Welcome to 2122!

Essential questions: Why do we like to imagine the future? How can anticipating the future help us improve the present? What is progress?

Do Now: Reflect on a Quote (5 minutes)

• Project the quote and reflection questions below on your board (and perhaps, for fun, a picture of the legendary Jedi master): 

        “Always in motion is the future.” —Yoda, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

1. What does Yoda mean?
   
2. What do you think life will be like in 100 years? How might the world be different? 
   

• Invite students to share their responses. Then tell them that today they will read three pieces about the future: an informational text on what life might be like 100 years from now, a primary document from 1900 predicting life in the 21st century, and a poem that offers a different take on what it means to consider the future.

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

• Project the Vocabulary Slideshow on your whiteboard. Review the definitions and complete the activity as a class. The audio pronunciations of the words and a read-aloud of the definitions are embedded on the slides. Highlighted words: ambitious, discipline, extensively, freight, monitor, stagnant, tailored

“Welcome to 2122!”

• Have a volunteer read the As You Read box that appears on page 12 of the magazine or at the top of the digital story page.

• Read the article once as a class. Optionally, have students listen to one of the authors read the article aloud while they follow along. The audio read-aloud is located in the Resources tab in Teacher View and at the top of the story page in Student View.

• Have students reread the article silently to themselves. Then discuss the following.

Close-Reading Questions (10 minutes)

• How do authors Adee Braun and Kristin Lewis seem to feel about the future? How do you know? (tone) Braun and Lewis seem excited about the possibilities the future holds. For example, they sound enthusiastic when they write that bugs are “totally tasty” and that “you’ll be able to send thoughts directly from your brain into your friends’ brains!” They also seem optimistic about finding solutions to some of the problems we face today, as they include multiple predictions that involve humans using alternative energy sources, using fewer resources, and polluting less.

• How do the authors and editors make the article easy for readers to follow? (text structure, text features) The predictions are presented as a list, and a short sentence written in bold capital letters summarizes each prediction. The photos and captions allow readers to take in several predictions at a glance.

“Predictions From the Past”

• Read the primary document as a class and discuss the questions that appear in the annotations:

  • Would destroying all pests have been a good solution? Why or why not? Destroying all pests would have been a bad solution. While flies, mosquitoes, and other insects may be pests to us, they play an important role in their ecosystems as they are food for many other creatures. Destroying them by draining swamplands and chemically treating streams would also cause great damage to the environment.
  • What do “condensed words” and “condensed ideas” remind you of? Condensed words and ideas might remind you of the texting slang and abbreviations, emojis, and gifs that are used for text messaging and online communication today.
  • Where do our fruits and vegetables come from? Our fruits and vegetables often come from all over the country and the world. For example, in most U.S. grocery stores, people are able to purchase avocados from Mexico and bananas from Central and South America all year long.
  • What part of the prediction about tubes delivering packages turned out to be true? Today, airplanes and trucks collect, transport, and deliver packages over great distances very quickly.

“What is yet to be is but a guess . . .”

• Play the audio read-aloud of poet Rebecca Kai Dotlich reading her poem aloud. Then ask a volunteer to read the poem aloud for the class. Finally, have students read the poem silently.
  

• Discuss the following poetry analysis questions as a class. Optionally, have students complete the Poetry One-Pager activity found in your Resources tab as a culminating task. 

  Poetry Analysis Questions (30 minutes)

