Age of Miracles Discussion

AGENDA:

1. Age of Miracles Discussion

Visit website:
http://www.wab.org/if-all-of-rochester-2015-pick-the-age-of-miracles-by-karen-thompson-walker/

Think, Pair, Share...post

Questions to consider after reading The Age of Miracles.
1. As readers, why do you think we’re drawn to stories about the end of the world? What special pleasures do these kinds of narratives offer? And how do you think this element works in The Age of Miracles?
2. Julia is an only child. How does this fact affect who she is and how she sees the world? How would her experience of the slowing be different if she had a sibling? How would her experience of middle school be different?
3. How much do you think the slowing alters Julia’s experience of adolescence? If the slowing had never happened, in what ways would her childhood have been different? In what ways would it have been the same?
4. Julia’s parents’ marriage becomes increasingly strained over the course of the book. Why do you think they stay together? Do you think it’s the right choice? How much do you think Julia’s mother does or does not know about Sylvia?
5. Julia’s father tells several crucial lies. Discuss these lies and consider which ones, if any, are justified and which ones are not. Is lying ever the right thing to do? If so, when?
6. How would the book change if it were narrated by Julia’s mother? What if it were narrated by Julia’s father? Or her grandfather?
7. Why do you think Julia is so drawn to Seth? Why do you think he is drawn to her?
8. Did you identify more with the clock-timers or with the real-timers? Which would you be and why?
9. The slowing affects the whole planet, but the book is set in southern California. How does the setting affect the book? How important is it that the story takes place in California?
10. How do you feel about the way the book ends? What do you think lies ahead for Julia, for her parents and for the world?
11. The slowing throws the natural world into disarray. Plants and animals die and there are changes in the weather. Did this book make you think about the threats that face our own natural world? Do you think the book has something to say about climate change?
12. If you woke up tomorrow to the news that the rotation of the earth had significantly slowed, how do you think you would respond? What is the first thing you would do?


2. Writing: work: Work on speculative fiction

Speculation

AGENDA:

Finish Qualities--edit and proofread

HMWK:  Finish reading The Age of Miracles over the break.

Visit interesting website:   http://what-if.xkcd.com/124/
Speculative Fiction:

Today, for a creative writing prompt, look over the following questions and write about one of them.  See where it takes you.  Any ideas for a story, play or poem?

What if? We love to frame questions like this. Fortunately these questions can typically help the creative juices flow as well. Try using these “what if” scenarios to spark additional ideas for stories, poems or whatever your heart cares to write. 

Creative Writing Prompts on What If Scenarios

1. What if you found your pet flying around the room?

2. What if you woke up and had a super power?

3. What if you suddenly lost your ability to drive a car?

4. What if you received a call that your parent was deathly ill or had even passed away overnight?

5. What if you discovered that you had another sibling?

6. What if you had the option of winning a large sum of money at the price of losing a significant memory?

7. What if you discovered that a loved one was a serial killer?

8. What if inanimate objects could speak to you?

9. What if the world found out the world was going to be destroyed in 2 weeks?

10. What if you met someone who could see the future?

11. What if your friend joined a cult that worshipped dogs?

12. What if you could change your career right now? You can do anything you want and do it well.

13. What if you could pick the next person to be a great leader of a country? Who would it be?

14. What if you woke up in a world that had absolutely no crime?

15. What if you could change people’s views on social issues such as abortion and other rights? How would you use it?

16. What if you stumbled upon $100,000 cash that was from someone who sells illegal drugs?

17. What if you had the ability to grow plants to their maturity at will?

18. What if you could speak to people who have died? Who would you speak to?

19. What if you could time travel into the past and future? How would you use this skill? What would you change?

20. What if your pet could only talk to you at midnight for an hour?

21. What if you discovered a creature that promised it could give peace to the world?

22. What if you could sacrifice your life to save a community of people who need drastic help?

23. What if you could live in any world from a fantasy or science fiction novel or show?

24. What if you could find the strength to forgive anyone, no matter how badly they have hurt you?

25. What if you could make any religious belief truly real? Which one would you pick and why?

26. What if you could stop a substance from being addicting? What would it be?

27. What if you could make someone fall in love with you?

28. What if an alien suddenly approached you and asked for your friendship?

29. What if you found out that someone has been hunting you for the past year with the intention of killing you?

30. What if you found a piece of jewelry that could give you the ability to fly?

31. What if you were hiking and heard a young child screaming deep into the woods?

32. What if you found out that in your past life you were a great historical figure?

33. What if electricity and any other power source was unavailable for a full week? What would happen?

34. What if your child or another loved one suddenly disappeared?

35. What if you found out that your coworkers could all read your mind?

36. What if you were unable to smile for a full month?

37. What if you could resurrect only one person who has died?

38. What if you had the problem to completely solve only one of the world’s issues? What would it be? How would you come to that choice?

