GenCon: Trade Day Teaching

As an educator, I like to take advantage of Trade Day for GenCon. It's held the day before the official convention starts and there are tons of seminars hosted for educators, game store owners, and librarians. I went last year and had a great time learning about what other people were doing with games in their classrooms and being able to validate my own practices.

This year I was encouraged to run my own seminar on how to start a middle school game club, since I have a pretty successful club. Last year my husband was talking to some people while I was in a seminar and he nabbed some info on what they want out of a seminar. Thus was born my Middle School Tabletop Seminar.

As if that wasn't enough, my co-teacher totally fluffed my ego and encouraged me to do a seminar on my Lucy Calkins Cumulative Tabletop Unit. Feeling successful and wanting to have faith in my epic skillz, I submitted to run a seminar on my sixth grade Literacy unit for Tabletop Games.

GenCon gave me the opportunity to share the work I've been doing in my career field with other people who actually care about what I'm doing in my career field! I worked hard to create meaningful and informative powerpoint presentations and I used my performance humor to try to deliver a reasonably well-done seminar.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again. . . I have no issues getting up in front of my students every day and teaching them. I can hear myself say "Showtime!" when I hear the bell ring and the kids stomping up the stairs each morning. I'm on, turned up to 11. Humor is my teaching tool and it works for me. Banter and inside jokes. I'm good to go.

Put me in front of my coworkers to present something or share ideas. . . I go cold fish and, on my last presentation, I was literally shaking by the end of the presentation. It's intimidating. At least here I didn't know any of the people. But I put pressure on myself, because I felt that if some of them had to pay for that Trade Day badge and were attending, they deserved to get their money's worth!

My first presentation was at 10AM and focused on How to Start a Middle School Game Club! Everyone is going to run their club differently and bring different strategies to the table, but if I can help someone just get organized and have an idea of where to go, then I'd be doing what I needed to do. My husband and our friend were with me and helped me get my projector setup and distribute handouts.

My keypoints were:

1. How is a Tabletop Club Different from Other Clubs?
2. Preparing Expectations to Pitch Your Club
3. Approaching Your Administrator
4. Getting Games
5. Plan Your Year
6. Create Student Expectations
7. The Role of Teaching & Being Taught
8. Hosting Events
9. Community Participation
10. Enlisting Parents
11. Making it a REAL Club (Add some BLING)

If you're interested in some of this information, check the end of the article for how to contact me to learn more about starting a club.


During the presentation I used my humor. I had to make several Wisconsin references, because, seriously. . . teachers are in a bad way in Wisconsin. So much so that several of the funding suggestions that were made involving Unions or Government/Private Grants, I had to say were great ideas, but weren't for me. I know how much schools in general are struggling to find funding for their CLASSROOMS; the places where children are learning and need supplies and materials. I love my club, but it's a club. It's supplemental to the learning in the classroom and should not trump the needs of the classroom. Until things in Wisconsin are better, I would feel guilty seeking funding from government and private grants. I do, though, chose to do fundraising. . . fault me, but candy bars turn the biggest profit! I've had lovely game designers offer games to the club and the rest is just out of my pocket as a labor of love.

There was also a joke at the expense of a student I really treasure having in my club. It was demonstrating how it's important to work with kids on how to behave while playing games. Ways to enhance a positive gaming experience. Certain expected standards of behavior for gamers (personal space). But I had brought up playing Shadows Over Camelot with my students, which has a traitor option. As we started playing, one of my kids decided they were only going to draw black cards. First of all, this draws attention to you and is somewhat challenging others to call you a traitor, which then also hurts the cooperative nature of the game. It also hurts everyone else, because you're drawing black cards instead of taking a hit-point or two. The point of this little story was that, it turned out they weren't the traitor, they were just being a jerk! How do we handle this kind of behavior with club members? I know the students, so I understand what's going on, but when you're doing clubs like this, you have to be prepared to handle these kinds of issues.

The presentation was progressing and I felt good. I was doing well until I realized I'm not going to finish my presentation. I tried to cover basic points, but one of the things I wasn't prepared for was there being no transition period between presentations. My room poster said there was not a presentation after mine, so I figured I had time to strike-down, but with 8 minutes left, a lady busted into my presentation and said she's next and needs to setup. It was really quite embarrassing for me and I tried to wrap-up as she started setting up her stuff.

My husband and our friend swiftly removed my projector and I removed my crates. I was visibly shaken when I left the room. No one was after her, because there was a lunch hour, so would it have killed her to have been polite about the situation and just taken 3 extra minutes into the noon hour?

Being the overly self-critical person that I am, I felt my presentation was disappointing and could have been better. A learning experience for the future that I can use to develop and grow. Then my husband and our friend, who don't dole out compliments freely, said it was really great, even with the snaffoo at the end.

My husband always says when he's in my classroom watching me teach, it's like seeing this other person. I just transform into this confident person. I always say, my classroom is my safe space. I am confident and I have no fear in my classroom. The minute I step out of my classroom, the confidence cloak just fades away. But when I'm teaching I need to just know that I'm doing an amazing job.

