Teaching ScFi to twelfth graders

I am an English teacher and I created a senior English class that focuses on science Fiction. Some of the books I teach are: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, The Time Machine and War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, and The Martian Chronicles and Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.

Does anybody have any other suggestions for what I could teach?

I wish there were courses like that at my school! Do your students read all of those books in one course? Or vary it each year? (The English courses offered at my school never get through more than 4 books each year or so, one novel everyone reads, one or two individual ones from a list, and one Shakespeare.)

As for your list, I, Robot would be another good one to read I think because it's a lot of short stories, which could make it easier to divide up and teach, and also because those Three Laws of Robotics are pretty important, and a good start for a lot of thought and discussion I would imagine.

Think about categories: something that emphasizes social science, a la LeGuin; maybe a first contact story, a space opera, an end-of-the-world story, etc.

Short novels are probably more manageable for your situation, rather than some of the 600-pagers we see. Some good short ones include Bester's The Stars My Destination (based partly on The Count of Monte Cristo), Pohl and Kornbluth's The Space Merchants, LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness (really fascinating gender roles theme here).

I think it's great that you're doing this! I hope you'll keep us posted on what you choose and how it goes.

Kira: I vary the books that I usually teach and it's funny that you should mention I, Robot because I plan to teach that this year (great minds think alike).

Jim53: Thanks for some really great suggestions. I will definitely categorize the books into alike themes. I do The Left Hand of Darkness but I will definitely check on the other two books.

Keep the suggestions coming!

I'd say make sure to include a lot of short stories--there are a lot of fascinating ones out there, and you can cover some more ideas and themes that way. It's harder to pick those out, though. Gardner Dozois' yearly anthologies are usually very good.

I'd say definitely include Fahrenheit 451, its an excellent novel about the dangers of book banning and censorship.

How about something by Kurt Vonnegut? I remember reading Cat's Cradle in high school and enjoying it very much. Heinlein's Starship Troopers would be another work worthy of consideration and perhaps Logan's Run as well.

Got a lot of classics there... how 'bout bringing it a little closer to today:

Connie Willis's Doomsday Book or To Say Nothing of the Dog would both be excellent for 12th graders.

Elizabeth Moon's Remnant Population is fairly literary and her Speed of Dark is very educational.
Also, one could read Speed of Dark along side Flowers for Algernon.

Geoff Ryman's Air (or, Have Not Have) showcases a poverty stricken Asian village in an educational and interesting way (though there are a few minor scenes including a rather disturbing pregnancy that might not be appropriate for a 12th grade classroom).

This year's Hugo winner, Rainbow's End by Vernor Vinge would also make an excellent classroom book.

(boy, some of these touchstones aren't working quite right... sorry 'bout that)

You're off to a good start with that curriculum. A Canticle for Leibowitz raises many questions about religious belief and the evolution of knowledge, but it's gripping reading anyway :).

I actually took a scifi course in high school and if I recall correctly after all these many *mumblemumble* years, we read The Left Hand of Darkness, The Time Machine, Slaughterhouse-Five, and I believe one other but I can't recall what it was.

I definitely think that To Say Nothing of the Dog would be a great choice, and my high-school self would have loved it. You could also go far with Kindred which brings up themes of slavery and historical context in interesting ways (in addition to adding some gender AND racial diversity to your author list). Of course, if you'd like to add some nonfiction to the syllabus, there's always The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of.

I agree with lunarSara, that Speed of Dark would be an excellent book for 12th graders for it explores, among other things, what it means to be 'normal.' A 'cure' for autism is found, though still considered experimental, and is offered to the protagonist (who is autistic). Will the protagonist take it? Will he still be himself if he is no longer autistic? ...etc. It's a very thought-provoking story.

As mamajoan has mentioned, Kindred uses a non-technical time travel to explore such themes. The time-travel, if I remember correctly, is never explained, comes on the young woman with no warning...triggered by events in the past.

At least one of my children, when in high school, had to read the short story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. about a satirical future where people are given handicaps so as to be made 'equal'.

