Effective Collaborators

1. Students interact, collaborate, and publish with peers experts, or others using a variety of digital environments or media.
2. Students develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures, both face to face and online.
3. Students contribute to project teams to make decisions, produce original works, and/or solve problems.

Effective Communicators and Creators

1. Students communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using media and format appropriate to both the task and the audience.
2. Students use technology and other information tools to organize and display knowledge and understanding in ways that others can view, access, and use.

Effective Learners

1. Students inquire about their learning to make connections to prior knowledge, determine relevance, and deepen understanding.
2. Students evaluate and select information sources or tools based on appropriateness to the task.

• Literature is a core vessel for the preservation and transferrence of cultural values within societies.
  
• The dissemination of higher-order social behaviors between cultures is a core value of most advanced societies. Intercultural understanding is the key to this transference.
  
• Intercultural understanding is promoted when we engage in the consumption of and reflection on literature from different languages, cultures, time-frames and genres.
  
• Information Technology and the internet can remove barriers imposed through language, culture, and physical location, promoting better intercultural understanding and more effective applicaton to our own circumstances.

• How can reading speculative fiction (& specifically dystopian fiction) help shape readers' ideas and understandings about possilbe long-term consequences of either action or non-action around controversial issues (eg. Climate Change)?
• What are appropriate parameters for meaningful dialog involving and arising from guided experiences with a specific work of literature (and its author)?
• How might direct contact with an originator of an idea (an author) help shape the understandings passed to a consumer (reader)?
• How might technology-enhanced exchanges between stakeholders in a literature exchange (writer/reader) be more effective than traditional means of idea exchange.
  

• The preservation of a love of literature,
  
• The case for the undervalued nature of speculative fiction
• Promoting this genre using a variety of technologies and techniques
• The power that speculative fiction can have to shape the reader's perception of the world as it is - and what it might be

• Select an author/title from a shortlist of "Dystopian Fiction" titles
  
• Read the selected work
  
• Reflect on the themes, moral lessons, or predictive indices which the book addresses.
• Collaborate with other readers to generate consensus opinions or observations and followup interpretive questions for the work' author.
  
• Correspond/Interact with the originator (author) of the work within the context of the collaboratively generated followup questions
  
• Develop a summative reflection addressing one or more of the Essential Questions
  

• Read an additional "companion-piece" to the selected work from the "canon" of dystopian fiction.
  
• Read and offer Critical Reflections on selected chapters of "Mai Shangri-La", the unpublished but POD title by R. J. Rubis
• Write and publish electronically (via blog posting, or other option of choice) a personal piece of "dystopian fiction".
  

• Students choosing this extension activity will be able to articulate why they are drawn to additonal reading experiences with this genre. Additionally, they will be able to articulate the ways in which modern communications technology has facilitated their exploration of the themes engendered in the selected work.
  

• Students will apply basic literary analysis skills in reading selected texts, comparing themes, and considering treatment and character realization in order to gain broader understanding of the issues addressed.
  

• Students will apply prior experience to reflect on and draw conclusions about both their perspectives and those of the writer
  

• Students will draw personal conclusions about the "place" that specific texts have within the "canon" of dystopian fiction. It should be noted that several of the titles selected are by authors not primarily know for "dystopic fiction". These would include the following, more known for:;
  • Margaret Atwood (Contemporary issues)
  • T.C. Boyle (Contemporary Issues)
    
  • P.D. James (Mysteries)
  • Lois Lowry (Childrens' books)
  • Garth Nix (YA Fantasy)
    
  • Stephen King (Horror)
  • Kim Stanley Robinson ("Hard" SciFi)
    

• Students will improve their understanding of the way in which literature can affect their views of the world beyond their personal experience.
  

• Through "direct" (Skype) contact with selected authors, students will empathize with writers in their efforts to observe, interpret, and exrapolate generalizations about the world we live in.
  

1. Formalize a definition and scope of "Dystopian Fiction"
   

   Dystopian fiction (Wikipedia)
   

   Main article: Dystopia
   Dystopias usually extrapolate elements of contemporary society and function as a warning against some modern trend, often the threat of oppressive regimes in one form or another. Many utopias can be seen as dystopias in regard to their treatment of the issues of justice, freedom and happiness. The main point of a dystopia is to make people think about the world in which they live and to see how the idea of happiness can be perverted providing the society know little else. Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World is also often seen as a dystopia because of the conditioning of the society and the loose sexual morals.

1. Research titles generally considered within the sub-genre of "Dystopian Fiction"

• See also (wikipedia): List of dystopian literature, List of dystopian comics,and List of dystopian films

1. Select works by living authors for further study
   

• http://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Dystopian-Fiction/lm/R35SA7L44G8GHXhttp://www.amazon.com/Dystopian-Literature/lm/3S2TBREQHO6

1. Shortlist selected titles
   
   • Lists above
     
2. Contact living authors of selected titles to determine interest in the f2f (Skype) part of the project. (as of Dec. 11th, of those contacted only Paulo Bacigupi has expressed a willingness to participate in direct reader contact activities. As new titles have been added to the list (to comply with the "living author" condition) these will also be contacted. Sample Contact Letter follows:
   
   
3. Place titles with potential readers for reading over the Christmas Break
   

1. Mid-January: Meet to review impressions of the books and to set a timeline for next steps
2. Mid-January - Review with MS Video Production class the possibility of dystopian fiction book trailers as a course final project. Examples of commercial "book trailers at t"Teen Reading after "Twilight :
   - Lessons on developing a "book trailer" will be developed in conjunction with the course instructor.

World Made by Hand

Alternative: Movie Trailer as "Book Trailer" (using scenes from the movie made of the book)

The Road

1. Early to Mid February: Meet to review the work and discuss the Essential questions. "Introduce" feature authors and selected works via Youtube

e.g. Review of Paulo Bacigalupi's "The Windup Girl"

1. Late February: Schedule Skype session
2. Late February: Followup Skype session with final assessment of;
   • the works
   • the themes explored in the works
   • the relevance or applicability of this work to themes in readers' lives
     
   • the applicability of the "lessons" offered in this book to considering personal or societal futures

1. Reflection postings by participants in digital format of their choice;
   
   • individual blog
   • Compiled VoiceThread reflections for inclusion at "EdgingAhead" Librarian blog.

1. Meta-Analysis of the Project
   
   • number of student participants
   • reflection on stident products
   • impressions of learning (via "Looking for Learning" strategies
2. Final thoughts (Blog posting at EdgingAhead.edublogs.org)

• http://wapedia.mobi/en/List_of_dystopian_literature
• http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-literary-criticism/dystopias-contemporary-literature
• http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=25823868514
• http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/GR9115.aspx