The second seminar I had organized was at 1PM so after some downtime and mingling, I went to my next room to set up. The problem I was having with the projector was that the walls were not white. My first presentation denied turning the lights "off," but the second presentation, they all approved! YEA!

Last Spring I was able to create a cumulative unit for my Literacy class using the Lucy Calkins writing program. My students made some amazing games, but the focus of the unit was on writing and the vehicle was Tabletop Games. It allowed for a real world application to the writing skills they've been learning all year!

The presentation was laid out following the weeks that I covered and what we covered each week.

• How to Prepare for a Unit
• Unit Outline
• Where to Begin
• Creating an Idea
• Narratives, Instructions, and Components
• Publishing
• Presentations & Sharing Final Product
• Scoring

This was the presentation I was meant to present! I was confident. I knew the information that I wanted to share and get across. I was able to discuss everything within the time allotted AND had time to clean up and get out! Immediately I was thanked by people for my presentation (which didn't happen in the other one) and people were asking me lots of questions. I was an expert!

It was liberating and made me feel great! I remember walking back to the car and I could literally feel the swagger in my step. Yea... I'm cool. One audience member said something like, "your seminar was exactly the type of information sharing he was looking and had hoped for." I don't want to direct quote, but that's almost exactly what he said. Seriously wow.... A few more people approached me through the con commenting on my seminars and thanking me for the amazing handouts and presentation. Really made me feel great. So next year I'll be back with one or both presentations.

I wasn't the only one to overhear or be directly told compliments. Another lady approached my husband, who I involved in my presentation, because he acted as my volunteer Game Developer for the kids (and is my rock during the unit). She said to him it "was the best seminar she's seen not just this year but in multiple years" (potentially not a direct quote). Blessed++ when I hear amazing compliments like this, because if you saw me stressing out about my presentations and preparing them and wanting to make them worthy of GenCon you'd think that was my plan all along.

Was my goal to help people achieved? I think yes. Starting with these two seminars gave me an extra boost for the next teaching experiences I would be participating in at GenCon.

If you're interested in the work I've written about above or would like more information, you can tweet me at @TabletopEdu or @AdventGeekGirl or adventgeekgirl [at] gmail.

Join Me at GenCon 2015

Apparently I'm out and about at GenCon this year! It didn't dawn on me until, well. . . right now, just how much I am going to be seriously out and about. I've usually been a wallflower, but something has pushed me into a more interactive role this year.

Not that I want to support people stalking me, but I figured I'd post some of my events so if you wanted to come play some games or whatever, you could find me. I know I have like, 2 or 3 fans, but maybe there are more of you. Is fans even the right term for my following based on hodge-podgeness?

First, I'm running some board games for ConTessa. They're a site that focuses primarily on RPG for women. They posted a while back that they were looking for people to run events (even board games), so that made me happy. I don't feel completely comfortable yet with RPG, but I'm growing in confidence every day, so being able to run a game or two for them was pretty great.

I tried to pick two games that would be kind of fun to add on RPG personas to; one Sci-Fi and one Medieval. I really love playing them, so we'll see how it goes! The room locations and registering can be found through the links! Hope to see you at the events!

Here are the events I'm running for ConTessa:

The Captain is Dead - Thursday, July 30 at 6PM
A cooperative game published by Game Crafter (it's seriously awesome) and was a Kickstarter designed by Joe Pierce and JT Smith. It's Sci-Fi, duh! Essentially, the captain is dead and you and the crew, that are left, have to try to get the Jump Core back online! Work together to keep the other systems up and running, while fighting aliens, blasting attacking ships, and collecting the resources to get the core going. Will you make it!



Sheriff of Nottingham - Thursday, July 30 at 8PM
I love this game. I thought it would be a great tabletop game for an RPG group, because you can really become your character. To learn more about this game, check out my review through International Geek Girl Pen Pals Club.




The opening ceremony for ConTessa is also going to be awesome, with guest speaker Margaret Weis (um... Dragonlace books... SQUEA!). So make sure you check that out if you haven't already signed up.

So those are the events I'm running. I've already made known that I will be participating in some Cosplay again this year. Last year I tried my hand at a Steampunk Nun. I loved it. This year I went with something a little different and went for a game character. I intend to be Felicia Day from Dead of Winter. Not only because, well. . . it's Felicia Day, Dead of Winter, and zombies, but I'm trying to become comfortable with Cosplay and while I am probably like 3 Felicia Days, it shouldn't really matter in the end. Why my body looks the way it does is seriously none of your concern and I am merely expressing my love of a game and a geek icon.

If you see someone looking kind of like that character, I will gladly stop for a picture with you. My husband has a funny addition to my costume that I can't wait to unveil. OMG LOVING IT! Sparky the Stunt Dog might also be making an appearance.

Besides all that, I do also have my educational seminars on creating a Middle School Tabletop Club and how to develop a game creation unit using Lucy Calkins. If you don't know. . . um. . . they charge a LOT of money for you just to have a plug, Wi-Fi, or even any kind of electricity. . . so I'm going old school with this. Probably a handout with some posters or something. I really am at a loss for how to approach it now that I have NO resources without dropping a couple hundred dollars. Broke teacher over here. . . lucky I have enough to even get to GenCon. Hopefully I can "borrow" a projector through my district, as there is a working plug in the room (thank goodness).

