8th Grade--5/5

Today you came in having read There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury for homework. This story addresses the theme of humanity's role in the world and the universe, a theme frequently addressed in science fiction and theory. We began by discussing the story with this lens, looking at the following discussion questions.

To delve deeper into this topic, we then did an activity called "four corners". We did this activity before with Of Mice and Men and with The Giver. I label the four corners of the room as "strongly agree", "agree", "disagree" and "strongly disagree", and then I read off statements. For each statement, students migrate to the corner of the room that best describes their opinion. They then speak with their peers and present an argument for their opinion against the other corners of the room. Students are welcome to move if an argument sways their opinion or belief. The statements for this four corners session are below:

We didn't get to the last statement in either class, unfortunately, but it might be interesting to think about as a fiction premise. To end class, students were asked to begin writing a new science fiction story in their journal that centered around this theme. You will type up one of your science fiction story starts for reading and recall in a few weeks, but don't stress out about that now.

Homework due tomorrow:
-None, but don't neglect the long-term deadlines below!

Long term due dates:
5/12--Grammar review packet is due
5/12--Cumulative Grammar Test (eek!)
5/12--Section #3 of sci fi book groups is due (question, too!)
5/13--Final draft of your Book Thief essay is due (my edits will be distributed in class tomorrow)
5/13--Read Infestation by Garth Nix