Ecofiction Unit by Joseph Franklin

Course Overview

Please feel free to adapt and adopt any of these materials if you think they might be of use to you in your teaching pursuits. In this unit, students are asked to read and respond to texts and videos that discuss different aspects of the subgenre Ecofiction. The readings begin with some general pieces on work habits, then background on the genre, then a sampling of short fiction from a digital collection, then moves into some longer form film and book adaptations. Along the way, students are required to read the assigned materials as well as the work of their peers to include in their responses. Responses include a few classic written short pieces, but more often students are recording themselves discussing the texts. It is explained that this is partly to combat rampant unethical generative ai usage, that they are not optional, that students must film themselves, and they are not allowed to read from a pre-written script. To film their responses, students will need to read, annotate, and process the texts in order to be able to address the questions in an intelligent and articulate way. Production values are not graded as long as they can be seen and heard.

Students are also asked to write their own version of a utopia, which is a creative element, but also requires that they cite their inspirations from the course AND beyond in a reflective piece. Their final project is a two-parter: first is a longer video where they discuss an environmental issue that has come up in the assigned readings and research three local actions that can be taken to address it. Second, they are asked to summarize trends in our class conversation on various topics in a longer-form written piece. Treating the work of their peers like a text is a powerful incentive for students to have something interesting to say.

Key Assignments

• Quote Tables (Assignment Sheet Download Link)
• Video Responses (Assignment Sheet Download Link)
• Video Exam (Assignment Sheet Download Link)
• Write a Utopia (Assignment Sheet Download Link)
• Utopian Peer Feedback (Assignment Sheet Download Link)
• Final Project (Assignment Sheet Download Link)

Course Schedule

Week 1

Task 1: Readings

Working Well

Writing About Fiction

Elements of Fiction: https://prowritingaid.com/elements-of-fiction

Texas A&M Literature Analysis Guide: LINK

Getting to Know Eco

Genre intro: https://impakter.com/what-is-eco-fiction-and-why-it-matters/

Genre intro: https://dragonfly.eco/eco-fiction/

Task 2: Quote Tables

As they do the batch of readings to get started on some key areas, I will ask that they read/watch and keep notes on key ideas that they find most interesting through a quote table. Then, post that table on GDrive.

Task 3: Formal Response Video Essay

Students will also be asked to upload a video responding to 4 different prompts. It can be a lo-fi video with a small file size (preferably) but the main showcase will be their cool and interesting takes on these various topics. You will have new material to think about how you work, you will have some fresh concepts about the basic terms of literary fiction, you will have a short primer on the sub-genre of eco-fiction, and all of these should give you plenty to make a great video talking about what you think about them. Blow our minds with good ideas and cool insights from your perspective. If you have any trouble uploading, try to encounter it early so you can still make the deadline. Hit me up with any questions. Don’t cheat.

Week 2

Task 1: Readings

Read the Introduction of Writing Ecofiction by Manwaring.

Read any 2 stories from this collection: https://grist.org/fix/series/imagine-2200-climate-fiction/

Watch: Plastic Bag: https://vimeo.com/144928861

Task 2: Quote Tables

Similar prompt as week 1, students place their tables in a new folder for the new readings.

Task 3: Informal Writing Response posted on Brightspace

Prompt: Compose a response citing at least one text and the Plastic Bag video to answer the following questions based on your own feelings/thoughts from our two weeks of readings (aim for 200-300 words): Is Eco-fiction something new--why or why not or both? Is Eco-fiction an American phenomenon or something global? Please explain.

Task 4: Video Response - See prompt below

"Prep, film, and post a formal response video (3-5 minutes; cite from at least 3 texts that we have read in weeks one or two, and you must have at least one quote from one of your peers–it can be from their video, discussion posts, quote tables; anything) on this topic:

How do you define “Ecofiction” and how might it help us process environmental issues differently than other media (scientific articles, news stories, YouTube content)? Also, who cares? Should people be reading Ecofiction?

Reminder to students: Even though it is something you are saying out loud without a word-for-word script, plan the response video to have a structure: give an introduction that includes a clear argument/thesis, offer lots of supporting details, and have some interesting things to say. Also include some summary of the texts and good analysis, too. Summary tells us clearly what happened in the story (plot, character, setting; in this story X characters go on a journey to Y and deal with the challenge of Z on their way. In the end, they all die from…) but analysis gives judgments or larger points about these things, like this: this character having such and such response to that plot development seemed to parallel X aspect of current life…the larger message of the piece is X, but I think this is important because of Y and Z."

Week 3

Framing note: In week 1, we got to know the concept of Ecofiction. In week 2, we got to dive into some contemporary versions of short fiction in a collection from Grist and a short film. In just these initial pieces, we can see ideas like an internal versus external conflict, in local versus global corporate power, in grief and loss, in shifting perspectives from human to non-human. These are all potential themes to continue exploring as we engage with the texts of Week 3. Week 3 is about developing our abilities as Eco-critics and as such needs a bit more framing for students because it's engaging in a more critical mode that should have a kind of perspective.

