Come Christmas, I was ready as usual for a much-deserved vacation, but this break I had signed up on a whim for Matt Miller's #DitchSummit. Terrific speakers all around, but one conversation stopped me in my tracks and inspired me to take action. Matt Miller's (@jmattmiller) conversation with Michael Matera (@mrmatera) about gamification got me thinking about my 6th grade Literature class I would be starting in January when we arrived at school again January 8. I would turn it into a choose your own adventure course.
This has become a longer post than intended, but please grant me my teacher platform. Below are the student skills I plan to promote, aside from the obvious Literature curriculum goals I already have.
So January 2 hit (I gave myself some time off), and I decided to get the course created before school started again the following week.
Well, after 4 full days of creative work, I had my restructured course ready to go, based on hyperlinked Google Docs placed on our course Google Classroom. The following is a description of the procedure I took.
First, I set the stage for my students:
You are one of a troop of WILEY swashbucklers
beginning a journey that only you can determine for yourself.
Your mission is to explore THRILLING lands and learn all you can
so that in your search you have the experience to survive.
Be bold and daring, RISKY, adventurous, and strong.
You are the author of your own destiny,
but you will meet FIT companions along the way
who will help you accomplish these
GLORIOUS Quests
and ultimately share in
The Grand LitVenture: Search for the Fern.
I already had a detailed syllabus, which included 4 of the 6 genre units from our Pearson Prentice Hall text, a literature circle novel unit, a Chris Van Allsburg author study, and our traditional end of the year Where the Red Fern Grows novel study. I wanted to keep each of those units, so I started with the text. With 6 directions for the students to take, I first gave them the 4 genre choices from the text, the last two options being off-limits until they completed at least 1 of the text sequences. The red options would be hyper-linked to separate Google Docs broken into Quests and Tasks:
Fiction and Nonfiction
Nonfiction
Drama
Folk Literature
The C.V.A.
The Circles
GENRE QUEST STRUCTURE:
- After choosing their first genre, students make the choice to fulfill the beginning of that Quest with a partner or alone. Reading from the text about particular elements in the genre, they create a Quizlet of key terms for their own note taking record. As they move on, they must create a chart on Google Drawings with more notes. Then they make a choice between the first set of short stories from the text. This occurs 2-3 times with various Quests and Tasks depending on the genre they chose.
- Within each genre, which could last 1-3 weeks of Literature class time, they must partake in keeping strategy charts like plot diagrams and cause and effect tables, answering critical thinking questions after the reading, and revisiting their Quizlet or Google Drawing to add more notes. Students also must add a slide to their own master Google Slides presentation (due at the end of the course) for each reading skill they use, which includes a paragraph of how the skill helped them understand the reading better.
- All choices are hyperlinked in the documents they encounter. Many of the requirements are turned in via Google Form. Comparing Literary Works follows within each genre, and then the final task is to complete the Red Challenge, which happens to be a quiz on a Google Form based on the reading skills attained throughout the genre. Students are allowed to re-take this Red Challenge, re-reading or studying more, until they're satisfied with the results, another choice for them in this choose your own adventure course.
- Within each section of the course, I also included a specific Padlet Community where students can make helpful comments, ask questions, or share advice on that section. So I have a Padlet Community for each "land" through which students travel. It's completely optional but adds a community feel when decisions are designed to be made alone.
- When each Quest is fulfilled, the students "stamp their passport" (another Google Form) upon exit and earn some R&R, which includes a reflection on Flipgrid about something positive from the Quest or something learned, and finally students have a period of silent pleasure reading. At that point, the choices from above pop up again at the bottom of their R&R document, and students may now choose between the genres with The C.V.A. and The Circles added.
THE C.V.A. QUEST STRUCTURE:
- The C.V.A. stands for Chris Van Allsburg, and The Circles are Literature Circles, both of which are completed in groups of 4-5 students. To do these, students must gather fellow adventurers and okay their groups with the teacher.
- For The C.V.A., groups of students read various Chris Van Allsburg stories, like Jumanji or The Polar Express, or even Bad Day at Riverbend. I check out these titles from the local library and place them on a Google Form using the CheckItOut add on. When a group chooses a story, that choice is "checked out" and no other groups can choose that story until it's "checked in." Groups read a total of 4 stories, fill out CVA sheets (yes, pencil and paper worksheets! based on reading strategies), and then regroup for a group discussion when the CVA sheets are complete.
