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The convergence of vintage design and propaganda is a thing of beauty and power, be it in science or in politics. Ben Perry’s massive collection of 20th-century Soviet and Russian propaganda, advertising, and art posters, created between 1917 and 1991, offers a beautiful perspective on mid-century design and the modernist aesthetic from the other side of the Iron Curtain.

This collaborative effort between the language arts instructor and teacher-librarian (TL) transforms a traditional essay assignment into a creative, technologically rich activity. The project, in which students write stories about their “personal heroes” in a graphic-novel format, should take three to five class periods to complete.

Dystopian literature – fiction that imagines flawed societies typically under strict control of a self-serving entity, whether that's a government, corporation or unknown Wizard-of-Oz-like figurehead – helps young adults to become more shrewdly analytical of the societies that they exist in.