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High School Sci-Fi Literature Lesson Plans? 36

Posted by Cliff from the hiting-the-books dept.
JBoelke asks : "I currently teach science fiction at the high-school level, this is my first semester teaching the course and I have been shocked by the lack of resources available. The reference book I am using for story selection is Groking the Future, which was made in the 1970's. It has been rather difficult to get the selections of stories recommended. I did not take a science fiction literature course in college and I was wondering if anyone from the of Slashdot community had, and could recommend provide me with contact address of the professor and University, so I could ask for their curriculum? I know these books may be more complicated for high-school students but I can modify the curriculum." Similar to this thread from 2000, this question focuses more on the curriculum aspect, rather than book recommendations. While I'm sure recommendations not mentioned in the previous thread would be appreciated, actual lesson structure ideas would be better.
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High School Sci-Fi Literature Lesson Plans? More

High School Sci-Fi Literature Lesson Plans?

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  • University of Kansas & William Gibson (Score:4, Informative)

    by justanyone ( 308934 ) on Monday March 31, 2003 @07:27PM (#5634417) Homepage Journal
    William Gibson, noted sci-fi author, is a prof at the University of Kansas and has taught a course in Literature Of Science Fiction (there are many "Lit Of..." classes there). He may be able to provide a syllabus and lesson plans.

    I unfortunately did not take his course while there, I just missed it. Alas.

    • Re:University of Kansas & William Gibson (Score:5, Informative)

      by justanyone ( 308934 ) on Monday March 31, 2003 @07:35PM (#5634471) Homepage Journal
      I've found a list of 'Required Reading' for KU's english department. The list is here [ku.edu] if you're interested.

      Other Resource from KU's English Dept. are Here [ku.edu] and include lots of info for the english teacher of science fiction, even at the High School level.

      Literary analysis of Sci Fi is similar to many other kinds of analysis, with the added issue of bringing people into a complex and scientific environment (and problems / solutions involved therewith), believablity, the role of coincidence (as Dostoyevsky said, the quality == less coincidences), etc.
      • They say on their reading list that "Xenocide" completed Orson Scott Card's "Ender" series. IIRC (And the books on my bookshelf aren't lying to me), the series contains four books, the last being "Children of the Mind".

        Makes me a little dubious about their course when they can't get the cover details about their texts right.
  • This is actually the first time I've ever heard of a High School Sci-Fi Literature class, well one that centers on sci-fi anyway, I might've been more interested in my english class if my school offered it.

    I found this from a high school's course selection web site:
    Hanover High's Sci-Fi Lit course [hanoverhigh.org]

    SCIENCE FICTION
    Grades: 10-12
    CR: 1/2
    Prerequisite: None
    Phase: 2
    Science Fiction is an important genre in modern literature. In this course, students will read and view some of the classics as well as m

    • Re:wow (Score:2, Interesting)

      by MerlynEmrys67 ( 583469 )
      Hmmm... I took Sci-Fi when I was in High School in 198(mumble mumble mumble insert low number here). Was actually not a bad class, of course one of the interesting points the teacher was trying to make in the reading of 2001 was that A Clark thought machines controlling human activities was bad... Of course I read 2001 in a day or two, then polished off the just released 2010 (ok, I did date myself here) where it fully explained why H.A.L. had problems...

      Now you try and explain that to a teacher that she

  • Probably no need to dumb it down (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RalphBNumbers ( 655475 ) on Monday March 31, 2003 @07:53PM (#5634576)
    I know these books may be more complicated for high-school students but I can modify the curriculum.

    I'm assuming that this is some sort of elective class, considering how most normal lit classes avoid scifi like the plague. If so, I would actually recommend keeping the college level material as much as possible. The re are a few reasons for this...

    First off, I would hope making the class a bit challenging will be an effective counter to those in the administration and other teachers in your department who are likely to view a new course in scifi literature as trivial fluff, taking valuable resources away from their pet projects.

    Then there are the students to Consider. Since I'm assuming this is an elective course, you won't have to cater to the lowest common denominator quite as much as in a requited core course. Now, it may be a stereotype that nerds like scifi, but it's not entirely unfounded in my experience. If you can get them interested enough, the kids from that demographic should have no problem with college level material.

    And of course, if you don't make the course challenging, you're likely to start attracting people just looking for an easy course they can blow off.

    If you must make changes, I would advise making them via some leniency on the grading end, rather than using simpler content or asking dumbed down questions.
    • I'd say go for an eclectic selection. I was a very very bad reader in school, perhaps by shear luck I happened upon a couple of books that pretty much opened the door for me. A pattern that in many ways continue(d/s).

      My first exposure to Hemmingway was through something of a personal challenge from a teacher I liked in high school. He understood something of the fact I wasn't a great reader, and thought I could benefit from The Old Man and the Sea. Well I didn't and still don't much care for that book.
  • this yalies idea for a curriculum [yale.edu]
    Glancing through, it appears the lesson plan has it's moments, though it's not entirely too deep (jobs of the future?), but the bibliography included seemed to supply some good jumping off points for the submitter.
    Google, and ye shall find.
  • McGill University has a sci-fi lit course. I haven't taken it but I found an old syllabus [mcgill.ca].