Task 1: Readings

1. Dystopia video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a6kbU88wu0

2. Ecotopia book by Ernest Callenbach - (please read the entire excerpt)

3. The Road (2009) directed by John Hillcoat, based on the book by Cormac McCarthy. Stream it on your own platforms, or find a link for students to use.

OPTIONAL READ: Johns-Putra article on eco-criticism. Hop in here if you want some more context and terminology to help discuss these works.

Task 2: Quote AND Vocab Tables

Keep the same format for quote tables for these readings in a new folder, but add one extra table for new vocabulary and definitions that students are picking up.

Task 3: Video Exam Essay - See prompt below - it is key that in this video they cite from multiple assigned sources and the responses of multiple peers.

Please post a video (4-5 minutes in length on GDrive) where you discuss the answers to the following questions by referencing multiple assigned texts AND the responses of two Week 3 Quotes and vocab of your peers::

1. How did you read/watch these texts? Please describe, in detail, your process–where, when, how, with what tools you engaged with the content.

2. What does Ecofiction offer its readers that other “regular” fiction does not?

3. What are key elements/ideas of eco-fiction that you have connected with in our readings/watchings so far across all of our assigned readings or your peers’ responses?

4. What do you think we all need more of: dystopia or utopia? Why?

Note for students: The work done this week should come in the form of you really sitting with and digesting the ideas from the class so far so that you can offer a brilliant video essay! I am expecting that you use extra time that would have gone to drafting smaller responses for a discussion post and instead reflect and process and prepare for the video essay. There are some grading tips on the assignment prompt itself, but this video can be more polished and prepared if you feel like it. Remember, though, this video essay is created partly to push back against the use of ai, to make our discussions more human, and to keep folks engaged in making new knowledge themselves. It’s usually really clear who has spent time with texts and who has outsourced their thinking to ai. The syllabus outlines the consequences of using ai to generate your ideas.

Week 4

Welcome to Week 4! Let’s have a small break from the video responses and flex some of our creative writing muscles. Hopefully, by now, students have been inspired or moved in some way by these various texts. I want to direct some of that inspiration for creating a version of a better world. That might mean a whole new far-into-the-future kind of place that seems otherworldly to where we are now, or it could be right now on an alternate timeline of some sort, or it might be something of your own that we haven’t ever seen before. Students will write us a better world–we have enough doom pushed into our brains right now from all media directions. Let us resist a bit.

Task 1: Readings

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (please read the entire excerpt). Feel free to look up some backstory on the text or discussions by the author if you want more background for your responses. Native writers are doing a lot of dope shit, so feel free to explore if their work is new to you.

Task 2: Quote and Vocab tables posted in a new folder.

Task 3: Write a Utopia. Students are asked to write a better world, rooted in the themes and styles of the works already encountered. They will also reflect on their influences and choices informing their creative piece. This task also has a key requirement that the text itself is drafted in Google Drive (or another platform that shows evidence of the writing process over time, not just a place that students can drop in a finished text).

Week 5

Task 1: Readings

We're looking across a lot of different modes and styles to gather many voices for our final set of readings--nothing too dense, but some audio and visual and textual power coming our way. I intend for these influences to appeal to multiple senses for students so that they can see how the roots of these literary ideas are coming through in different expressions. Never know which thing is gonna hit for which student.

1. Drawdown: https://www.greenamerica.org/climate-change-100-reasons-hope/plan-reverse-climate-crisis

2. Butler “A Few Rules For Predicting The Future”: https://commongood.cc/reader/a-few-rules-for-predicting-the-future-by-octavia-e-butler/

3. Butler Parable of the Sower excerpt: https://theportalist.com/parable-of-the-sower-excerpt-octavia-butler

4. How Scientists gonna act when the Climate finally Messes up the Earth

5. Plastic Recycling is an Actual Scam | Climate Town

A bit of music

6. Moon Over Marin cover (find the original for some punk rock)

7. Sigur Rós - Untitled #1 - Vaka (Official 4K Remastered Music Video)

Task 2: Quote and Vocab Tables: Another round of quotes and vocab to give them evidence for their work.

Task 3: Peer Utopian Feedback: Students will be guided to give feedback on the creative work of their peers.

Final Project

The Final Project is a two-parter, they do both parts: one is a video and one is a text-based piece. These final projects must be deeply referential in both the assigned tasks and representing the input of their peers in the course. In the video, students are asked to take on one key environmental issue brought up in the class and research at least three practical ways to act in addressing that issue--this is called From Fiction to Action.

In the essay, students are asked to collect, summarize, and analyze the discussions of the class on a few key topics. So, they must treat the work of their peers like texts that they engage with to answer things like: "What themes did people most connect with and from what texts?" This is called The Class Conversation.

Final Thoughts

What I hope to accomplish with this course, and what has always happened, is that these readings and assignments bring students into discussions of the role of the genre--how emotion and narrative bring to life these anxieties and fears around the environment in ways that other genres do not. I also want students to engage with the more hopeful, active aspects of environmental possibility that is exciting. This brings a light and joy to the more creative, explorations that are the flip side of the doom scrolling, political posturing, and rhetorical black holes they are more accustomed to. Students engage and really think about the tension between dystopia and utopia, or how they might just be the same thing, depending on who you ask. Along the way, they engage with a range of media and do some great work.