Calling all teachers

[Onslaught he/him]

I am a primary school teacher (kindy to yr 6) and I have just been informed that I will be taking over as the Opportunity Class (Years 5 & 6) as of 2019. These are the academically gifted students.

After discussions with this year's teacher, he informed me that these students thrive on quality literature and he usually uses The Hobbit and LOTR with them. I was thinking of introducing some Sanderson to them.

I wondered if there were any other teachers in the 17th Shard and if you have any ideas for teaching lessons from a particular Sanderson novel. Being primary education, it can be any subject.

Thanks

[Embrisk he/him]

This sounds awesome. I don't have any advice for you, though. Sorry. Just wanted to commend your spreading of sandersonity.

[Blessed peace he/him]

Alcatraz would be cool, and also give them an option to goof around like the kids they are.

But I'm not a teacher most senses of the word.

[Quantus he/him]

Im not a real teacher, but we did discuss something similar recently. @Beaker has apparently used Emperors Soul for "not especially academic 11th graders" successfully.

As far as general lessons that you could work with the novels, Emperors Soul has some interesting What-If discussion possibilities. 

All the settings of Stormlight are amazingly interesting, with the coral-like plants, giant crustaceans, etc.  And there are some wonderful resources floating around here that work out the mathematics of things like why the Greatshells are physically impossible even on a planet with lower gravity than earth (you could basically use it to disprove Godzilla ) .  I personally enjoy the glyph writing system, and how they use them both as symbolic logo-graphics and also to approximate phonetic spellings.  Not sure how well the stormlight novels themselves would translate to primary schoolers though. 

 

Reckoners would probably be a really good choice, especially for the age-group.  It is a bit more comic books than LOTR fantasy but it is classically awesome Sanderson that is also written for a slightly younger audience.  It's basically a What-If scenario where people start getting superpowers (x-men style), but more realistic in the sense that society collapses entirely in the face of a bunch of demigods that the Authorities are entirely unequipped to deal with.  For Reasons there arent much in the way of Superheroes stepping up to Defend the Innocent, so the villains sort of carve everything up into territorial City-states.  Given the current pop-culture obsession with Superheroes, this is one that offers a huge amount of thought-provoking perspective that you usually dont get in that genre, since it basically starts with the idea that the "Good Guys" arent going to always Win when they try to save the world. 

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

1 hour ago, Quantus said:

Im not a real teacher, but we did discuss something similar recently. @Beaker has apparently used Emperors Soul for "not especially academic 11th graders" successfully.

As far as general lessons that you could work with the novels, Emperors Soul has some interesting What-If discussion possibilities. 

All the settings of Stormlight are amazingly interesting, with the coral-like plants, giant crustaceans, etc.  And there are some wonderful resources floating around here that work out the mathematics of things like why the Greatshells are physically impossible even on a planet with lower gravity than earth (you could basically use it to disprove Godzilla ) .  I personally enjoy the glyph writing system, and how they use them both as symbolic logo-graphics and also to approximate phonetic spellings.  Not sure how well the stormlight novels themselves would translate to primary schoolers though. 

 

Reckoners would probably be a really good choice, especially for the age-group.  It is a bit more comic books than LOTR fantasy but it is classically awesome Sanderson that is also written for a slightly younger audience.  It's basically a What-If scenario where people start getting superpowers (x-men style), but more realistic in the sense that society collapses entirely in the face of a bunch of demigods that the Authorities are entirely unequipped to deal with.  For Reasons there arent much in the way of Superheroes stepping up to Defend the Innocent, so the villains sort of carve everything up into territorial City-states.  Given the current pop-culture obsession with Superheroes, this is one that offers a huge amount of thought-provoking perspective that you usually dont get in that genre, since it basically starts with the idea that the "Good Guys" arent going to always Win when they try to save the world. 

Going to second the idea of adding Reckoners to your curriculum. The first book examines a terrifying what-if scenario where godlike supervillains take over the world, and extrapolates some social effects that maybe wouldn’t have been considered by a lot of authors (like why people would choose to live under a seemingly all-powerful dictator who would kill them just to prove a point). The second book dives deeper into the worldbuilding and adds in a good dash of the philosophical as well. 

They’re fun books, and would present enough of a challenge to these students that they’d be able to flex their intellectual muscles, but not so much of one that they’d get discouraged and give up. 

[Onslaught he/him]

I have yet to read Reckoners so I will definitely pick that up and give it a read through. Anything that challenges these kids is perfect.

Complex characters, society and world-building is where I thought t ok take them so thank you @DirtyOoklafaceFullOfLame & @Quantus.

[Gray to he/him]

Speaking as a student, do NOT give them Stormlight. The moment those kids see a 1000+ page book, they're gonna give up. I mean we already give up when the books are 200+

[Quantus he/him]

6 minutes ago, Ookla the Gray said:

Speaking as a student, do NOT give them Stormlight. The moment those kids see a 1000+ page book, they're gonna give up. I mean we already give up when the books are 200+

Agreed.  Selected reading from the audio book, or even better the Graphic Audio, as a sort of pseudo-Movie Day would be about as much as Id want to give them, and only if there were scenes with specific topical relevance involved.

[tromedlov87]

For kids around that age, many will have started to read or will soon be starting to read Harry Potter (assuming it's still popular enough that it's widely read, which I think it is?). I'd say that although the Reckoners would be a good choice, it's a bit older and darker for kids that age. Not saying they couldn't handle it, or it couldn't work, as it all depends on the group of kids, but IMO I think the perfect fit would be The Rithmatist.

It has a lot of similarities to Harry Potter, so the kids might be more willing to give it a shot if they're familiar with that already, and overall feels like a book for kids around that age. And it does it all while still being an excellent Sanderson novel with a cool magic system and good themes like 'everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and the most important thing is to believe in yourself and your talents' and stuff like 'together we can fill each other's gaps to achieve more' and so on.

[Onslaught he/him]

I have just read through both samples of The Rithmatist and Steelheart. I can see the appeal for the former however I feel the latter can be examined more closely. Rithmatist definitely links with geometry in a more interesting fashion.

As I mentioned in the original post, these students are expected to analyse LOTR. This year they studied Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and Romeo and Juliet. 

I think I may just have to pick up both books and see which is more fitting.