October 22

ELA A10: Oct 22 “The Raven” questions, quiz, and “The War of the Worlds”

  1. We started the class by going through their “The Raven” questions that were supposed to be done on Monday. Students supplied answers or helped add to other people’s responses. Once this review was over, they did a quick 12-question, multiple choice quiz on the poem. No one got less than 11 out of 12 – a good sign!
  2. Then we started talking about the differences between Fantasy literature and Science Fiction. They were given a handout with the characteristics of each listed, with the biggest difference being that one includes scientific principles the other does not, one is set in the future most often, and science fiction writing is often critical of how technology is being used.
    To make the point clear, we talked about our ability to keep people alive well past their natural lifespan, or the ability to resuscitate a baby after delivery complications when it’s lost oxygen to the brain for as much as half an hour. The students mostly all asked, “What’s wrong with that? That’s great if they can save the baby!” However, they pieced it together when they were reminded of the damage done to the brain when deprived of oxygen for even five minutes. While we CAN do many things with science, whether we SHOULD is another subject. This is often the focus of science fiction – creating a story that shows the darker side and potential harm of using our knowledge.
  3. I explained to them the reality of people living in 1938, near the outbreak of World War 1, who didn’t have anything like television to create such a visual for their entertainment. People listened to radio productions. One particular one, though, was the broadcast of the War of the Worlds play that created such widespread panic in New York and area that it’s been a famous story to retell ever since!
  4. Students have copies of the play and we are listening along to a recording of the broadcast. Their task as they listen is to watch for techniques written into the script that help create a sense of realism, not the audio things done to make it Sound like a real broadcast.

    I’m really pleased I was able to pain enough of a picture for them so they could go back in their minds and try to experience this radio play in a way very similar to the people who were originally so affected by it. They seem really intrigued by the history of the even!


Posted October 22, 2009 by Waldner in category ELA A10

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