After last year’s failed attempt at using World of Warcraft in Science to have students learn about classifying living things I finally get a chance to try using World of Warcraft to explore the journey of a hero! I thought the Science angle was a good idea but my 8th graders didn’t really take to it. They really enjoyed playing WoW but when it came time to do the Science part, very few of them actually did it.
This year I’m taking my three 6th grade classes for one quarter each on a journey of a hero. Using the WoWinSchools curriculum, minus the reading of the Hobbit, 6th graders will take part in a grand adventure instead of just reading about it. They get to be the hero and make choices instead of reading about the hero’s journey. Thanks to the incredible work of Lucas Gillispie, Craig Lawson (authors of WoWinSchool) and Peggy Sheehy I have the full curriculum on Rezzly! I modified the curriculum for a 9 week quarter by leaving out the reading of the Hobbit entirely. I think that there’s plenty of reading and storyline in the game itself. We’re able to play such a pricey game because I’m having students use the trial version for free. That free trial comes with several limits. We can only reach level 20, we can’t use the chat, we can’t use the auction house, and we can only have 10 gold maximum. I’m sure there’s more but we’ll discover them when we start playing.
My 6th graders will be carrying online discussions here and blogging/journaling about their hero’s journey here. This is the presentation I shared at the beginning of the course:
Here’s the information I sent home to parents:
Here’s to having a much better Game-Based Learning experience this time!
