases, then explain why you think Old Major chose to use them in his speech.

5. “Animal Farm” Question 4
DIRECTIONS: Respond to the following question with about three to four complete sentences. Be sure you are including textual support for your claim.
What is the essential message Old Major wishes to convey to the other animals? Where in the speech is his point made most clearly? Did the animals understand?

6. “I Have a Dream” Question 1
DIRECTIONS: Review the first two paragraphs of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Respond to the following question with one or two complete sentences.
What do you believe is Dr. King’s primary goal in giving this speech? How is it evidenced early in the text?

7. “I Have a Dream” Question 2
DIRECTIONS: Respond to the following question with a complete sentence.
If you pay close attention to detail, you’ll notice that Dr. King references a significant historical event in the speech’s second paragraph. What is this event? What word do you see multiple times in the beginning of the speech that relates to this event?

8. “I Have a Dream” Question 3
DIRECTIONS: Respond to the following question with two to three complete sentences. Be sure to back up your claims with quotations from the text.
What does Dr. King tell his listeners they can never do? When does he say they CAN do this, and how will they know that time has come?

9. “I Have a Dream” Question 4
DIRECTIONS: Respond to the following with three to four complete sentences and prove your answer with evidence from the text.
What is the larger message within Dr. King’s speech? How does it apply to more than just citizens’ rights? What is the deeper issue at hand?

10. Culminating Writing Activity
Old Major
&
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Respond to the following question(s) with about two paragraphs. Be sure to use specific evidence (in this case, quotations) from the texts to support your claims. What do you see as a common theme in the speeches by Old Major in chapter one of “Animal Farm” and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech? Do you think Old Major and Dr. King actually share the same views on this major theme? Why or why not?