39. What if you realized you were going to die 24 hours from now?

40. What if you could become a world-renowned expert on one subject? What would it be?

41. What if you woke up and your body was made out of bacon or some other type of food?

42.  What if you had the power to instantly destroy the world?

43. What if you had the chance to do a complete reset on your life?

44. What if you found out all the answers to the greatest mysteries in the world?

45. What if you could break all the rules and never get caught for three days?

46. What if you could completely change the way you look? What would you change?

47. What if you could change the political structure of any nature? What would you change? Why?

48. What if you could create any mythological creature of your choice? What would it be?

49. What if you could cast a spell on someone you dislike? What spell would it be?

50. What if you could be fluent in any specific language? Which language would you choose?

51. What if someone from private numbers were constantly calling you for three days straight?

52. What if someone tried to say you committed a crime that you did not do?

53. What if you found out that your significant other betrayed you?

54. What if you could stop an event in history from happening? Would you or would you be afraid of the possible negative repercussions from it?

55. What if you were having a disagreement with someone and they pulled out a firearm?

56. What if you could control the score of the a major sporting event such as the Olympics, Super Bowl or World Cup?

57. What if you could meet yourself as the opposite sex? For example, if you are a woman, you might meet yourself as a man. Would you talk to your other self? How would you react?

58. What if you woke up and found out that you were a centaur? How would you react? What would you do?

59. What if you could meet your true love, but he or she would be catching you in the act of doing something unethical?

60. What if you could have all your bills paid for the rest of your life, but you had to eat 300 mushrooms everyday?

61. What if you could write a letter to God and know that he will listen and take into account everything you say? What would you write?

62. What if you found out that you were going to come back as a ghost after you die?

63. What if you had a chance to do a boot camp? What kind of boot camp would you do and why?

64. What if you could create your own TV show with all your friends and loved ones as the cast? What kind of show would it be and who would play which parts?

65. What if you could ask for a warning about anything such as your death, a job loss, or an injury? What would you ask for and why?

66. What if you could drive to another object in our solar system such as the moon, sun or another planet? Would you?

67. What if you could successfully help a fundraiser raise the funds for their goal? What fundraiser would it be and why would you choose to help?

68. What if you found out you were going to accomplish everything you set your mind to for the next 10 hours? What would you do?

69. What if you could ask for a miracle and it would actually happen? What would that be?

70. What if you could control exactly how the last day of your life would go? What would it be like? Who would be with you?

71. What if you found the cure for one illness, mental or physical? What would you choose to cure?

72. What if you could make a high quality parody of something? What would it be?

73. What if you could stop time but you could only use this skill three times? How would you use it?

74. What if you could give your neighborhood a gift, that is free of charge for you? What would it be? Remember gifts can have both positive and negative intentions.

75. What if you could be anywhere for the next hour? Where would you go or would you just stay where you are?

Qualities assignment DUE!/Speculative fiction

AGENDA:

HMWK: Read to Ch. 25 for Thursday.

EQ: What is speculative fiction?

http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/speculative-fiction

Speculative fiction is a broad literary genre encompassing any fiction with supernatural, fantastical, or futuristic elements. The popularity of the term is sometimes attributed to Robert Heinlein, who referenced it in 1947 in an editorial essay, although there are instances of speculative fiction, or its variant ‘speculative literature’.