If you're a Trade Day badge holder, feel free to hunt me down. I've already gotten several e-mails from people wanting my stuff or attending another seminar and just wanting to know more about my stuff. I'll be honest. . . it's a bit conflicting for me. I mean. . . you told me you were more interested in other panels over mine, so please just send me your stuff. I would love to help, but at the same time, would kind of prefer to share what I'm doing in person.

I'm learning and growing, so whatever. Here are my events and eventually I'll get back to the people e-mailing me about my stuff. As of right now. . . I'm still creating the presentations.

Here are my Trade Day Educational Seminars:

How to Start a Tabletop Gaming Club for Middle Schoolers - Wednesday, July 29 at 10AM
OMG my baby project. Talk about something near and dear to my heart that I am excited to share. A serious success for me outside of curriculum and I'm going to have some good information to share, including how to really take your club beyond just a group that meets to play games, because in reality, that's what a district wants. . . a club that does something!

Developing a Tabletop Gaming Unit Using Calkins - Wednesday, July 29 at 1PM
 I referenced Calkins in the title, because I can't hand out materials from her unit and I didn't want people to come and expect to get tons of rubrics and things. BUT I do have original materials that accompanies Calkins and I have some really great tips and strategies for implementing a game unit using the framework of Calkins.

There it is! If you're wanting to touch base with me for any reason during GenCon. . . to talk about things or just meet, please let me know and hopefully we'll be able to bump into each other. I'm really looking forward to this year!

Confession: My anxiety this year purely stems from the way the buses are running. We chose a hotel we loved, which we knew was on the bus route. We really loved the bus last year, but this year there have been some very major and upsetting changes to the way things work.

Hopefully we'll actually be able to make it to GenCon, but you'll know if I did if you check out the above events!

TabletopEDU

Throughout the last two years as a teacher, I've been having a hard time finding useful resources for Tabletop Games in the classroom in a "single" place. It's mostly been forums where information is shared in a link and then lots of complaining and emojis. Or it's been on Pinterest, where a lot of it isn't about tabletop or board games, it's just playing games in the broader sense of the term.

As I was wrapping up my Calkins & Tabletop Unit of Study, it hit me (after a giant mug of coffee) that I should make a G+ community for educators who want to share their ideas, links, images, etc. on Tabletop Games and the Classroom.

Thus was born TabletopEDU. I opened up a Twitter account so that I can tweet out information. I'm brainstorming ideas to make this more social and interactive, such as a weekly Twitter discussion based on a theme (yes. . . I drew inspiration from @BoardGameHour).

I just really felt there needed to be something out there that was beyond JUST using specifically educational games or exclusively talking in forums about things. I'm even logging my ideas for starting a TabletopEDU "website" so that I can start to invite guest educators to write and share their ideas and experiences.

What I do know for sure is that I cannot run this alone and I'll have to start doing some networking as this thing slowly lifts off the ground. It's now my baby project and I'm beyond excited about what this could mean.

#TabletopEDU

Calkins and Tabletop Gaming - The Key is Modeling

I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again: One of the keys to success is modeling.

I've always been one who wants to show people how to do something through doing it myself. How do you know what you're asking the students or anyone to do unless you do it yourself? I can't teach a game unless I've played the game and learned it myself. I can't teach my daughter to make homemade pizza unless I've done it myself.

It will be a lot of work, but I recommend modeling everything for the students in this unit. That includes making a small game of your own. You don't have to go big (remember K.I.S.S.?), but you should make something so that you can also troubleshoot the problems that the students might encounter.

Below I've made a list of the activities you should prepare to model for the students so that they understand the expectations and can see what the end product or what they're doing should look like:

1. Research Reflections
Before you begin allowing the students to play games, you should prepare them for writing reflections on the games as part of their short research. By playing they games and thinking about what they like and didn't like, this will help them choose a mentor game and, hopefully, better understand how games work.

2. How to Write a Game Proposal
Before they can receive advice about their game, they have to fill out a rough draft of what they think their game should be. I filled out a rough draft of a game, as well, to show them how to do it. This also included brainstorming ideas for what kind of game they might want to make and choosing a mentor game.

3. How to Speak with a Game Developer (previously called the Publisher)
Have the volunteer or a volunteer show the students what you expect from them when they meet with the game developer for feedback on the draft of their game. Also, show them what types of notes you would expect them to write and what they are accountable for.

4. Writing a Narrative to Accompany a Game
I can give my students the narrative checklist from the beginning of the  year, but writing a narrative that demonstrates the expectation is even better! Then the students can read through the narrative and see if the checklist is being met. It also provides them with a mentor text. There is no excuse when you have provided them with an example.

5. Writing A Formal Instructional Packet
Filling out the packet that you want them to complete shows them the expectation. Use it as a teaching tool to demonstrate how to use bullet points, where to put periods, and what can be written in sentences or paragraphs and what needs to be written in steps. As they fill in the template, they can reference what you've done in your own example to guide them.

