The dystopian novel ‘lord of the Flies’ is a great story, replete with themes that should be known to young individuals. That is why this book is recommended to be a part of most schools’ teaching curriculum to inculcate a critical thinking ability and let ideas run wild. The story is a metaphor and commentary on mankind’s savage nature, depicted by schoolboys stranded on an island. This novel has influenced generations of authors of horror and apocalyptic fiction.
That said, the island where the boys are marooned is a central feature of the story, and its different parts depict a plethora of moods and events. In this wake, a great classroom activity to realize the creativity and understanding of the students would be to assign a map project. The lord of the Flies map project could include a compilation of instances and evidence from the story for the creation of a map of the island.
Learning Objectives
- Boost Creativity – Since essentially after collection of the evidence and notes, the activity mainly involves the creation of a map, students can let their creativity run wild to make it an accurate, yet attractive depiction of the story.
- Critical Thinking – This will be a well-rounded activity, involving taking down notes and recording instances and quotes from the book. This will encourage a critical and thorough study of the entire story to understand the various areas and their significance in the story.
- Practical Application – The students will have to put their pragmatic skills to use, as they will have to execute the creation of a map, full of instances and events from the story, only on the basis of what they read.
- Exploring the themes – As this is an extremely immersive activity, students will have to dig deep and assimilate the themes and motifs running through the story to understand its essence.
- Interactive activity – –This is a highly engaging activity, right from the thorough reading of the novel, taking down notes, to the final execution of the map outline. The instructor could further use the outlines hence created to put together a final outcome.
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A Detailed Structure of the Project
Before the Map Project
For the lord of the flies map project to be a success, one should put in the necessary research and cues in place before the actual activity, for its smooth progression. A few days before the assignment, one should instruct the students to record their observations, facts, and themes for setting a background for the island diagram. They could record relevant quotes and descriptions and also sketch out basic settings while reading the book.
Further, the instructor could ask the students to jot down imageries that extensively describe the setting and location of the novel. The students can be urged to orally narrate their findings as well.
To make the project more interactive, functional, and a gainful experience, the instructor should ensure that students work on it solely in the class, in a single day. This is because a lot of resources are available online on the same. This could influence their mind, and hence, they won’t concentrate as much on the text.
It can be a highly immersive activity, beginning with outlining what to include in the map, getting down to executing it by sketching it, and including other details. Finally, additional active participation at the student’s end can happen when they color or embellish the map.
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The Framework of the Map Project
From the description of the island spread across the various chapters of the novel, students should create an outline of the map of the island and the surrounding area.
The locations on the map should be displayed with clarity; some of the important areas that should be necessarily marked are;
- Mountain
- Jungle
- Beach
- Ocean
- Castle rock
- The Reef
- Lagoon
- Clearing
These locations should be clearly labeled. Students should use a map key and symbols to create it accurately. Other features to be detailed in the map are;
- The site where the scar is made by the plane
- The conch is found by Ralph
- The site housing the shelters
- The site where ‘the beast’ resides
- The site of the Lord of the Flies
- The site where Simon dies
- The site where the naval officer meets the boys
- Piggy’s death Rock
Other than the aforementioned sites and instances, the students should be encouraged to go through the novel thoroughly and take notes of any description or instance where the setting of the novel is explained. Further, areas, where major incidents occur, should also be included.
There are several parts of the novel where the setting, scenery, nature, buildings, and other things of importance have been extensively described. These can certainly contribute to the lord of the flies map project.
Therefore, the aforementioned cues and examples set out the basic blueprint of the lord of the flies map project, which is a great interactive activity and can be a good form of informal assessment, as well.
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