Catalog Description

Required Materials

These three books are required. I'm listing them in the order we'll be reading them. You need to get Tracks right away! Any edition of these will be fine.

• Tracks by Louise Erdrich
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

You will need at least one pack of blank 3x5 note cards

Along the way, I will provide readings and other material, that I'll pass out in class or deliver through Canvas.

Learning Outcomes

LO 1 - Creative Thinking: Students will demonstrate creative thinking through the development of an imaginative world. I will be looking for a show of divergent and convergent thinking, originality, artful use of language, and risk-taking. Divergent thinking is when you generate lots of possible ideas, and convergent thinking is when you settle in on one path and see it through.

LO 2 - Project Management: Students will demonstrate the ability to plan and execute a non-linear imaginative project with numerous intermediate steps and deliverables.

LO 3 - Analysis: Students will "close read" then analyze works of fiction and articulate how the work's structures function as approaches to worldbuilding.

Major Assignment Overview

• Introduction to You and Your World (LOs 1 & 2) – An online discussion where you discuss your world in broad general terms. It's also where you'll introduce us to you.
• Reading Cards (LO 3) – You'll submit 1-3 note cards with quotes from the reading and questions about world building on the back. These are due one class ahead of the discussion of the assigned reading.
• Traveler's Notebook (LOs 1 & 2) – By imagining yourself as a traveler to your world, you'll keep a fictitious travel journal recording that journey. This will be done in a paper notebook that I will give you.
• Traveler's Notebook Check Ins (LO 2) – Twice during the semester you'll send me digital updates of your progress on the journal.
• Museum of the Imagination Artifact (LOs 1 & 2) – You'll create an artifact that comes from your world and display it in a pop-up museum.
• Museum of the Imagination Opening (LOs 1, 2 & 3) – Once you've created the artifact you'll present it and create context for it with an "exhibition card."

Course Schedule Overview

This brief schedule of discussions and activities is broken down by week, and is subject to change. More information on this will be given in class. As I mentioned in the course overview above, the content in this class isn't predetermined except in a general way. Instead it will come in response to your individual projects, looking for patterns of need, then I'll gather the content from there. Assignment due dates are attached to the assignments, but you can see them in the course summary below.

• Week One – Introductions | Explain traveler's notebook | How guided writing will work | Explain the difference between In-Class vs Out-of-Class work | Mini-lecture on the history and significance of the notebook.
• Week Two (Labor Day) – Explain the weekly patterns, explain reading cards, discuss the difference between setting & milieu.
  Setting is the where and when of a story. Milieu is the broader social, political, cultural context of the story world.
• Week Three – Guided writing (GW) about the geography & climate of your world | Discuss Tracks Chapters 1-3 | Start traveler's notebook.
  Geography is the physical features of a world, but also information about population, resources, land use, industries. Climate is the weather in a place, over time.
• Week Four – GW about Flora & Fauna | Tracks Chapters 4-6.
  Flora botanical information. Fauna is zoological. In fantastic worlds, sometimes the lines blur.
• Week Five – GW about History | Tracks Chapters 7-9.
  History is a catalogue of the past, which helps us understand the present and predict the future.
• Week Six – GW about Technology / Magic | Fahrenheit 451 Chapter 1.
  Arthur C. Clarke said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." All groups of humans have some kind of technological development, which is tied into its geopgraphy, history, culture, beliefs, etc.
• Week Seven – GW about Ideologies & Beliefs | Fahrenheit 451 Chapter 2 | Submit samples of traveler's notebook.
  Beliefs are ideas individuals and groups hold about the world they live in, why they are there, etc. Ideologies are set of beliefs held by groups of people that often serve as the basis of political and economic systems. Sometimes they are imposed.
• Week Eight (Fall Break) – GW about Concerns / Troubles | Fahrenheit 451 Chapter 3.
  Most of the time things don't go smoothly and perfectly for groups of people. There is often conflict, usually as the result of differing beliefs and ideologies, but also as a result of geography, resources, and values.
• Week Nine – GW about Economics / Means of Production | Invisible Cities Chapters 1–3.
  Economics is the study of resource production and distribution. Different systems of trade and money have existed at different points in time: feudalism, mercantilism, etc.
• Week Ten – GW about Culture / Art / Architecture / Cuisine | Invisible Cities Chapters 4–6.
  The beliefs and values of a group of people are often expressed in the things they create and in what they find beautiful, or ugly.
• Week Eleven – GW about Language / Cultural Idioms | Invisible Cities Chapters 7–9.
  An idiom is an aspect of culture or language that isn't immediately translatable. It takes time to understand these nuances.
• Week Twelve – Finish traveler's notebooks | Introduce Museum of the Imagination
• Week Thirteen – Turn in traveler's notebooks | Work on Museum of the Imagination
• Week Fourteen (Thanksgiving) – Take a breath
• Week Fifteen – Turning Your World into fiction | Museum of the Imagination Opening

Late Work

Late Work: Late work is allowed, but with the following provisions. Submit the work on time and you will get rubric scoring, plus feedback. Submit the work late and there will be a 1% penalty per day, but you will only receive rubric scoring with no feedback. If you haven't turned in an assignment for two weeks, it will close and you will receive a zero on it. Because most assignments can be submitted digitally, being absent does not excuse late work.

Make-Up Work

Make-Up Work: Make-up work is allowed only with an approved university excuse. Official university excuses are outlined here.

Attendance Policy

Attendance: I expect you to attend class. You have some discretionary absences or "free passes." You can be absent up to 3 times in a MWF class, and twice in a TR class without penalty. After that, each missed day will result in a 5% reduction of your final grade. After 9 missed MWF days or 6 TR days, you will receive a failing grade for the course, which will override any grade earned through course work. Approved university absences do not factor into the attendance policy. I follow SUU policy 6.30 in this regard. Any exceptions to this attendance policy will be taken up on a case-by-case basis, and will be finalized in writing.

Responsibility for Missed Classes: If you miss a class, even if we have worked out an agreement, it is your responsibility to reach out and connect with another student to get notes and other instructions so you can return to class prepared.

$12.00 Course Fee.