6. How to Create Digital Media
If you can show them your own finished product using the same digital tools that they will be using, it gives them hope and they see just how awesome their own creations can be. You can run a tutorial on these kinds of things, but it will always come down to having to work one-on-one with the kids to complete the task at hand. Still, make a demonstration of how to create their work digitally and have a final product to show them.

7. How to Construct Components
When you have your final components printed out or ready to construct, take a moment to show the kids how to cut out cards and apply them to playing cards or how to cut cardstock cards and glue them to backs. Showing them how to do it might seem silly, but in the end, it might give them a better perspective on what you are looking for in a final product. Sure, my 4-year-old can cut on a straight line, so you'd think a sixth grader could. It's amazing how many don't. So don't pass up the chance to show them exactly what you are looking for, even if it's just a quick 5 minute demonstration.

8. How to Playtest a Game
It may take a little while, but showing the students how to playtest a game is a valuable modeling activity. The kids want to treat it like real published games or they don't want to give the games a chance, because they can't figure it out in two seconds. Providing them with steps to follow can be beneficial and acting out those steps can also be incredibly helpful for the students.

9. How to Leave Feedback for a Game
Once you've done a playtest, make sure that you demonstrate how to leave feedback. The students would hopefully have learned how to do this prior to now, but since it is in another format and students struggle with transference of skills, it is important to show them how you want them to leave feedback. If you just give them verbal examples or quickly go over it, they will also seek to leave meaningless and inconsequential feedback for people when they play games.

10. How to Prepare an Argumentative Presentation/Present an Argumentative Presentation
I made a presentation. I wanted to show the students exactly what I am looking for in their presentation, while still allowing them their own creativity. So I made one and then I actually gave the presentation to my students. I asked them to use the rubric to score my presentation (or look at the checklist for the activity) and then I asked them to tell me what they noticed about me as a presenter. They talked about things like not looking at the board, looking at the audience, talking loudly, etc.

One thing that we found was helpful was reminding the kids before they present to look at the heading on their slide, then turn away from the slide and talking about the heading. Who knows more about their game than they do. Then, when they were done talking, they could look at the slide as they prepared to change, in case they forgot anything. It really made a difference in presentations, because the kids still felt mildly confident glancing at their slide, but they were so much more interesting and authentic when they were talking. I can tell my students that and even show them until the cows come home, but it wasn't until my husband said something that they listened. Broke my heart, but there are only 9 days left in the school year. They're sick of my yammering.

_________________________________________________________________________

There are so many more things you can talk about with modeling and all the different aspects of modeling, such as how to write a Works Cited for images and Mentor Games, but it's the game thing. . . walk them through it and write one of your own to guide them as a demonstration. I prefer to have my students write their bibliographies or works cited without using all these fancy new gadgets, because sometimes it's 50xs faster than plugging in a bunch of info to a thing and it spitting out a potentially flawed looking citation. I'm still old school like that.

Either way. . . modeling is a requirement of making this unit work. Not only for solidifying your own knowledge and understanding, increasing your ability to empathize with the issues that students might run into, but also to be an engaging teacher.

5 Fandom Friday: 5 Nerdiest Things I've Ever Done

5 Nerdiest Things I've Ever Done

1. Dressing Up Like a Nun to Play Nuns on the Run at GenCon

2. Designed a Tabletop Game Unit for my Classroom
If you've been following me at all, you know I'm really into my tabletop game unit. I created it last year as a first time shot to go with my argumentative writing unit. I learned a lot trying it and was eager to try it again. Then we started a new writing program in our district; the Lucy Calkins writing program. I had no clue how this was going to affect me creating a tabletop unit for this year. Honestly, it's also part of my PDP that I'm working towards, so it's a big deal for me. But I was able to blend tabletop gaming with literacy perfectly and that, for me, was such a geeky thing to do. . . was bring my geeky passion into the classroom.

3. Participated in a Jane Austen Tea Time in Bath, UK

4. Dressed up like an Aviator to introduce my Aviation Unit
I got a bomber jacket and goggles and a leather cap and I told the kids I had to get something out of the back room and then I jumped out with my hands on my hips and declared that I am "AVIATOR BONILLA!" Then I pointed to the sky as I described our awesome adventure into aviation that we'll be on. My co-workers said I looked like Carl from Up. It was pretty epic and awesome! My school is by the EAA in Oshkosh, so it was a "duh" for me to use aviation as the theme for our informative writing unit.

5. Dueled with Lightsaber Popsicles

Calkins & Tabletop Gaming - Days 11 - 15

This week was a difficult week and could have easily been done in three days, not the 5 that it turned into. We had Badger Exams this week. The way they were arranged I was supposed to have some of my kids for each class on Monday and the others on Wednesday. That's not how it happened, which is fine, but it just caused problems in my original plan (insert "best laid plans. . ."). On top of all of that, I was attacked by a sinus infection and was out of commission on Day 12. That caused its own set of difficulties, because even though the students were in class and the subs did their best, the kids act like they don't know which end is up. I accepted the fate of the decision to not go in with a 100.8 degree temperature and barely able to pick up my own purse, but it still frustrates me to be absent, knowing how it's going to set back plans that cannot be set back at this point in the year.

