Thursday, November 10, 2011

Teaching ReadingThrough Gaming and Teamwork .


The inspiration for this project came from WoW in School

Resources:

  • Graphic Novel Study:The Arctic Incident. Adapted by Eoin Colfer Andrew Donkin (Artemis Fowl Graphic Novel) (10 copies)
  • WoW Trial version
  • parent permission slips and student accounts
  • ABC WoW Blog for responding

Maximum Number of Students: 9

Purpose

The purpose of this unit is to engage students in reading and response activities, which encourage them to draw parallels between online gaming activities, involving teamwork in a virtual world. Through quests, students will interact with other players, reflect on their experiences in written form as well as through discussion and draw parallels between their quests and the readings.
Each of the lessons will include a blog post which will reflect on readings and the gaming experiences students have had.

Overview

  • The project will take place over a 20 week period as an extra curricular activity for middle school students (to include reluctant readers and/or writers), utilising a, gaming and learning environment combined with reading and response.
  • The project will include the use of the online video game and virtual world, World of Warcraft, as well as the graphic novel The Arctic Incident. Adapted by Eoin Colfer Andrew Donkin (Artemis Fowl Graphic Novel) and a blogger.com blog set up for this purpose.
  • The following themes will be addressed as key components of the project: reading and responding, teamwork through gaming and social interaction.  The ISTE Nets addressed through the project are 1,2,4 and 5.

Procedure

Over a 20 week period, students will engage in weekly quests, discussion and reflection in the Learning Resources Centre, during extra curricular time. Parallels will be drawn, in reflective blog posts, between student experiences in-world and the experiences of the characters in the novel. Readings and/or blog responses will be assigned as homework each week.