“Mr. George, I wish you’d look at “The Veldt” lesson plan.
“What’s wrong with it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, then.”
“I just want you to look at it, is all, or call a psychologist in to look at it.”
“What would a psychologist want with a lesson plan?”
“You know very well what he’d want.” His colleague was standing in the middle of the classroom watching
the scantron machine busy beeping to itself, grading papers for four classes.
“It’s just that it is different now than it was. It’s like the best “The Veldt” lesson plan I’ve ever seen”
“All right, let’s have a look.”
“The Veldt” Lesson Plan
Feel free to check out “The Veldt” summary and analysis after you download this lesson plan: The Veldt Conflict Analysis Lesson Plan. It’s part of an entire teaching unit on “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury. Find out more on the right.
“The Veldt” Summary
“The Veldt” unit plan contains lesson plans, graphic organizer handouts with answer keys, essay rubrics, a summary and analysis of the story, discussion ideas, a quiz, and more. These “The Veldt” lesson plans are ready to use. All you need is a printer and a copy machine. There’s no additional prep.
Something’s wrong with the nursery. That’s how the story begins. Now this isn’t your typical nursery and it hasn’t been built for babies. It’s the centerpiece of the Hadley’s Happy Life Home. This nursery uses technology to recreate whatever the Hadley children wish to create. And as the story begins, the Hadley children wish to construct an African veldt with lions that kill and vultures that swoop down to clean the rotting meat off bones.
And let’s not forget about the screams coming from the nursery. The frequent screams. The familiar sounding frequent screams. George and Lydia are in the nursery discussing how real the scene is, a little too real. So real, in fact, that that Lydia dashes out of the nursery, sobbing, after the fake lions chase them.
We’re then introduced to the Hadley children, well not directly, but through the conversation of George and Lydia. Peter is angry with his parents—for locking him out of the nursery for a couple days and for not allowing him to take the rocket to New York. The couple then discusses the house—and what a house it is. The house is so awesome that the Hadleys are miserable. Technology does everything they used to do. George and Lydia conclude they’re horrible parents.
Oh, and those lions. George and Lydia believe the lions are ramming the door.
George walks back into the nursery and orders the scene to change. It doesn’t work. The kids come home, and they claim there’s no African veldt. George walks in and the scene has changed. George decides to shut the nursery and the house down. The two children are angry. Peter incredulously asks if he must tie his own shoes.
Dr. McClean, the psychologist, comes over to check on things. After seeing the strange goings-on in the nursery, he tells George and Lydia that they’re pretty much the worst parents ever, that they need to permanently shut down the nursery, and that the kids need daily counseling for the next year.
The kids are angry. They beg to be let back in the nursery for just a little bit more. Lydia proves she is the worst mother ever and allows them back in. The two kids scream. The parents run in. The kids lock them in and tell the house to defend itself from death. The lions eat the parents.
“The Veldt” Analysis Ideas
An analysis of “The Veldt” produces the following discussion topics and observations:
- Cause and Effect. What causes the children’s behavior? Bad parenting? Overreliance on technology? Entitled attitude?
- Technology. Although a little more extreme than those vacuum cleaner things that clean your floor automatically, the concept that parents and children rely too much on technology is not hard to connect to the present. The parents in the story have let technology raise their children.
- Setting. Bradbury is the master of science fiction settings.
- Imagery. Bradbury loves figurative language. He’s a master of sensory details.
- The Dangers of Technology. This is an oft dealt with theme throughout Bradbury’s works. We see in “The Veldt” the foolish use of technology and its potential for catastrophe.