As part of this end of year culminating unit, the students have to write a narrative using the Calkins checklist (see her program for the Narrative Checklist). Calkins' program asks the students to write a personal narrative, but I encouraged the students to use everything they learned about personal narratives to write a fictional narrative that develops off of their game. They are able to use the characters, the plot, the setting, etc. to help them write a companion narrative.

At first some of the students thought they had to write a story of how their game would play out and then became frustrated when the ending to their story would not be the same as the game. Lucky for them, I had decided to follow in the steps of Calkins by modeling how to write a companion story.

Over the weekend, I had decided to work alongside the students to make my own game and go through the creation process with them, so that they had a model for the process and not just a Mentor Game.

In my first lesson, I shared my game with my students. My Mentor Game is Dragon Slayer, because I love the press-your-luck feel of the game. I had the idea to make a Bakery Competition game out of it. I won't go into my games details here, but I have changed the game to be something of it's own entity. I'm really quite excited about it.

I explained the game to my students the same way they had to pitch their game to my husband. I even showed them the feedback I wrote down from my meeting with him. Then I shared with them the story I was writing (still in the process of writing). This way they could see what was expected of them from a story and had a frame of reference for how to go about achieving their task.

Here is a sample of my own story:

     The kitchen was sweltering and the sweat was dripping in large drops off of Francoise's forehead. He had never felt such intense pressure before, driving him forward, pushing through the intensity of the competition. Keep going! he told himself. You’ve got this!

     A glance around the kitchen reveals four other bakers mixing and kneading and scrambling to pound dough into something fabulous. It was only task one of the Bakery Masters, but it felt like an already bloodied battlefield. Above each of their heads hung a task list of what they needed to complete for task one. Francoise, while stressed, knew that he had task one in the bag. He had to make two batches of chocolate chip cookies and 2 dozen double chocolate cupcakes. Despite his stress, he knew he could complete the additional bonus task of 1 batch of macadamia cookies and 2 dozen white chocolate cupcakes.

 

     A quick check of the clock sent Francoise into overdrive as he finished up his cookies and got them into the oven. As he swung around to extract his cupcakes from the ovens, he smacked right into Berthe, his arch-rival. Berthe was a large, French woman of about 40 years. Her thick brown hair was wrapped up in a tight bun, covered with her pristine, white bakers cap. Her lips pinched together and she scowled at him as she shoved him off with her hip, her hands full of three cupcake trays.

     “Watch it, Francoise! You’ll live to rue the day you mess with me!” She rushed back to her station, stomping haughtily while she went. You could see the other bakers try to become one with their baking stations, squeezing themselves as flat as possible against the counter as Berthe stormed by.

      With a deep breath, Francoise steadied himself and hustled back to his station. He set the cupcakes aside to cool and started working on the frosting that would go with them, ever keeping an eye on the clock. Too late did it dawn on him that he should have set a timer for the cookies so they wouldn’t burn. As his anxiety ramped up, he wasn’t paying close attention to his frostings and they were starting to split. Not enough milk, then not enough powdered sugar, and as he dusted himself with an explosion of white snow, he started to smell the worst smell that could ever. . .

Now, the students have to follow demonstrate an internal and external story, as well as develop their characters, provide tension, have a concrete ending (no Cliffhangers. . . this isn't Fortune & Glory), and have their main character learn a lesson or hint at a message. For example, in my story at the very beginning my character's internal dialogue hints at the greater lesson he'll be learning by the end of the story. This is all part of the Calkins' curriculum and I provided students with reminder tools to write their stories, since we last dealt with Narratives at the beginning of November. I also have the reference charts hanging in the classroom to inspire.

Some of the students who were frustrated and didn't know where to go with their story were allowed to use Story Dice and Roll for Inspiration. I love the meta nature of rolling for inspiration while writing a story about a game. I use Rory's Story Cubes and I had just purchased three new packs: Prehistoria, Enchanted, and Clues. I the base set and Voyages that I use in class when we used to write fictional narratives. With the Calkins program, there weren't many opportunities, since the students were asked to draw on their personal history and experiences to write a semi-non-fictional-semi-fictional story. One of my co-teachers use these story cubes with her students to help them when writing their narratives, just to get them thinking about where to go next in their story or what they could do.

Another thing that I wish I could have brought in, but due to the rating, I could not, was Clue. It's essentially what we want to do with these narratives. The movie Clue, while not a direct story of the game, is still a story about the game! If you see the movie, you kind of understand the game. If you play the game, you understand the movie. I told the students about the movie and even how it had different endings. I went online to find something like that I could use and I found an episode of Psych (which I still couldn't use) that was an homage to the movie. It was overly silly, but fun at least. Since I couldn't find something that met the expectation I was trying to set, I reference the Tortoise and the Hare and the Hare and the Tortoise. There's always that commercial that is using it currently, so it's helpful. We talked about how the story and the game still have different outcomes, but the game was inspired by the story.

The students spent the rest of the week writing, editing, revising, and rethinking their projects. Their stories need to be finished and then next week they move on to creating their Instructional Booklet, which is call on their Informative Writing skills. A template is in the works to help guide them through the process so that when we get into the lab the following week, it's all about putting their drafts into electronic format.

