Last Orders by Laura Borrowdale - Senior Short Story Unit
Laura Borrowdale's Last Orders places an ordinary family in an extraordinary situation, as a worsening environmental emergency leads to a government-organised final night. Through Sarah's experience, the story explores family, responsibility, morality, fear, choice, and the pressures created by crisis. This senior text study guides students from the context surrounding the story into detailed literary analysis and more challenging interpretation and critical thinking.
Content note: Last Orders explores mature themes, including death, assisted dying, environmental crisis, and the death of a family pet. Teachers should consider the suitability of the text for their students.
Designed for Years 12-13 (Grades 11–12), the workbook can be used for whole-class teaching, independent work, or cover work.
Prefer to shop in our TPT Store? Find this resource here.
This resource includes:
⭐ An editable student workbook.
⭐ A teacher answer book with suggested answers and guidance.
You and your students will enjoy:
❤️ An editable format so you can adapt the resource to suit your class.
❤️ Clear tables and organisers that help students develop their analytical skills.
❤️ Contextual support exploring Laura Borrowdale, the social and cultural context of the story, and the wider issues of the text.
❤️ Notes and activities covering genre, literary traditions, conventions and tropes, and a wide range of literary elements.
❤️ Higher-level activities including moral dilemmas, literary lenses, alternative interpretations, intertextuality, debate and discussion, and the relevance of the story today.
Formats:
🖥️ Microsoft PowerPoint, resized to an A4 page. This means your resource:
- Is completely editable.
- Will easily upload to your Google Drive if you prefer the Googley suite.
- Is printable 📃
🖥️ A PDF version of each document.
****************************
Also helpful are these related products:
✅ Ripe by Laura Borrowdale - senior short story unit
✅ His First Ball by Witi Ihimaera - senior short story unit
✅ Everyone Was There, e Hoa - by Tayi Tibble - senior short text unit
****************************
Stay in the know!
✿ Add some joy to your inbox with tips, freebies and the latest resources.
✿ Subscribe to our YouTube channel
✿ Follow us on TikTok
✿ Follow us on Instagram
✿ Follow our Facebook page
✿ Follow us on TPT.
Sharing/Copying this Resource
Feel free to purchase just one for your department - no need for a copy for each teacher. However:
- Please do NOT share with the school down the road.
- Please do NOT take it with you to a new school.
- Feel free to suggest the website to others - that'd be great!
That's pretty fair we think! Let's help each other out. :)