I'll second (or whatever) the recommendations of A Canticle for Leibowitz, The Left Hand of Darkness and The Space Merchants.

Also, something by Philip K. Dick. The easiest ones to use for your purposes would be Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and The Man in the High Castle.

If you're going to include short stories, you need to cover Harlan Ellison; he's only written two or three novels over the course of his career (and offhand, I don't think any of them were SF), but he's easily one of the masters of short fiction in the field.

For the sheer confusion of it All You Zombies by Robert Heinlein has been used in a number of classes I've heard about. Try asking your students to explain what's going on, and how many characters there are.
Of course, it can be a rather disturbing short story, so you'd have to judge what your students could handle. I'd say 12th graders would be ok with it, but very conservative parents might be worried by it.

Personally I think Kindred by Octavia Butler would be a great book for seniors. I've seen it described as a modern slave narrative like Toni Morrison's Beloved, but it is by a respected SF author and involves time travel. It could be a great hook for kids who aren't too excited about reading SF in the first place. (Forgive the weird touchstones)

You you may want to look into the following;
"The Green Hills of Earth"by R.A. Heinlein
"Tunnel In The Sky" by R.A. Heinlein
" When The Sleeper Awakes" by H.G. Wells
"city" by Clifford Simak
and the Nebula Award winning short story "The secret Place"
by Richard McKenna ( Yes this is the same author that wrote "the Sand Pebbles")
"Alas, Babylon; a novel" by Pat Frank
"Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury
"The Space Merchants"by Pohl and Kornbluth
I think any of these would lead to a lively group discussions.

The Speed of Dark is probably a good book to use; I might be hesitant to recommend it if only because it's so different from the rest of Elizabeth Moon's work.

(I swear, the fact that I love her Serrano and Vatta novels and not The Speed of Dark has nothing to do with it! ;) )

ATimson, Actually, I didn't think that Speed of Dark was all that terribly different from Remnant Population. Yeah, the plots are very different, but they're not military SF (isn't that what her other stuff is?). They're stylistically similar, and they both have a fair amount of literary merit. I really like them both but haven't yet read her other SF.

I actually like lathe of heaven over left hand of darkness. It would be really interesting to contrast lathe with a canticle for leibowitz as examples of religion as an influence on science fiction. From left field, it might be worthwhile to evaluate Grass by Tepper, although I'd be cautious about throwing 12th graders into Gate to Women's Country. And I think Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson is also worth evaluating.

First off, let me say that I think it's awesome that you're doing this. Secondly, I feel priveleged to have gone to a high school that had both a sci fi and advanced sci fi courses. I can't remember everything we read in adv. sci-fi, but I know we read Dune and Slaughter-House Five. We also read numerous short stories, including "I Have no Mouth but I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison (amazing short story). Imo, I'd steer away from Something Wicked This Way Comes because, while I love it, it becomes really strange and hard to follow at points, and I wouldn't call it sci fi per se. The Martian Chronicles is excellent Bradbury, but could easily be taught as short stories by only using a couple chapters. Farenheit 451 may be the better of his novels to teach. Selections from I, Robot wouls be good as well. Oh, and I know the other sci fi class used "The Sand Kings" by George R. R. Martin which is excellent also. I guess overall I'd say that if you can get away with teaching a short story do that, because there are some truly excellent ones in the realm of sci fi and they'll also be quicker to teach and may hold the kids' attention better (I know that not all HS students make it through assigned novels). Good luck!

A lot of great choices have been mentioned. I think Clay's Ark by Octavia Butler would also be good. David Brin's Startide Rising might be good, too, even if its very sad in places. Almost anything by Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke would be good, especially Clarke's Childhood's End and/or 2001: A Space Odyssey.

For a more fantasy bent, there's always Watership Down by Richard Adams.

A novel which becomes more and more relevant as the years go by is Snow Crash. The concepts of evolution presented in Kurt Vonnegut's under appreciated Galapagos are also intriguingly magnificent.