Funny Story: Since this is a cumulative unit, my co-teachers and I have backed off a bit on giving detailed feedback and one-on-one critiques. We just do walk-arounds. It's that idea of a flipped classroom, but we don't have digital lectures and things like that. Plus, they have a partner they're working with, so they can work together to give each other feedback. On Friday, my students started to ask me to read the ending to their stories! I had to keep telling them no, because they're going to spoil my reading of your story! It became a whole class joke and I wrote a note on the board saying "I will not read the ending of your narrative. . ." and while I was writing it someone was asking if I would read the middle and so I wrote ". . . or any other part of your narrative." We were goofing around, but it was pretty hilarious and keep them excited. I told them to wow me for while I'm reading it to grade. Furthermore, I encouraged them to use their tools and really show me all they've learned by making a great story with a story with uber impact.

Again, for scoring purposes, I am still using the Calkins Narrative and Informative rubrics. The Informative rubric will be tweaked, though, to account for the writing-to-task standard and to make sure it covers the expectations of the project.

Calkins & Tabletop Games - Days 8 - 10

As part of this unit, I wanted to bring in someone who knew something about games and could help elevate the students to the next level. I wanted to bring in a "professional." I wasn't getting any bites on local game designers, but I do always have my husband. He has an amazing way of visualizing the ideas of others and making them into something tangible. It's a gift he has. After watching him work his magic last year when I taught a Tabletop Unit, I wanted to bring him in again to help the students further realize their vision and to hopefully work out some of the more intricate mechanics issues that the students were dealing with.

During this phase of the project, I have the kids prepare themselves for sharing their ideas with a "professional." I dropped the ball a little bit and didn't model the expectations ahead of time for them. This sadly led to a very frustrating evening when I was debriefing with my husband on what the students had presented to him. The kids were just sitting back there mute and not talking and my husband had said that he felt like he was wasting his time. That breaks my heart and the fact that the kids just weren't being passionate and excited about their brilliant ideas! They just want to sit and listen and not really interact and learn to share ideas. They also were not following the clearly written, spoke, and reminded direction of taking notes during the meeting. That shows a lack of investment in what they're doing.

So after day one, I took a step back and I wanted to make sure the students knew what they were doing back there. I made a rubric that incorporated a writing component (W69 - focusing on using new appraoches to revise their ideas) and I also added in two Speaking & Listening standards so that the students understood that this is something they are expected to know how to do and should be pushing themselves to learn to interact professionally. I gave each student the rubric, explained it, and then my husband scored them in pencil during his meeting.

I was even able to coerce my husband and his favorite presentation team in each class to come up and demonstrate what he is expecting of them when they come back. I had forgotten that important piece of modeling. The above rubric helped turn things around a great deal, as well as the modeling of expectations, and even enforcing note-taking. My husband left on the second day feeling much better about his interactions with students. He finally felt like the kids cared about their games and were invested in making them something special.

While the "professional" meets with the students, I have the "professional" keep notes in a google doc that allows me to read them in real-time. I have a back room in my classroom that I set up like an office for my husband. Then I would schedule the students when they were ready, and my husband would see it pop up on the form. I would then type to him, asking if he was ready or not and then he'd signal to bring the students back. I would bring them back and introduce them. If I didn't act as a "secretary," the kids would have been running back there, one after another, and it would have been very frustrating. In the google doc, I had the names of the students, the date they met, and what their mentor game was and then a spot for my husband to type of notes. I made a 1x2 chart for each set of students. Not only did this help my husband keep track of the kids and take notes for what he wanted to think about later or find out more information, it also helped when I debriefed with him each day and was an assessment tool for me as I evaluated and will continue to evaluate the students.

Since my teaching day runs from first hour straight through fifth hour, I took time during my sixth hour prep to debrief with my husband. We would go over the rubric of the students, discuss his feedback and what each students needed additional help with. I would then finalize the rubric, also taking into account my knowledge of the students and I would adjust their raw score, if needed, based on that. I never adjusted grades for the worse. If they were adjusted at all, it was due to things I learned after speaking with the students or my co-teacher or from observation later on. This offered for a well-rounded score for the students.

What I really appreciate that my husband does, and I know I am spoiled for it, is that he goes home each night and mentally runs through the notes he wrote that day and tries to envision the games. He makes additional notes, writes up information for the kids, or finds a way to demonstrate to them their idea by bringing in additional games and setting up a visual. I'm going to be honest, I couldn't have done all of that work in my classroom without him. Or, I would have had to schedule in a lot more time to the unit. I am, though, very lucky to have a volunteer who is willing to go this far to help with this project.

I also love that every year that I offer this unit, I am learning more and more from him. I had said to one of my kids that they need to take advantage of his genius while he's here, because I am merely a padawane of game development. I have not yet developed my Jedi skills. My husband gets all "Beautiful Mind" with this stuff and one of my kids said they could actually see him playing their game in his head. I've got something special here and I wish industry people would finally snatch him up like they should!

