Technical Reading and Writing Using Board Games

Overview

Featured Resources

From Theory to Practice

 

OVERVIEW

Students work in small groups to create a game based on a novel they have read. Each game must be directly related to the novel, contain at least 25 questions, and be neatly created and contained within a folder. Each game must also include a brochure with student-written directions for how to play the game. Once the game is complete, students play it to test their instructions. Students then rotate through the room, playing all the games and leaving constructive comments at each. After discussing the results, each group has a chance to revise their game and/or instructions.

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FEATURED RESOURCES

Board Games Rubric: Use this rubric to assess the board games students create.

ReadWriteThink Printing Press: Students can use this online tool to create brochures with instructions for their games.

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FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

After reading a novel, it is important to find ways that students can review what they've read in a meaningful and interesting way. Post-reading writing activities can come in many forms; here it takes the shape of small-group collaboration to write step-by-step instructions.

As Piazza and Tomlinson (1985) note, "Children who engage in social interactions during drafting learn fundamental principles of how writing works. Through face-to-face interactions, they come to understand that writing serves many functions, that writing is aimed at, and therefore must be sensitive to, a speech community (audience), and that relationships exist between speaking and writing" (155).

In this lesson students have the opportunity to use creativity in designing games, review key elements of novels, write detailed instructions, read and follow detailed instructions, and then reevaluate and revise their own work.

Further Reading
Piazza, C. L., and C. M. Tomlinson. "A Concert of Writers." Language Arts 62 (February 1985): 150-158.

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