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Two to three 50-minute sessions
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| Overview |
 In small groups over a period of 1-2 days students work together to create board games that review elements from novels. Everyone in the group should have read the same novel. The board games can follow any design the students choose, but the design must relate in some way to a novel the students have read. The game must also include questions about the novel and detailed instructions on how to play. After creating the games, students spend a day playing one another's games and evaluating each other and themselves. Students are then given the opportunity to revise their games and their directions.
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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 activiites 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.
Piazza, C. L., and C. M. Tomlinson. 1985. "A Concert of Writers." Language Arts 62 (February): 150–158.
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| Student Objectives |
Students will:
- work on technical writing and reading skills.
- work together in small groups to accomplish a common goal.
- review ideas and events from fictional reading.
- read and interpret the technical writing of other students.
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| Instructional Plan |
Resources
Preparation
- For younger students you can create several different "game board" formats on the computer. Have enough variety for students to choose from.Possibilities include the following:
- Boxes or circles could be arranged to form pathways
- One large circle could be formed for students to work their way toward the middle
- A Chutes and Ladders format or a Monopoly format could be used.
- Also, for younger students you may want to have them create some questions on their own ahead of time to avoid a lull in activity when their groups first meet.
- Assemble classroom supplies and make copies of handouts for each group.
- Test the ReadWriteThink Printing Press on
your computers to familiarize yourself with the tools and ensure that you have
the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in
from the technical support page.
Instruction and Activities
- Separate students into small groups (no more than five per group).
- Write the following areas on the chalkboard: "Design, Directions, Questions/Answers." Each group is responsible for completing the game within these three areas:
- The design covers how the game board, cover, cards, and pieces will look.
- The directions, properly written and published using the ReadWriteThink Printing Press, explain how the game will be played.
- Questions/Answers refer to the plot, characters, etc., from the class-read novel.
- Explain that the entire group will decide what the game will look like, how it will be played, and the number of questions and answers the game will include. Group members must be able to answer the questions and give input on how and what questions should be asked.
- Either assign or ask students to choose roles (eg., Designer, Director, Questioner) for the project. Emphasize that all members of each group should contribute to all aspect of the game.
- Give each group the Board Game Student Rubric that shows how each requirement will be assessed. The rubric will be kept by the students and turned in with their project.
- Show students all of the materials and explain the general game format.
- Demonstrate how to create the game board and related materials:
- Open the
folder and draw the game board or glue a game board handouts to the inside of the folder. The layout should cover as much of the inside of the
folder as they can with the game board. Stress that the boards should be neat
and information complete.
- Write the
name of the game
on
the folder
tab.
- Write a draft of your game’s instructions using the Writing Instructions handout. On this sheet, write a title, materials needed, game play steps, and any diagrams that will help people play your game.
- Decorate the
front
cover of the folder with the game title and, for example,
a scene from the novel.
- Use the brochure option in the ReadWriteThink
Printing Press to publish the instructions for playing the game. Place
the finished brochure in the file folder.
- Place all game pieces and question cards in envelopes. (Paper
clips with colored paper attached to them make great player markers, and
I provide
dice for students to use when playing. Zipper-seal bags attached to
the game
board with tape also make great pockets to hold question cards and
game pieces.)
- Once students have finished designing their games, suggest that they play them to see if everything makes sense.
Web Resources
- List of Board Games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_board_games
- Wikipedia provides a list of board games, with links to each game. Each link also provides rules for the games listed.
- Online Technical Writing: Instructions
http://www.io.com/~hcexres/textbook/instrux.html
- This chapter of an online textbook about technical writing focuses on writing instructions and offers extensive tips and examples.
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| Student Assessment/Reflections |
On the following day have students play their own games and then those of the other groups. [Note: This only works if all students have read the same book.] Have them check against the Board Game Student Rubric for their own and others' formats, applying the rubric as a prompt for feedback.
Rotate around to each station in the room, playing each game for about ten minutes. Students should leave comments on a piece of paper at each station and at the end of the class period vote on which games had the best design, were the most fun to play, had the most easily understood directions, the most creative concept, etc.
The following can be used to prompt a post-lesson discussion and reflection:
- What would you do differently to your game now that you've played everyone else's?
- How do you think your group worked together?
- How do you think you could have gotten things done more efficiently?
- What was it that made some games more fun to play than others?
- How important was it to write good directions?
- What did you learn from this project?
Give students the opportunity to make changes to their games after having the above discussion. You also may choose to use the Student Rubrics that they handed in with their projects as an assessment tool. |
3 - Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
4 - Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
12 - Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
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