It was very important to stress to the students the finality of his visit. If they had questions, they needed to form them and ask them before he left the classroom. I even invited students to ask at recess while he was there. Only students who were in my game club took him up on the offer, but at least someone did. In this day and age, where it's not about losing grades based on work being late, because we function within the Common Core which is about assessing a standard, not a student's ability to adhere to deadlines, students have a tendency to ignore due dates and forget about timeliness. Forget is an understatement. . . they just downright don't understand the urgency. That is why I use the professional coming in. It is a one time opportunity. If you don't have something ready to present, how are you going to continue on with the process? You just missed out on your chance to get meaningful and vital feedback for your project. Additionally, if you don't talk over the feedback he gave you, how are you goig to know if you have questions? He is gone and I made it clear to the students that I can't help with every aspect of what they want to do, especially if they don't communicate what kind of help they require.

I love the real world aspect of this activity, because the students are supposed to use what they've learned all year for writing (Narratives, Arugmentative, and Informative Writing) and the rest is where I can provide support here and there. How can they apply what they've learned while also grappling with expectations and an assignment that they need to complete within a specific time frame. So far the deadlines are working and it's going well. This next week will be the real test.

By the end of the three days that the "professional" could be in the classroom, he helped 23 groups develop 23 games. What he is nervous about is them taking the game to the level they should be at to really develop the greatness that is in their game and demonstrate their own creative abilities. I tried to tell the kids that he sees something amazing in your game, but you have to be the one to make it so (yeah... Star Trek reference.... I run a geeky classroom).

What I took from these three days of working with the kids are the importance of sevearl things that will be applicable to the real world. I intend to remember them for next year so that I can be sure I do not forget them again.

1. 1. The importance of a "professional" to light the fire of their youthful creativity.
2. Stressing that a mentor game doesn't mean you're skinning it, it means you're using it in some way (the directions set, the pieces, the mechanic) to help guide you as you create something you've never done before.
3. Taking notes during meetings. Meaningful notes that you can reference when the professional is no longer there with you.
4. MODEL your expectation. You'd think this would be second nature, but oh how easily it slips the farther you get into the year. 
5. A rubric has the power to incentify your expectations. Once those points are on the line. . . they don't want to fail.
6. Enforcing the finality of the "professional." Get those questions answered before he leaves. You won't get another chance to ask him what he meant.

This is still an amazing experience and I'm starting to compile all of this into a packet/binder. My co-teacher, who is also my Literacy Coach at the school, is encouraging me to package this unit. With her there to build my confidence and reminding me that this is amazing for the kids, it makes me want to share this with others.

On a side note, while I am so happy to be doing this unit, I have a student or two who have decided to be a bit snippy. The other two sixth grade literacy classes are writing mystery stories. Watching movies, reading mystery novels, researching crimes, etc. It sounds like a really fun fictional writing unit (Calkins' 6th Grade Narrative is a personal narrative, not a story you make up out of nowhere). So one of my students said to me, "After this unit, I want to do what they're doing in Mrs. Other Teacher's classroom." I looked at him and said, "Hun, this is the last unit of the year." He looked at me, "Awe, I wanted to write a mystery." To which I reminded him, "You can write a mystery to go along with your haunted house game!" He only slightly perked up and responded with an, "Oh yeah!" When I told my co-teacher this, she said he should be celebrating and bragging to others how he's making a game. I totally agree. If I could only have counted how many kids were peaking their heads into my classroom to see the kids doing "research" by playing games.

Sometimes I feel like my chest is going to explode with the swell of pride I feel for what I've been able to create this year and that is beyond amazing!

Calkins and Tabletop Gaming - Day 2

Today, I provided the students with folders for their groups. I put them all in groups of 4-5 students at a table-cluster for later gaming (only 2 students per design group). I asked the students to come up with a "Publisher" name for their group and write it on their folders. I shared with them some of the names of popular Game Publishers: Fantasy Flight, Flying Frog Games, Paizo, Tasty Minstrel Games, Stronghold Games, AEG, Rather Dashing Games, Mayfair, Rio Grande, AsmOdee, Days of Wonder, IELLO, GameWright, DiceHateMe,  etc. Then they were to also write their name on the folder. In the 3-prongs of the folder, the students put the introduction worksheet with the deadlines, so that they can always find it. Then I gave them a vocabulary reference sheet. It explains the different types of games, the different types of materials, and the different types of mechanics. This way they can reference the domain-specific vocabulary for the project and sound knowledgeable about what they are doing.

Next, I instructed them to be investigatory with their game and I gave each of them a reflection worksheet they needed to fill out for each game that they played. The point of this is to 1) become familiar with different types of games and 2) find a mentor game. Calkins using the idea of a Mentor Text, so it seemed fitting to provide the students with a Mentor Game. They could use the Mentor Game any way that they wanted to help guide them in the process.

On the SMARTboard, I put the following steps:

1. Examine the Box

• Look at the title.
• Look at the recommended time.
• How many players can play the game?
• What is the recommended age limit?
• Read other information on the box.

2. Open the Box

• Examine the contents.
• What comes in the box?
• How is it organized in the box?

3. Read the Directions

• Locate the directions packet.
• Walk through the pages, noting headings and pictures.
• Start at the beginning and read through the directions.

4. After Reading the Directions

• Once the group is comfortable with the directions
• Play through using the directions.
• If there are questions, have a question, not "I don't get it."