  • Dream class (Score:2, Insightful)

    by ddd2k ( 585046 )
    I'd love to take a science-fiction class if given the oppertunity. Actually, I'm sick of how much emphasis is put into the study of classical literature in regular english classes. Of course it is important be familiarized with classical literature, but I wish teachers would take just one masterfully written modern book and put it into the curriculum. Many science fiction novels are equally as intriquing politically, social-economically, and well crafted in language as any classical novel. Unfortunately, ov

  • Darn right! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Inoshiro ( 71693 ) on Monday March 31, 2003 @09:14PM (#5634986) Homepage
    "I currently teach science fiction at the high-school level, this is my first semester teaching the course and I have been shocked by the lack of resources available."

    How many high-quality, well-written books are there an the various chroniton particles used in Star Trek? About how the force works at a cellular level? There are far, far too few science fiction resources available to teach young people how to properly understand the technobabble in their favourite science fiction shows and books.

    • Re:Darn right! (Score:2, Interesting)

      by FunkyRat ( 36011 )
      Actually, you make an important point. Books highlighting the "science" of science fiction could be an invaluable aid in such a course, especially considering how little science high schoolers are exposed to. I'm not talking texts here, but stuff like Lawrence Krauss' The Physics of Star Trek (knock it all you like because of the title, but this is an excellent book), John Allen Paulos' Innumeracy, Ray Kurzweil's Age of Intelligent Machines or James Gleick's Chaos: Making of A New Science are all highly app
  • i am currently enrolled in a Sword and Sorcery class at college. we read mostly fantasy, but some of our stuff touches on science fiction. you can check out the course at wabash.edu there was a write up of the course in the indy star, you might be able to find out about it on the web.

    mostly we read the books, and find the major themes, how the author develops them via different linguistic techniques with the ultimate goal of writing our own fantasy story at the end of the semester

    chip

  • lessons from "Stranger in a Strange Land" (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Jonny Ringo ( 444580 ) on Monday March 31, 2003 @10:09PM (#5635293)
    Highschool students will learn that they can some how "think" themselves to be fit.
    And sleeping with multiple women is great! -not that they need to learn that.

  • Base reading around themes (Score:4, Insightful)

    by FunkyRat ( 36011 ) <.moc.liamg. .ta. .taryknuf.> on Monday March 31, 2003 @10:35PM (#5635423) Journal

    Wow. Big question and sort of hard to answer since you don't state what the course objectives are. With that in mind, here's what I would do if I were you...

    I would base the reading around various big themes that are relevant to adolescents who are trying to figure out theirselves and their relation to the world. Fortunately, Science Fiction excels in looking at these "big picture" issues. Some examples:

    • Robot stories - excellent for exploring ideas such as "how do we define human?" and "what does it mean to be human?" Asimov's robot novels (especially those with R. Daneel Olivaw) or Philip Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) or Fred Pohl (Man Plus).
    • Future society stories - great for examining both the positives and negatives of our own society in light of the one(s) presented in the story. Also great for looking at things like alternate political ideologies and issues such as social stagnation. Again Asimov (for his Foundation trilogy), but also Arthur C. Clarke (Childhood's End) or Fred Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth (Merchants of Venus).
    • Messiahnic (sp?) stories - Likely to get you into trouble with parents and the administration, but unless it gets you fired, I'd say worth the trouble. These kinds of tales are wonderful for looking at topics ranging from predestination vs. free-will to mob mentality to (again) human nature. Frank Herbert's Dune is the biggy here, but also Heinlein's Stranger In A Strange Land (will almost definitely get you fired unless you're in a very liberal school district) and Walter Miller's A Canticle For Leibowitz.
    • Fun - please don't forget to include some reading that (while it could be argued as having scholarly merit) is just plain fun, such as Douglas Adams Hitch-hiker's Guide and Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat.

    There's so much you can do here both in terms of education and engendering a life-long appreciation for literature (and I certainly believe that Science Fiction is literature). As some others have mentioned, I wouldn't worry too much about grade-level appropriate reading here, unless you are dealing with more of a middle-school crowd. Good Science Fiction is naturally challenging, and the kids (yound adults really) will appreciate being challenged.

    • Canticle might get you fired if you're in a very liberal school district. Someone who wouldn't blink at the pseudo-science-religion in Stranger in a Strange Land might get upset at what could be interpreted as Catholic apologetics. :-)

      • That's what's so great about science fiction -- there's something there to offend everyone! :-)

      • KnightStalker writes
        Canticle might get you fired if you're in a very liberal school district. Someone who wouldn't blink at the pseudo-science-religion in Stranger in a Strange Land might get upset at what could be interpreted as Catholic apologetics. :-)

        Luckily, with the US educational system emphasis on Latin and understanding various theologies, there's a great chance that nobody will understand that Canticle is actually about the Catholic church. :)

        Great book, btw, but I see any book (especially

    • Hitch-hikers! Hitch-hikers! Nothing else is required. Listening to the cassette version of Hitch-Hikers taught me more about science, technology and literature and started more literary fires in my mind than 13 years of schooling... Douglas Adams has saved my life a number of times over.

