Using TED Talks to Introduce a Novel

I often use TED Talks to introduce new units in my Social Studies and English courses. I wanted to find a good one to introduce our next novel, 1984. I found two powerful talks about North Korea that I shared with my English students last week. Both talks elicited a lot of questions and discussion among my students. Many concepts and themes we will be encountering in the novel were dealt with in the talks including dehumanization, isolation, repression, and abuse of power. Many of my students were eager to learn more about North Korea and read the novel after viewing and discussing these talks in class.

These are the  TED Talks I shared with my students:

I created a more formal lesson for the second talk. I used this lesson with my 6th period English 400 students last week.

 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/TED-Talk-Lesson-This-is-What-its-Like-to-Go-Undercover-in-North-Korea-3081599