5. Throughout the Process

• Take notes on your Game Reflection Worksheets.
• Discuss questions, comments, or reflections with the group.

I gave the students 50 minutes to begin the process. By the end of the 50 minutes, there were several frustrated students and some whinning. They didn't want to read the directions, they just wanted to jump in and play the games. I can understand the excitement, but there were so many mistakes and bold-faced lies about having read the directions that it was rather frustrating for me.

The day ended with not a single game having been fully played, but that's why there's a whole week, so that by the last day the students will be able to understand games and the process of being someone who plays different types of games. The whole point, again, is to become familiar with different types of games, see the different types of mechanics, and to find a Mentor Game.

Calkins and Tabletop Gaming - Day 1

Last year I developed a unit where my students created Tabletop Games about Human Rights issues. It was a rather clunky unit with some errors and things that didn't go as smoothly as they should have, but at the end of it the kids had created some very memorable and well-developed games. At the end of last year, our district introduced the Lucy Calkins curriculum to our Literacy classes. When I found out I figured I'd have to just scrap my Tabletop Game Unit and tying in any games to my Literacy class. But as I taught the units of writing, I realized that there so many different avenues I could take using games in conjunction with Lucy Calkins. By January I knew that I would be able to keep my Tabletop Game Unit.

Over Spring Break I put the final touches on the unit, which, of course, will still be in progress while it rolled out in my classroom, but I had a plan. I had a vision. Due to the overwhelming success of the content and how my kids have connected with Calkins, I wanted to start to post some of what we're doing throughout the unit. It's a culminating unit using the three strategies of Lucy Calkins. The level of writing that my students have risen to is beyond amazing and I am so proud of each and every one of them. Due to the efforts of my co-teachers and myself, we were able to really help each and every student develop and grow. Now it's just ensuring that they are able to use what they learn in Literacy in their other classes. Once they learn transference, these kids will be golden! And that's kind of part of this activity. Using what they learned and applying it to different activities!

Day 1

Introducing the project to the students. I gave each student a handout that helped step us through the unit and focused on important deadlines and what they'll need to do in order to be successful.

Narrative, Argumentative, & Informative Writing Meet Tabletop Games!

Are You Ready?!

Welcome to the apex unit for Literacy. You are about to embark on the final activity that will demonstrate everything you have learned about writing this year. Instead of having you write three more papers, your new challenge will include a real world task; you will be expected to create a tabletop game!

Objective

• You will learn to apply the strategies of writing to tasks that you might encounter in the real world.
• You will learn to use close reading strategies to help develop, improve, and critique your projects and the projects of others.
• You will learn to work with partners in an extremely creative environment with real deadlines.
• You will learn to interact with real world members of the gaming community.

What Do I Have to Do?

1. Play some games.
2. Pick a Mentor Game (Also known as a Mentor Text).
3. Come up with a Narrative for your own game.
4. Create a pitch that explains what your game is like.
5. Make the pitch to a professional and get feedback.
6. Write the Narrative for your game.
7. Write the informative booklet that explains your game.
8. Create the game.
9. Construct the game.
10. Play-test the game and get feedback.
11. Create an argument for why a publisher should buy your game.
12. Try to sell your game to a professional gamer.

Group Members: _________________________________________________

  _________________________________________________

  _________________________________________________

Mentor Game: ______________________________________________

Important Dates:

• Monday, April 20 - Mentor Game Chosen
• Wednesday, April 22 - Friday, April 24 - Have a Pitch Ready for Mr. B

• Thursday, April 30 - Finished Narrative for Game
• Friday, May 8 - Completed Written Directions Booklet

Draft of Game Components Completed

• Wednesday, May 20 - Directions Booklet, Game Prototype, & Argumentative Presentation Done

• Thursday, May 21 - Begin playtesting
• Tuesday, May 26 - Last day of playtesting
• Wednesday, May 27 - Presenting your finalized game to buyers

• Friday, May 29 - All games and presentations turned in.

Notes:

______________________________________________________________

The students were allowed to pick a partner to work with. Each class has one group of three, due to numbers. Once they picked their groups we went over the deadlines that they were going to run up against throughout the project. It is important for them to really start to understand the importance of deadlines. I went over this with them, especially regarding Mr. B coming in. It's not like this person could come in another day just to meet with them, because they didn't do their work. This person scheduled special time to be there and could only be there during that time. Too often kids think they can just hand stuff in whenever they want, because we're not really scoring whether they can turn in assignments on time, we're scoring the assignment or benchmark. So I really wanted to enforce real world deadlines.

This also allows students to plan ahead. I sent the deadlines home to the parents via an e-mail through our online grading system, hoping that they will also be aware of the deadlines that their children are facing. Most of the kids are excited enough to hopefully keep the deadlines, but it's a good fallback for if concerns arise.

Finally, I shared with the students some of the projects from last year, so they could see some of the things that they will get to work with. I showed them some of the boards students made for the board games, cards, and the artwork that some of the more artistic students did on their own, as well as digital artwork. This last bit was to get them jazzed and keep them motivated.

Hopefully tomorrow's attempt try share vocabulary and start to expose them to "mentor games" won't be a bust!