What Belongs In a High School Sci-Fi/Fantasy Lit Class?

flogger writes "I have been asked to help develop a literature course for Science Fiction and Fantasy literature. What do you consider to be appropriate selections of short stories and novels in these genres for high school students of all ability levels? I'd also like to know why you choose certain selections. This class will be 'regular' class and not a class for 'flunkies' to earn a credit by sitting docile and listening to lectures. The following is a course description that I have been given as a guideline. This description can change. Any ideas? 'In this Junior/Senior level course, students will focus on the genres of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Students will survey the histories of these genres and recognize how world events have been reflected onto other worlds. From the early formation of the genre, with Verne, and the classics of Clarke, Tolkien, Bradbury, and LeGuin, to the contemporary works of Card, Jordan, and Vinge, the genres have been about portraying humanity in possible scenarios. These works have mirrored events throughout the troubled situations of our history and provided optimistic outcomes and horrifying predictions. Through this course, students will utilize analytical skills and reading strategies to evaluate our current situation and project into the literature of different worlds while sharing and learning of an author's insight. Possible areas of interest will be topics of the environment, energy conservation, war, social issues, and others. '"

Comments

Some More Names to Consider

[eldavojohn]

My reading is (obviously) slanted toward sci-fi over fantasy but here's some more names to consider (in no order): Stanislaw Lem, Assimov, Wells, Philip K. Dick, Orwell, Mary Shelley, H. P. Lovecraft, William Gibson, Charles Stross, Heinlein, Vonnegut, Lois Lowry, Madeleine L'Engle, Larry Niven, Sturgeon, Huxley, Herbert, Stephenson, Douglas Adams, Rand, Anthony Burgess, Philip Jose Farmer, Robert Silverberg, Harry Harrison, Frederick Pohl, Harlan Ellison, Jack Williamson, E.E. Smith and Crichton. While you might feel some of them belong elsewhere (Shelley, Vonnegut, Rand, Orwell) they're still sci-fi/fantasy.

Um, what were you planning to have them do? What amount of reading per week are you aiming at? 20-30 pages? I realize a lot of the authors (Jordan especially) may be too much to ask.

Re:Some More Names to Consider

[Iron Condor]

[...] here's some more names to consider (in no order): Stanislaw Lem, Assimov, Wells, Philip K. Dick,[...]

etc.

I think this is exactly the wrong approach.

Sit your pupils down in day one class one and talk about sci-fi. Every one of them is bound to know at least one or two. Some will know a lot. Let them suggest things and justify their selections. That process alone will teach them something about literature. In the end be prepared to go with a couple things that came from them that aren't precisely what you would have picked but allow you to get your curriculum through. Allow one thing you don't already know yourself to force yourself to do actual analytical work yourself instead of just regurgitating something you've already done to death a million times before.

Pick one thing yourself that you think complements/contrasts their choices (ideally someone NOT on the parent's list of sf clichees). Show them how/when/where it does so.

I am willing to bet this'll make more neurons spark than a pre-set list of well-worn sci-fi authors.

Re:Some More Names to Consider

[GMFTatsujin]

I absolutely adore Lovecraft. However, I'd save him for a specialty class, probably a college level class. His fecund verbosity overpowers my even my most perspicacious tendency, rendering opaque the once-transparent word hoards of narrators across the visages of time, sending my love of storytelling into the blissful quiet of a new dark age.

Seriously. Yuck.

Whoa.. stop!

[Anrego]

Think of the children! PLEASE!

No offense .. but it sounds like this course is going to be just like most English courses..

That is.. take an enjoyable experience (i.e. reading a good book) and turn it into a complete chore by over-analysing everything to the point that students shun reading forever.

Now.. maybe some high school students would enjoy comparing their favorite sci-fi series to the cold war.. or writing a 10 page essay on what the author _REALLY_ meant when he said "John walked briskly across the street".. but I suspect most won't.

That said.. if this is your intention though.. 1984 is a must. You can (and people have) turn just about any paragraph in that book into a masters thesis.

Re:Whoa.. stop!

[jellomizer]

Don't forget all interpretations much match the teachers own view as well. Nothing spoils someone interest in a topic, when a teacher always tells them what story they got from this abstracted fiction is wrong.

break down the genre a bit

[gingerTabs]

Cyberpunk (Gibson, Stross et al)
Classic old school sci-fi (Clarke, Heinlein etc)
Modern Space opera (Ian M Banks)
High Fantasy (Tolkein et al
Schlock Fantasy (Dragonlance, Drizzt)

Robert Heinlein!

[Brazilian Geek]

Robert Heinlein!

Note: I'll write only about the books I've read, other folks might have other points of view.

Heinlein might have had a weird way of looking at things but he has great stories as an introduction to the scifi genre - light(ish) reading with plenty of topics to discuss.

Take two of his works that I recommend to folks, Starship Troopers and Farmer in the Sky. Both are "juvenile" books - sex and misogyny are themes in Heinlein's later works - but deal with life in space in a very realistic way. They're wildly speculative yet, just barely, they're plausible enough to make sense.

If you're looking for short stories, there's The Man Who Sold The Moon - short stories populated with really far-fetched ideas yet it's a really fun read.

I'm sure other people will suggest other things but I strongly suggest you take a look at Heinlein for the kids, after all he wrote a bunch of stories for them that are easy reads and are, as far as I can remember, kid-safe.

I'm resisting recommending more authors - as I'm sure this thread will be full of them - but Heinlein's earlier works, from what I recall, are nice examples of scifi aimed towards younger audiences.

Re:i'm not trying to be a troll

[swanzilla]

but while you're teaching high school students science fiction, kids in other high schools are learning actual science

In other high schools, kids are learning about mutual exclusivity.

Don't mix literature courses and SF

[russotto]

Heinlein, _Friday_. Because the parents are going to complain anyway, so you might as well give them a reason. Bonus points for the 1983 cover.

Re:Took similar course, but as a college junior

[baKanale]

You know, sometimes a Shai-Hulud is just a Shai-Hulud.

Georgia Tech

[kjs3]

Georgia Tech has been offering a ridiculously popular Science Fiction literature class since the 70s. You might use it's curriculum as a guide. http://lcc.gatech.edu/~brobertson3/texts/sf.pdf

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Re:Where was this class for me?

[Holmwood]

The philosophy [of] Starship Troopers is so easy to destroy?

Really?

Two of the tenets of that book were (a) all volunteer armed forces; (b) everyone who volunteered for combat service, and served, got to vote. No exceptions.

You'll note the protagonist of that novel was Hispanic, and the protagonist of Tunnel in the Sky was black. Not exactly common for the 1950's.

He wrote Starship Troopers in 1959, in an age prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, where many black veterans had been routinely deprived of the vote in the south. He wrote some years before the disaster of the Vietnam War where kids were drafted to serve and die in a decidedly non-volunteer force.

It might be easy to look back today and decry Heinlein's work, but I'm not so sure the philosophy his characters articulate is so "easy to destroy" as you think it is.

Unless of course one is all about racism and conscription. In which case, carry on.

-Holmwood