Utopian Society Project

We have been examining the formation of a society.   Recall that we have looked at Plato’s ideal society, the Republic.  We examined Thomas More’s Utopia. In groups, we created preliminary ideal societies.  We looked at leaders within societies, such as Stalin and James Jones.    And each group has been reading a book that either explored a utopia or dystopia.  Now it is time to bring these ideas together.

The first part of the project, the Literary Groups will be creating a virtual world, based on the book they have been reading.  This project has two purposes, the first purpose is to familiarize you with using the software we are using, the second is to allow students that haven’t read your story “see” the world and get a feel for what it was like.

In addition to creating a virtual world of your book, your group will also need to summarize your book with a report that highlights the theme, the key events, how the society functions or was developed, what was effective with it, what was the major conflict of the characters, the vocabulary that was used and compare it to a society that you would like to live in.

The next step will be an entire class project.  Together, the class will develop a society that highlights the ideals of the group.  Just like you did for your lit circles, the class will create a virtual world that hosts important places or buildings.  The basic laws and functions of the society will be created in a report.

When the world is created we will attempt to recreate your society in the classroom and allow it to function for a given period of time –the amount of time will be determined by how much time I feel the class needs to adequately explore your society.

A final individual reflection paper will be written to share your experience in the creating and interacting of the world.