Using Bradbury to teach about technology in the modern world

Whenever anyone asks me who my favorite author is, Ray Bradbury is always at the top of my list. For several years I taught his novel, The Martian Chronicles to my ninth grade gifted students, and they absolutely loved it. So much so that when he died in 2012, the students I had that year came in distraught that such a brilliant mind was lost.

Although I no longer teach ninth grade or have the time in my current curriculum to teach a Bradbury novel, I would not be a happy English teacher if I left Bradbury out of my curriculum. Fortunately, Bradbury loved writing short stories just as much as he did novels, and there are no shortage of great stories to choose from.

One of the major issues I teach in my course, 10th grade AICE (Cambridge) English General Paper, is the good and bad of modern technology. This concept is assessed almost every year on the Cambridge exam for my class, but it is also something that students relate well to. They can easily cite examples of how modern technology has both improved and hindered their lives, and they are very interested in reading about this concept.

The Veldt and The Pedestrian are two Bradbury stories that work especially well for this concept in the high school classroom. The Veldt is set in a future where smart houses exist. The Hadley family’s house can cook for them, bathe them, dress them, and do just about everything a normal parent would do. There is room in the house just for their two children, ten year old Wendy and Peter, which functions as a sort virtual reality on steroids. The room can transform into whatever the children wish, and lately they have been imagining that the room is Africa, complete with lions and blood and heat. I won’t give away the ending, but let’s just say the parents are freaked and the whole situation shows how children can easily become so engrossed in technology that they prefer it to reality.

The Pedestrian is set in a future where everyone is addicted to their TV. There is no crime because no one leaves their house at night. There isn’t ever anyone walking around outside at all. The lone character, writer Leonard Mead, is the only one in his whole city who thinks and acts differently- and different isn’t good in this society.

My students have often told me that The Veldt was the best and most interesting short story they ever read, which just makes my teacher heart happy. I want my students to love what we are reading. I structure my mini unit on these two stories around an essential question that comes from one of our previous year’s exams.

“There are no negative aspects in the use of modern technologies such as televisions, computers, and mobile devices.” Do you agree?

After brainstorming ideas on what they think about this topic, we begin reading The Vedlt. I ask students to use a highlighter to mark examples of how technology impacts the characters. There is a fantastic recording of Stephen Colbert reading the story that I use, but it is part of collection of short stories that I purchased on Audible (but, if you have never used Audible, I think your first purchase or first 30 days is free!). My students really enjoy this recording because Colbert does such a good job of voicing all of the characters.

When we are finished reading and discussing the story, I show them the music video for the song, The Veldt by deadmau5. We discuss how this artist’s interpretation of the story is different and similar to the story that we read.

For my class, I have students complete a literary analysis practice that models our exam, but there are so many ways you could assess the story depending on what works for your course.

We continue our unit by reading The Pedestrian, which is a much shorter story than The Veldt. It typically takes us a two class periods to read and discuss the The Veldt, whereas The Pedestrian can be read in about ten minutes. I use this version of the story on YouTube as it is the one my students have enjoyed the most.

For this story, I focus more on literary devices and looking at specific language since the reading of the text doesn’t take that long. We look at how Bradbury uses literary devices to convey his message about the dangers of modern technology. My students really love Bradbury’s specific descriptions and enjoy how accurate his predictions were for our world.

After reading these two stories, I usually supplement by connecting them to a current even that shows the dangers of technology. This year, we read an article in Upfront magazine about facial recognition and students had to analyze whether they thought this technology was more good than bad.

Ray Bradbury’s work has remained current and relevant for over 50 years, which is something that, in my humble opinion, makes it extremely important. For English and Language Arts teachers, Bradbury is a dream author to teach; using words that are beautiful and ripe for teaching a love of language, he creates worlds that open up students’ imaginations and get them thinking about the world around them. There are many other short stories that would be appropriate for this unit and grade level, including A Sound of Thunder and There Will Come Soft Rains (there is also a poem by Sara Teasdale of the same name, and comparing the two makes for an interesting lesson).

You can access some of the resources discussed in this lesson by visiting my Google Drive folder.

Next week, I will detail how we use our readings of The Veldt and The Pedestrian to scaffold into argumentative writing using the prompt that we brainstormed before reading.