Friday, February 7, 2014

Dystopian Book Club Interschool Digital Collaboration

Welcome everyone!! Today's the day to launch the Dystopian Book Club Interschool Chat. This is the first time that a project of this collaborative nature has ever been done before here in Regina Catholic Schools and possibly one of the first here in Saskatchewan, so you are all part of this monumental event!!

In today's chat you will get a chance to talk about a video which relates to our Dystopian theme and discuss the novel with students who are reading the same book as you. Your discussion will be lead by one of the teachers involved in the project. These schools include: Deshaye, St. Gabriel, and St. Francis.

In today's chat we will be discussing questions about a clip from Wall-e and your novels. These questions may be seen below.

Here are the links to the chats. Be sure to go to your book club chat!



Novels
Teacher Leader
Today’s Meet Link
Edmodo Code
Divergent
Mr. Bresiciani (Deshaye)
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Legend
Ms. Stewart-Mitchell/Ms. Treptau
(St. Gabriel)
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City of Ember
Ms. Stewart-Mitchell
(St. Francis)
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UPDATED
Hunger Games
Mr. Rieger
(St. Francis)
w3exqw
Among the Hidden
Mrs. Nicolson
(St. Gabriel)
jxj9k4
Eleventh Plague
Mrs. Folk
(Deshaye)

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Matched
Mr. Redler
(St. Gabriel)
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Maze Runner
Ms. Treptau
(St. Gabriel)
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Live Chat! Today’s Meet Discussion Questions
Big Question: Is Our World Becoming Dystopian?
The video clip you watched is from the movie, “WALL-E”. Although it is an animated movie, we can still focus on the essential question, “Is our world becoming dystopian?”, and explore similarities between the movie and the current world we live in.


9:45 - Watch the link to the video: “Human Dystopia” (3 min)
Is our world becoming dystopian? Let’s compare the similarities between the clip and our world…


Questions you will explore in the Today’s Meet Chat…
10:00 - 10:15 Wall-e and Dystopia

  • How do people communicate with each other in Wall-e?
  • Is there a similarity to our world? What does this similarity say about us?
  • Are we on our way to total “Screen dependence”?
  • In the video, when people finally “detached” themselves from the screen, what was their reaction? (such as when Wall-e introduced himself to them).
  • How comfortable were they with face-to-face communication?
  • How is this compare to us?
  • What similarities do you see between this clip and on-line bullying in our society? Do screens allow us to be detached from the rest of the world?
  • Are we heading the wrong direction with technology?
  • How do we keep if from making us de-humanized in the way we communicate with each other?
  • How could our dependence on technology affect us in other ways? Any hints from Wall-e?

10:00 - Go to your Teacher’s Blog and click on the link for your Today’s Meet Novel Group.

Your teacher leader, who is in charge of your novel group, will introduce themselves.
First thing you do is type your first name only (no nicknames) and introduce yourself and share what school you are from.


Your teacher leader will present the first question, you will respond to only to that first question.
Note, you can keep it short, as you only have 140 characters to respond.


10:15 - 10:25 Dystopian Book Club Discussion
Talk to your group about your novel so far, exploring some of these questions...

I Wonder or What If Questions

What if your job (as an adult) was decided for you at the age of thirteen?

What if there is was no more water in the world?

What if one city ruled the entire world?

What if where you lived determined your job and lifestyle?

What if you had no memories or history to learn from?

What if the government chose who you married?

What if you were forced to look a certain way?

What if there were no adults?

What if one label decided your entire life?
What if the law stated that each family was only allowed to have two children?

What if most of the world’s population was wiped out by disease or war?

What if there was an opportunity to preserve humanity and way of life by going underground? Would you do it?

What if you knew someone in power was not working in the favour of the citizens, but instead their own interests? What would you do?

What if you lived in a world where you had to turn your back on your whole way of life, if it meant doing the right thing?

What if you disagree with how your leaders were running things?

What if you knew the people in power were keeping secrets from the population, but nobody questioned it because it has "always been that way"?

What if you learned the government was conducting tests on the population?


10:30 Wrap Up - Thanks for your participation and goodbye.