Kurt Vonnegut's short story "Harrison Bergeron" engages adolescents with its theme about the dangers of complete societal equality. Learners complete a graphic organizer to track literary elements in the story, as well as an inference chart for drawing conclusions. Individuals then draw their interpretations of the main character before writing an objective summary of the text.

Concepts

kurt vonnegut, elements of a short story, short stories, literary elements, making inferences, figurative language, characterization

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Have small groups discuss the parallels between the setting of the novel and present-day society

Classroom Considerations

• Scholars must read Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" to complete the activity
• Assumes pupils are familiar with literary devices, such as allusion, conflict, mood, foreshadowing, and irony 

Pros

• Includes a wealth of options for adapting the lesson plan, including various discussion questions and activities, extended resources, and suggestions for accommodations
• Contains learning objectives and guiding questions to better facilitate the lesson
  

Cons

• The assessment rubric link is inactive

Common Core

RL.9-10.1 RL.9-10.2 RL.9-10.3 RL.9-10.4 W.9-10.9.a W.9-10.9.b W.9-10.10