      Honestly. That's the sort of stuff schools ought to be teaching. HHGG ought to be compulsory for every schoolkid to read AND listen to. Nothing else matters.
  • I recently read the book on writing Sci-Fi and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card and he had a lot of good information on the basics and theories of Sci-Fi, and a lot of the "rules" as it were that I think could be pretty beneficial in developing a curriculum on the subject.

  • I did take a sci-fi grad course in college, but I would not recommend contacting that prof. However, in working through that course, I learned that Kent State not only published a scholarly journal [kent.edu] in sci-fi, but had a few professors on staff that specialized in it. This was many years ago, but the journal is still going.
  • I had a sci-fi lit class in high school, and was less than impressed.

    I'd just like to take this opportunity to say that you shouldn't neglect the old-school stuff like Verne, Wells, E.E. Doc Smith, Lin Carter, and E.R. Burroughs. There's some great stories there, despite having very out of date science. Later classic authors should include Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, among many others. Don't just cover the new stuff!
  • I would recommend at least a unit on Speculative Fiction and/or Alternate Histories (Perhaps Card's Alvin Maker series). Students can explore the differences between the world of the story and our own, and begin to understand how small changes can have big impacts.
  • My professor would probably be excited to work with you on a high-school SF lit course.

    English 256: Science Fiction Literature

    Art Schuhart
    Asst. Prof. of English
    English 256-01
    Office: CC122A
    Office Hours: MW 1:30-2:30pm
    TR 10am-12pm

    The remainder of the contact information is at http://www.nvcc.edu/

    Required Texts:
    The Prentice Hall Anthology of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Garyn Roberts, ed.
    Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
    The War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells
    Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke

    (Frankenstein and

    • Just in case, I'll include the list of short stories. I highly recommend you contact my professor to find out why he chose these stories. Our classes have a great deal of discussion and debate, and it'll be important for you to understand the focus-of-the-week. I'm presenting the list as it appears, without the weekly divisions.

      • The Shortest Story In The World
      • Essay: How Science Fiction Got Its Name, by Jack Williamson, p1127
      • The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allen Poe, p16
      • Frankenstein, by Mary
  • It might be appropriate for modern times, and is relatively unknown, but a good book, "Heart of a Dog" [amazon.com].

    A kind of Frankenstein parable, Heart of a Dog is the story of a stray dog that gains a human intelligence after a prominent Moscow professor transplants human glands into the unfortunate canine's body
  • Throw "The Forever War"on there for some serious relevance. It packs in a whole bunch of takes on the issue of faster-than-light travel, as well as lots of asides that will blow the minds of many kids (like the ways cultural atttitudes change over time, and the military experience, and child-rearing attitudes and...).
    I took a Literature of Fantasy course at Boston College as an elective for my English degree, and while good, it tended to ease kids in via "Alice in Wonderland" and such. n the other hand,
    • Curious -- I took a class almost exactly like that, only it was at Tufts about 10 years ago. (actually, 12 years ago now that I think about it). Anyway, some really great stuff. The professor was Argentinean, so the Borges stuff got a lot of emphasis. 'Literature of Chaos' or something to that effect.

      (FWIW, Forever War is also one of my favorite books of all time.)
      • I was at Tufts then, too. I left after Fall semester of 1991 and transferred across town. Small world...
        Did you ever have Prof. Brown? I took a religious history class from him on Lutheranism, and he told us all sorts of stuff like how was a retired Marine, and was a Pentecostal minister who sometimes spoke in tongues: *awesome* class.
  • You should also check out Michio Kaku's website at http://www.mkaku.org/ and perhaps email him. He teaches a class at CCNY on the Physics of Science Fiction (all theory- no math). The textbook was his book "Hyperspace". I had the chance to take it in 1994, and it was the only class that my gaming friends who never went to class attended. And they weren't enrolled in it! Great fun.
  • I have some general questions for you, and then I'll offer a humble hodge-podge of suggestions.

    Is it a semester-length class or a year-long course? In my own lesson planning, length of the class greatly limits how much actual reading material I can cover. If the class is only one semester long, I might suggest choosing several short stories coupled with one to three novels. If the class will run the full year, then you will have greater leeway in choosing a wider variety of novels and authors.

    As for t

    • Thank you for responding to my question that I posted to ask Slashdot. My background is that of the special education history teacher. I teacher at a boarding school for students who have a learning disability. I begged my headmaster if I could teach science fiction and he granted this request. Groking the future has been an excellent resource and a decided to teach my course in examining several different variations of a given theme. I deliberately chose to read short stories so if a story bombed I co
      • Thanks for the response to my response!

        I like the framework you have here--it sounds very interesting.

        This is where things get weird now: Do you teach, by any chance, at Eagle Hill? I ask because I had a student recently leave my school (in California) for Eagle Hill. Your description, "boarding school for students who have a learning disability" sounds just like the place he described to me. He was a great kid, and one of those that I had established a real, meaningful connection with. If this is th

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