History

Speculative fiction as a category ranges from ancient works to both cutting edge, paradigm-changing and neotraditional works of the 21st century.^[1][2] Speculative fiction can be recognized in works whose authors' intentions or the social contexts of the versions of stories they portrayed is now known, since ancient Greek dramatists such as Euripides (ca. 480–406 BCE) whose play Medea seems to have offended Athenian audiences when he fictionally speculated that shamaness Medea killed her own children instead of their being killed by other Corinthians after her departure,^[3] and whose Hippolytus, narratively introduced by Aphrodite, Goddess of Love in person, is suspected to have displeased his contemporary audiences because he portrayed Phaedra as too lusty.^[4]
In historiography, what is now called speculative fiction has previously been termed "historical invention",^[5] "historical fiction", and similar names. It is extensively noted in literary criticism of the works of William Shakespeare^[6] as when he co-locates Athenian Duke Theseus and Amazonian Queen Hippolyta, English fairy Puck, and Roman god Cupid across time and space in the Fairyland of its Merovingian Germanic sovereign Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream.^[7]
In mythography the concept of speculative fiction has been termed "mythopoesis" or mythopoeia, "fictional speculation", the creative design and generation of lore, regarding such works as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.^[8] Such supernatural, alternate history and sexuality themes continue in works produced within the modern speculative fiction genre.^[9]
The creation of speculative fiction in its general sense of hypothetical history, explanation, or ahistorical storytelling has also been attributed to authors in ostensibly non-fiction mode since as early as Herodotus of Halicarnassus, (fl. 5th century BCE) in his Histories,^[10][11][12] and was already both practiced and edited out by early encyclopaedic writers like Sima Qian (ca. 145 or 135 BCE–86 BCE), author of Shiji.^[13][14]
This suggests the caveat that while many works now considered to be intentional or unintentional speculative fiction existed before the coining of the genre term, its concept in its broadest sense captures both a conscious and unconscious aspect of human psychology in making sense of the world, reacting to it, and creating imaginary, inventive, and artistic expressions, some of which underlie practical progress through interpersonal influences, social and cultural movements, scientific research and advances, and philosophy of science.^[15][16][17]
In its English language usage in arts and literature since 20th century, "speculative fiction" as a genre term is often attributed to Robert A. Heinlein. In his first known use of the term, in editorial material at the front of the 2/8/1947 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, Heinlein used it specifically as a synonym for "science fiction"; in a later piece, he explicitly stated that his use of the term did not include fantasy.
However, though Heinlein may have come up with the term on his own, there are earlier citations: a piece in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1889 used the term in reference to Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward: 2000–1887 and other works; and one in the May, 1900 issue of The Bookman^{[disambiguation needed]} said that John Uri Lloyd's Etidorhpa, The End of the Earth had "created a great deal of discussion among people interested in speculative fiction".^[18] A variation on this term is "speculative literature".^[19]
The use of "speculative fiction" in the sense of expressing dissatisfaction with traditional or establishment science fiction was popularized in the 1960s and early 1970s by Judith Merril and other writers and editors, in connection with the New Wave movement. It fell into disuse around the mid-1970s.^[20]
The Internet Speculative Fiction Database contains a broad list of different subtypes.
In the 2000s, the term came into wider use as a convenient collective term for a set of genres. However, some writers, such as Margaret Atwood, continue to maintain a distinction between "speculative fiction" as a "no Martians" type of science fiction, "about things that really could happen." ^[21]
Academic journals which publish essays on speculative fiction include Extrapolation, and Foundation.^[22]

Distinguishing science fiction from other speculative fiction

"Speculative fiction" is sometimes abbreviated "spec-fic", "specfic",^[23] "S-F", "SF", or "sf"^[24] but these last three abbreviations are ambiguous as they have long been used to refer to science fiction, which lies within this general range of literature,^[25] and in several other abbreviations.
The term has been used to express dissatisfaction with what some people consider the limitations of science fiction, or otherwise to designate fiction that falls under readily stereotypical genres so that it can be pigeonholed within such categorical limits as "fantasy" or "mystery".^[26] For example, in Harlan Ellison's writing, the term may signal a wish not to be pigeonholed as a science fiction writer, and a desire to break out of science fiction's genre conventions in a literary and modernist direction; or to escape the prejudice with which science fiction is often met by mainstream critics.^[27][28]
The term "suppositional fiction" is sometimes used as a sub-category designating fiction in which characters and stories are constrained by an internally consistent world, but not necessarily one defined by any particular genre.^[29][30][31]Age of Miracles: Speculative fiction

http://www.greententacles.com/articles/5/26/ 

http://www.teachertube.com/video/allsummerinadaybyraybradbury-304925

AGE OF MIRACLES

AGENDA:


1. Bellwork: Sentence Composing

2. Discuss Age of Miracles/Thompson Walker's TED talk/
Post two more questions in paragraph form.  Cite text.

3. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/nyregion/the-novelist-karen-thompson-walker-holes-up-in-brooklyn-on-sundays.html?_r=0

4. Work on Qualities. Your revised and proofread qualities pieces are due on Tuesday next week.

5. HMWK:  Read to pg. 119  (Ch. 15)        for Tuesday