thinking about teaching. . .

[brooklyn_jak]

I know everyone else I know in the teaching world is either on summer vacation or winding down, but I just got my program for next September at my old school and have curriculum on the brain.  I will be teaching 3 sections of 9th grade English and a 12th grade English elective that can be anything I want!  What to do?!  I have two ideas that have

Comments

[hakujinjoe]

I like both ideas there. Were I in 12th grade I would probably want to take both of those classes as there would almost definitely be some overlap

[jactitation]

I've been working on a sociology syllabus on utopian dreams and dystopian realities, but I was always planning to use a lot of fiction. At the center, for me, would be The Dispossessed, Toni Morrison's Paradise, and Seth Tobocman's War in the Neighborhood (okay, not fiction, or at least not overtly fiction). I still dream of doing that class, but I think it would be a lot of fun as an English class to talk about different communities' utopian dreams and possible outcomes. There's plently of utopian anarchist fiction, some interesting black radical utopias (I'm thinking of some of Ntozake Shange's middle-period stuff among other options), and Tobocman's a perfect counterpoint to all that 1960s peace and love shit.

[anonymous]

i heart sci fi and it goes so well with watching movies (plus what about the overlap a la fahrenheit 451?). i think kids would get excited about sci fi. for the cross-curriculum angle, you could make movie posters. or gory book covers. candy brought home this cool book of mexican pulp fiction art - bloody and supernatural, that i want to do a unit on. but that's just me i guess!

[villagecharm]

Heh, I was just going to write that a class on Science Fiction that focused on dystopias would be awesome. I was even going to mention "I Am Legend." Although it would be interesting to look at how sci-fi ranges from conservative to more radical - Robert Heinlein and "Stranger in a Strange Land" being a conservative example that springs to mind - and how that plays in with the way writers see contemporary society.

[hakujinjoe]

We think alike Charm, also we read similar books.

[saltypepper]

Do you want recommendations for either class?

[saltypepper]

Duh, okay. In no particular order:

SF class (I presume you are not including fantasy in this)
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Kindred or Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
The Mount by Carol Emshwiller
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon

As for books that work for both, The Handmaid's Tale and Flowers for Algernon would be my choices.

[brooklyn_jak]

okay, I know it is going on 3 months later but these recommendations are awesome! Thank you so much. I am absolutely going to use Little Brother. The kids can download it free off the internet! Which is like a discussion unit in and of itself. Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!!