In my GED – Generation Y class, I urge the students to use their imagination to create great essays, poems and stories. Here’s an assignment I found on the Newspapers in Education site. I liked it because it related the assignment to a movie seen by the majority of the class, while allowing them to be creative. Below the description are snippets of the students’ creative writings.
The science-fiction epic “Avatar” takes places in a fictional world called Pandora. Director James Cameron spent years fine-tuning all the details of Pandora and its inhabitants, the Na’vi. Come up with your own plan for a science fiction or fictional land. Describe what it would look like and what kind of creatures would inhabit it. Would they look like people, or totally different?
I’d create a land of peace, called Peaceland. It has a population of 13 million. That’s New York City and Los Angeles put together! It will be sitting under sunny skies all year-long, averaging 70 degrees. When you look around, all you see are buildings as tall as the World Trade Center and even higher. You will see palm trees everywhere. Streets are long and it will take hours to get downtown. The city will be 125 miles long and wide. Just imagine: you would have to fly a plane to get to the other side of the city. The neighborhoods are clean and the houses are mansions. The land is so rich, the people pay their God with peace, love and loyalty.
The people speak a different language called Nuke. But when they talk, they can catch on quickly. But what’s more crazy is they have tails and can run speeds up to 60 miles per hour and won’t get tired. They don’t need cars! The people have Indian-like hair with skin similar to human beings. They breathe the same air as humans and have super strengths. They survive off of water and palm tree leaves. Their lifestyle is very peaceful; no job, no recession, just spending time with your family. The land of Peace is not ran by a government. A God named Dar looks down on the land, protecting and giving it peace 24 hours a day. When you look into the sky, you can see him smiling down on you. Living in a big city can be difficult but not here. The people are very friendly; there’s no violence and at night, the sky looks like Las Vegas!
– Darryl Coleman
The year is 2050. The planet is called Hendrix Valley and double the size of Earth. One side is land, the other is water. It has a population of 350,000 people, not including animals. The people on land have a special gene that gave 50 percent of the culture lime green feathered wings. Some even say the color of the wings change depending on the person’s mood. The chosen few that have wings are called Fly-Hue. There is a total of 20,000 people with this gene because it skips a generation. The Fly-Hue look similar to humans but have bird beaks and long red and purple dreads. The people without wings are called the Wingless. They are human with one special ability – they can see 12 hours into the future. The water side is covered with mythical creatures that look like lochness monsters. The Fly-Hues and Wingless are very smart and peaceful. They believe that music is the influence of all that is around them. They are musically talented and live in human-sized bird nests and are governed by one person called the Hue-Emperor. The Wingless get around by riding horses with wings, called Ti-Koos. Both cultures are farmers and vegetarians. The average lifespan is 300 years. When they die, they evaporate.
– Aaron Smith
If you could create a fantasy world, what would it be? What would it look like and how would the people live?
Alexia Harris
Read. Achieve. Succeed. 