Well, there are limits, and I overreached. As I was teaching the first class and hearing what background the students had and why they were taking the course, I dropped Brin and Miller, leaving Simmons to cover both the "established '80s writer responding to Gibson and the critical acclaim for cyberpunk" and the "fascination with futuristic Catholicism" balls alone this time around. Now I almost neglect the '80s as badly as I do the '60s and the '70s in the course. Oh, for a year-long survey sequence!
Oh, and you'll appreciate, Scott, that at the last second I gave Black Women Writers to a colleague who had low enrollments in her othe course and took SF instead. So I'll have to wait till next spring to teach it the way you suggested it ought to be taught!
Damn, my second p.s.: I have to admit here, knowing how few students will dive down this deep in comments, that I put so many books on the SF syllabus in part to scare off anyone looking for an easy ride in their senior spring.
I love them. And I am gratified to see someone else uses a blog and a plain old web page, not a "course management system" (I hate those baroque and clunky things).
rp, I have to admit I do use ANGEL--I set up a discussion board for students who don't want to blog (of course those who do blog can join in any time); I make some supplemental readings available through it; and I give teams ways they can use of communicating privately on-line and exchanging documents they're working on and sources they've found. Oh, and I got sick of putting news page on the course web site for announcements that are only relevant to my students, so I use it for announcements and communication with individual students, as well.
lp, glad to be of service! if you check out the blogroll of sf@SF from time to time, you may come across names of SF writers that are new to you--I'm certainly finding ones that are new to me!
7 comments:
Gads, man, I forgot how many books you can teach in a semester. Stupid ol' quarter system...
Well, there are limits, and I overreached. As I was teaching the first class and hearing what background the students had and why they were taking the course, I dropped Brin and Miller, leaving Simmons to cover both the "established '80s writer responding to Gibson and the critical acclaim for cyberpunk" and the "fascination with futuristic Catholicism" balls alone this time around. Now I almost neglect the '80s as badly as I do the '60s and the '70s in the course. Oh, for a year-long survey sequence!
Oh, and you'll appreciate, Scott, that at the last second I gave Black Women Writers to a colleague who had low enrollments in her othe course and took SF instead. So I'll have to wait till next spring to teach it the way you suggested it ought to be taught!
Damn, my second p.s.: I have to admit here, knowing how few students will dive down this deep in comments, that I put so many books on the SF syllabus in part to scare off anyone looking for an easy ride in their senior spring.
Excellent! Two new books for me to feed my sci-fi addiction: Maureen McHugh, China Mountain Zhang and George Stewart, Earth Abides. Thanks!
I love them. And I am gratified to see someone else uses a blog and a plain old web page, not a "course management system" (I hate those baroque and clunky things).
rp, I have to admit I do use ANGEL--I set up a discussion board for students who don't want to blog (of course those who do blog can join in any time); I make some supplemental readings available through it; and I give teams ways they can use of communicating privately on-line and exchanging documents they're working on and sources they've found. Oh, and I got sick of putting news page on the course web site for announcements that are only relevant to my students, so I use it for announcements and communication with individual students, as well.
lp, glad to be of service! if you check out the blogroll of sf@SF from time to time, you may come across names of SF writers that are new to you--I'm certainly finding ones that are new to me!
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