Preparation...
The game that they will be playing is Life.
Before students walk in, have a list of the students in their groups. There should be groups of at least four in order to play the game. Once groups are figured out make sure to get the amount of games that you need for each group to play.
Due to the time that this game takes to play I want the students to have the most amount to play, so I will set up the game at each table that the groups will be playing at.
Make sure to look over the instructions and set up the night before so that when you walk in in the morning it will not take extra time to figure out how to set it up.
Move desks if necessary.
What I Was Thinking...
Young adolescents at this age need social interaction and cognitive opportunities. When searching for games I was really thinking about a game that is fun but can also tell a story. This game is all about making decisions and what will happen next based on the decisions that we make in life. When the player has finished the game their character has completed a story for their character. The player may not realize it right away but the player is building a story on how their character's life will end up. When the students walk in I want to keep the goal of the day hidden until the end. I want the students to just play the game however they want to without keeping in mind an end goal for how they want the story to go. Doing it this way will allow the end to be a mystery.
My vision with this game is that the students will play the game and then after they will create a story based off of the narrative that they gave their player in the game. They will use the major life decisions that they chose in the game and write a story about it. They can choose the part of choosing if they are going to go to college or not. They can talk about the debt or financial success that they had in the game. Honestly the possibilities are endless which is what I think would be great for the students and give them a day that they can have fun and express themselves by being creative with a story based off of a game that they just played.
The set up for this game can take some time and since the game takes some time to get through I wanted to eliminate the stress and confusion of setting up the game. I want the day to be all about playing and creating. By setting up the game for the students it will allow me time to read them the instructions and not take time out of class to set it up. I also was thinking that when the students walk in and see the game ready for them to play it will get them excited but also thinking about what they are doing and why their teacher is letting them play games in class.
Script... This is for a 48 minute class
“Good Morning Class! As you are walking in please do not sit down in your regular seat. I want you to line up along this wall here until everyone is in the classroom. As you are arriving please put your homework from last night in the homework bin and any late work in the Late Work bin. Make sure your name is on it.”
During this time answer any questions the students have from the day before until all the students have arrived. Once all the students have arrived and the bell has rung:
“As I call your name please sit at the table that is assigned for you. Once you are sitting make sure everything is off of the desk and do not touch the game until I instruct you to do so.”
Once all the students have entered the classroom begin by pointing at the table and telling which students will be at each. This is also when you will be taking attendance to see who is present and who is not. Make adjustments to the groups as necessary to ensure that all the groups have at least four people. Once all the groups are set:
“Okay class as you can see we will be playing the game of Life today. I have everything set up for you on the tables. Before letting you play I am going to read the directions to you and then I will set a timer on the board for 25 minutes. You will have 25 minutes of play time today. When the time goes off I will instruct you on what is next. As I read the instructions being picking your pieces and setting up as I say them.”
Read the instructions. Pause when necessary and repeat when needed. Once the instructions are read, inform the students that they have their own on the table if they get confused or forget. I will inform the students that I will be walking around to clarify anything if needed.
“Alright student I will be walking around to answer questions but I am setting the time now so BEGIN!”
Set a timer for 25 minutes and tell students to begin playing! Walk around from group to group to answer any questions the students might have. Timer will go off after 25 minutes.
“Okay class, hands off the game and stop where you are. For the last couple of days we have been working on parts of a story and ways to make stories impactful. I have been listening to you about coming up with a creative story. Many of you have said you do not know where to start or what to write about. With that being said I chose this game to have you as students make decisions for your player, or in this case your character in a story. Throughout your game you have been giving choices or decisions for your character. I want you to take the decisions that you just had with your player and I want you to turn that into a story. You can choose to write about the entire game or you can take a piece of that and build from it. So if your player went to college you could write about what they studied, or if your player didn’t go to college you can write about what they did instead. This is really just about getting creative and having fun with the writing. These should be about a page in length and make sure to save your work as well will be using this for our lesson tomorrow. You will have the rest of the time in class to work on this. As you are working I will be going around to each table and cleaning up the game. As I am walking around, do not hesitate to ask me any questions you may have.You may take out your laptops and begin working.”
As students are working on their short stories, walk around and clean up the game. If there is another class after this then reset the game for the next class. If this is the last class of the day, clean up the game completely. While cleaning up the games ask students if they have questions and how their writing is going.
“Okay class there is about a minute left. Please save your work and if you did not get to a full page you will have about five minutes in the morning tomorrow to finish up your story. To give you some time to think we are going to take this story and make it into different themes like persuasion or informative writing. I will explain more on this tomorrow but wanted you to be thinking about this moving forward into tomorrow. We will be sharing our after you work on these tomorrow. Okay class, have a good day!”
Bell rings. Repeat for all 8th grade English classes.
Reflection...
This game will occur in the classroom. The desks will be pushed together so that the students can all reach the game and have space to play. The game will be played before the lesson so that they are able to get inspiration for their creative writing project. I want the students to have the opportunity to have a place to start for their creative writing and the game will allow them the opportunity to be inspired on what to write. All the groups will be playing the game at the same time but since the game of Life allows for many different outcomes it will be interesting to see how different and unique the stories will be. This will also show to the students later that even though they all played the same game they can have different interpretations or outcomes which can be used to relate to reading and interpreting what you read. This game really is going to be able to supply a week long study since it will be able to be referred to for multiple different lessons moving forward. The focus of this lesson is to show that inspiration for writing can come from anything; they just have to change the lens they are viewing the world with.