A Wrinkle In Time

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

"Planet Ixchel”

In this activity, students are asked to use a creative approach (e.g., poem, story, audio recording, etc.) to describe a concrete or abstract noun to someone from the planet Ixchel.

Select a noun (person, place, object, or idea), preferably a phenomenon found in nature. Example choices include: a tree, a mother, a rock, sunshine, or an abstract idea like music or love. How would you describe that noun to someone who lives on Planet Ixchel, where seeing isn’t a way to understand life? How would you describe it to someone who has never been able to see before and probably never will?

• For an additional challenge, try to describe your noun to someone who can only experience ONE of the five senses (not sight!). For example, how would you describe it to someone who could only feel?
• Your answer to this question can take on any form that you see fit: a poem, a short story, a fictional weather report (how would that sound on Planet Ixchel?!), or an audio recording (no video!)

Teaching Suggestion: The purpose of this assignment is to allow students to creatively engage with the obvious elements of communication between different species, potentially extra-terrestrials. With teacher prompting, students can engage with one of the novel’s major themes: It’s Not What Things Look Like; It’s What They Are Like. You might invite students to share their work (anonymously or openly) and ask the class to discuss whether the student work describes the noun as it really is, or how it is perceived by the creator. Another challenge might be to have all students create something that describes the same concept (for example, summer or dinner). As students share, they might find surprising similarities and differences that lead to an even more nuanced understanding of how perception and experience shape how we see the world.