11-Week Course Plan for Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
70-minute classes

Week 1: What Does It Mean to Be Ugly?

• Focus: Conceptions of beauty, conformity, and identity.

• Activities:

  • Intro to dystopian literature.

  • Discuss first impressions of the novel’s world.

• Close Reading Passage: Opening description of Tally’s city.

• Analytical Questions: How does the society define ugliness? What does this reveal about control and values?

• Vocabulary (SAT/College Level): superficial, conformity, aesthetic, paradigm, idealized, contrived, superficiality, denigrate, homogeneity, archetype.

Week 2: Friendship and Secrets

• Close Reading Passage: Tally meeting Shay.

• Discussion: What does Shay represent to Tally? How do their choices reflect rebellion vs. conformity?

• Analytical Questions: How does friendship become a form of resistance? What role do secrets play in building trust?

• Vocabulary: camaraderie, duplicity, clandestine, ambivalence, autonomy, divergence, indoctrination, complicity, skepticism, resonance.

Week 3: Trust and Betrayal

• Close Reading Passage: Shay’s invitation to the Smoke.

• Discussion: How does secrecy test Tally and Shay’s bond? Why is betrayal so devastating in a controlled society?

• Analytical Questions: Is betrayal always personal, or can it be systemic?

• Vocabulary: integrity, complicity, subterfuge, equivocal, disillusionment, fidelity, vulnerability, dichotomy, repercussions, perfidious.

Week 4: Authority and Power

• Close Reading Passage: Tally’s encounter with Dr. Cable.

• Discussion: How does authority maintain control? What psychological tools of manipulation are used?

• Analytical Questions: Why is fear such an effective method of social control?

• Vocabulary: authoritarian, coercion, hegemony, surveillance, indoctrination, compliance, totalitarian, intimidation, obfuscation, ultimatum.

Week 5: Crossing Into the Unknown

• Close Reading Passage: Tally’s escape on the hoverboard.

• Discussion: How does her journey change her sense of self?

• Analytical Questions: How does the wilderness contrast with the city both physically and symbolically?

• Vocabulary: resilience, odyssey, treacherous, disorient, metamorphosis, perilous, autonomy, fortitude, ingenuity, adaptation.

Week 6: Life in the Smoke

• Close Reading Passage: Tally’s first impressions of the Smoke.

• Discussion: How does the Smoke redefine ideas of freedom and community?

• Analytical Questions: Can freedom exist without flaws? How does communal life challenge conformity?

• Vocabulary: egalitarian, subsistence, communal, authenticity, ingenuity, solidarity, resourcefulness, reciprocity, egalitarianism, sustainability.

Week 7: Love, Loyalty, and Betrayal

• Close Reading Passage: Tally and David’s conversations.

• Discussion: How does David challenge Tally’s understanding of truth and beauty?

• Analytical Questions: How do love and loyalty complicate one another?

• Vocabulary: intimacy, empathy, disillusionment, duplicity, fidelity, infatuation, vulnerability, perception, sincerity, allegiance.

Week 8: Revelation and Truth

• Close Reading Passage: Discovery of the lesions.

• Discussion: How does truth destabilize the foundations of society?

• Analytical Questions: Why does knowledge pose such a threat to control?

• Vocabulary: epiphany, cognition, irrevocable, conditioning, neurological, revelation, manipulation, invasive, indoctrination, enlightenment.

Week 9: Violence and Resistance

• Close Reading Passage: Smoke under attack.

• Discussion: How does Westerfeld portray power struggles? What do Tally’s choices reveal about resistance?

• Analytical Questions: What are the costs of rebellion?

• Vocabulary: insurgency, annihilation, cataclysm, resistance, devastation, collateral, insurgent, upheaval, attrition, resilience.

Week 10: Transformation and Sacrifice

• Close Reading Passage: Tally’s final decision to undergo the operation.

• Discussion: Why does Tally embrace sacrifice? What does it reveal about identity?

• Analytical Questions: How do endings echo beginnings in this novel?

• Vocabulary: metamorphosis, fortitude, transcendence, redemption, irrevocable, consequence, resolve, altruism, conviction, perseverance.

Week 11: Reflection and Creation

• Creative Project: Design a propaganda poster either promoting or resisting the operation.

• Creative Writing Assignment: Write an alternate ending scene in which Tally makes a different choice. How does this alter the message of the book?

• Discussion Wrap-Up: Reflect on identity, freedom, and societal pressure.

• Vocabulary Review: cumulative review of all weeks, SAT-level assessment.

Assessment:

• Ongoing: Vocabulary quizzes, short analytical responses.

• Final: Creative project + creative writing piece.