1. Who is the “we” in lines 2 and 6? The “we” in the poem is humankind.
2. Lines 1 and 2 say that “and so the universe asks,/we chant yes, yes, yes.” Identify the lines in the poem that say what the universe is asking. In your own words, explain what the universe is asking. The second stanza says the universe asks us to crack open riddles, prop ladders to the sun, and search for seaglass cities. In other words, the universe makes us wonder, explore, solve problems, and push the boundaries of our knowledge and abilities. 
3. What do you think the speaker means by “there is both dreaming/and waking in the dark”? What might the dark represent? Dreams are thoughts and visions that occur while we sleep, or if we’re awake, fantasies of pleasing things that may happen or goals we hope to achieve. “Waking in the dark” sounds unpleasant, like waking up from a bad dream or nightmare. Perhaps darkness represents difficult times when we are filled with misunderstanding, confusion, or disappointment. 
4. The fourth stanza states that “the world watches” the compass, the map, the microscope, the telescope, and the sketch. What kinds of items are these? What could the world learn from watching them? The compass and the map allow us to explore, find our way, and chart new territory. The microscope and the telescope allow us to look at things more closely. A sketch is a rough drawing or outline of something, often a beginning study or view of something. By paying attention to these items, the world can solve the mysteries and challenges it is presented with. 
5. Where in the poem is space mentioned? What is the connection between the future and outer space? Why might the poet talk about space in a poem about “what is yet to be”? The poem mentions the universe, the sun, the telescope, and charts of galaxies. The poet might talk about space in a poem about “what is yet to be” because space is such a mystery to humans. Since the beginning of time, we’ve been looking up at the night sky with fascination and wondering what might be out there and what our place in the universe is. Space is a symbol in this sense, but it is also literally something humankind wonders about and hopes to unravel the mysteries of in the future. 
6. Why do you think the poet chose the verbs scrawled and scratched? What feelings do they evoke? The words scrawled and scratched evoke feelings of rushing, excitement, frenzy, feverishness, etc. The poet may have chosen them to evoke the idea of someone feverishly trying to figure something out or making an exciting discovery. 
7. The title and the last line of the poem are the same: “What is yet to be is but a guess.” Put this idea into your own words. There is no telling what the future holds; things don’t always go as planned or expected; or, as Yoda says, “Always in motion is the future.”
8. What do you think the speaker’s attitude about the future is? Explain. Students may offer that the speaker admires humankind’s curiosity, sense of wonder, and ever-evolving knowledge. At the same time, the speaker knows that sometimes there will be darkness and that we can never be certain about what the future holds. 

• Discuss the following critical-thinking questions, which may refer to one, two, or all three of the texts.

Critical-Thinking Questions (20 minutes)

• If aliens were to come to Earth and read these three texts, would they conclude that humans are generally pessimistic or optimistic? Why? Answers will vary, but in general, all three texts suggest that the future is a wonderful place where we will have solved many of our current problems and made life more pleasant—so aliens would probably conclude that humans are generally optimistic.

• Predictions about the future reveal a lot about us—our values, our worries, and our hopes and dreams. Choose one prediction from “Welcome to 2122!” and explain what that prediction reveals about us. Answers will vary.

• The authors of “Welcome to 2122!” state that throughout human history, some of our dreams about the future have been shockingly accurate, some have been ambitious, and some hilariously weird. Which of the predictions in “Welcome to 2122!” do you think will fall into the category of shockingly accurate, ambitious, or hilariously weird? Answers will vary.

• “Welcome to 2122!” describes multiple new technologies that would be beneficial to us. You could argue that technology can also have negative aspects. What are some possible negative aspects of the predicted developments in technology? Answers will vary. Here are some examples: Having the ability to communicate brain to brain could lead to major invasions of privacy; playing virtual reality games to the point that we unplug only to eat and sleep would be unhealthy and cause us to lose touch with reality and one another; robots could become so intelligent that they take over the world; if going to space becomes commonplace, we may not care as much about problems that still need solving here on Earth.

• Think about novels you’ve read that are set in the future (The Giver and the Hunger Games series, for example). Compare the view of the future presented in these novels with the view of the future presented in these three texts. Answers will vary.

• Do you think making predictions about the future is important? Why or why not? Answers will vary. 

• Have students complete Writing Planner: Welcome to 2122. This activity will help them organize their ideas in preparation for the prompt on page 15 in the printed magazine and at the bottom of the digital story page. 

• Alternatively, have students choose a culminating task from the Choice Board, a menu of differentiated activities.