- At the end of this Quest, students must work alone and write a creative story through the entire writing process based on Chris Van Allsburg's book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. Then it's time for some R&R with Flipgrid and some silent reading as before.
THE CIRCLES QUEST STRUCTURE:
- For The Circles, groups work through a similar process as The C.V.A in Literature Circle form. They choose a novel from my list (on a Google Form with the CheckItOut add-on), and groups work through the book after setting a reading schedule for themselves.
- They complete their "Mission Sheets," like the CVA sheets mentioned above and have group discussions based on those.
- A final project is a Google Slides presentation where students in the group break into characters from the story and complete 1-2 slides on a shared Google Slides presentation and explain particular events in the story from their character's perspective. Students then present the book to the class from the book's characters' perspectives.
The title of my course is "The Grand LitVenture: Search for the Fern." My 6th graders have no idea about this Fern they're searching for, and that's fine by me. I am all for creating curiosity in my classroom. At the end of the year, we will read as a full class Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. At that point, I will reveal to them that through their Quests they have gained the clues/strategies necessary to find the Fern, something that if you've read Where the Red Fern Grows is something you don't encounter until the very end. If you take a look at my initial purpose from the beginning of this post, you will see that the capitalized adjectives within the description represent the beginning letters of Where the Red Fern Grows (WTRFG), a short hand I often use for the story. I may add other clues about the book throughout the course as we get into it.
And there you have it, a basis for "The Grand LitVenture: Search for the Fern."
In choosing their own adventures, students made little flags out of pins, paper, and tape. Whenever they move through the adventure, they must move their flag to a different location. I took a map of the world and outlined it onto my bulletin board so that students would have a visual representation inside my classroom of their progress. It's also helpful when my young "swashbucklers" need to choose a partner or group to be a part of - they can see who's available to join them on their next adventure.
 |
| Each circle is a Quest to be completed within the LitVenture. |
This has become a longer post than intended, but please grant me my teacher platform. Below are the student skills I plan to promote, aside from the obvious Literature curriculum goals I already have.
THE FOUR Cs:
CRITICAL THINKING - To read information, or story, or ideas, and then to synthesize that material into meaningful response, this type of course has ample opportunity for students to think critically. Students are continually responding, especially when they create responses to how reading strategies helped them in their comprehension of the text. Metacognition is occurring at every point.
COMMUNICATION - Students constantly have to communicate with each other in order to proceed through the course. They have to communicate with me, the teacher, to continually share where they're at in their adventures, or ask for advice in choosing their next road. Planning and carrying out discussions for Literature Circle activities builds strong communication.
COLLABORATION - Some of the Literature work is alone because I believe in students learning to work independently, but much of our LitVenture is choosing companions well and then working with whichever type of companion you end up with. I am a firm believer of putting 2 or more heads together to come up with a valuable outcome, something that should occur a lot in this course. In addition, the Padlet Communities I created allow for some informal collaboration.
CREATIVITY - Each student is working on something different at different times, but it's all by design. Simply choosing their own paths is a creative process. Using Google Slides, Drawings, Padlet, and other tech options allow for creativity. And the process of choosing where to travel next takes creativity.
AND MORE!
CHOICE - Doesn't choice make everything better? I know many students dread the hum-drum of school, and my students were moving from a semester of a project-oriented Media class to what they considered a semester Reading class. I wanted to make it full of choices!
FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS - Each hyperlinked document is littered with numbered or bulleted directions students must follow. I've found that middle school kids need the practice to follow step by step instructions. Enough said there!
G-SUITE PRACTICE - 6th grade is the first year at our school that we have 1:1 chrome books. Part of my job is to help 6th graders become accustomed to them responsibly and technically. In our first semester of 6th grade, I teach students how to use many Google Suite Apps in order to plan, prepare, and practice presenting to a group. Organizing a choose your own adventure course around hyperlinks in Google Docs gives students a lot more time perfecting their technique.
CURIOSITY - I want the students to walk into my classroom every day motivated to learn. I think one of the ways this can occur in this type of course is to create curiosity. Students always enter Literature class wondering what will happen next in their LitVenture.
My task now is to analyze how the course goes and to tweak it in the spots that need adjustment. I can tell already that these students need a lot of guidance as they're not used to making course decisions by themselves. The evaluation phase will be tricky since all students are working on different "assignments" throughout the day or week.
But it's a start, and I'm excited to see how much the students grow through the choices they make!
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