3 Tips for Getting Started With Game Design

These videos were already shared in previous posts from my game design club series, but I wanted to get them in them one place. (I compiled some related interviews in this post.)

My goal with these videos was to concisely state three tips that would help students start making game. I use them to make board and card games, but they will help with digital games too. In fact, they form the basis of design thinking in any area.

Tip 1:  Learn and play many games. But don't play mindlessly!

Tip 2:  Keep a design notebook. Besides writing down ideas, use it to flesh your ideas out too.

Tip 3:  Start playing right away. This includes some tips for making rough prototypes.

Continuing the Game Design Club for Middle School

Here are a few more resources from the virtual game design club I've been running at our middle school. If you want some background first, see my introduction and this first tip I shared with the students.

Last week I started a badge system and listed some achievements. This post explains how I make the badges and share them with students. As an example, the image at the right is a badge students can earn by telling me a few games they learned about after practicing Tip #1.

If we were meeting face to face I'd be playing new and unique games with them to help them expand their knowledge. As it is, I have to encourage research. I created this document to get them started. Some of those game suggestions came from designers I've been contacting. More information on my work with them will come in later posts.

I should add that it's been a big challenge to have to teach kids about games through reading and watching videos. I have not been effective at it so far, so I'm working on ways to improve that.

Finally, I introduced the Tip #2 video and asked them a few questions about it. The tip is to start keeping game ideas in a notebook. Not all designers do that, but it has been a practice of mine from the start and I find it invaluable. Here's the video.

And later this week I will post this video. It's the first part of an interview with Stephen Glenn, a friend and successful game designer who started taking the hobby seriously right about when I did. He's had several more games published over the past two decades than I have and I appreciated his willingness to share it with me and the club.

In this first four-minute interview he talks about why he still makes games (it's not for the money!) and he gives a little insight into how he gets ideas for games. We had some issues with video in our Google Meet, so most of the visuals in the interview are just slides summing up his points.

Our Best Interactive Story Project Yet

I've been experimenting with interactive story projects for a couple years now and this past week we worked through our best one yet. Sample resources and tutorials are included below.

What Is an Interactive Story?
Like the others I've written about, this project gave older students (from high school Creative Writing this time) a chance to write short stories for younger students (3rd graders in this case). It's interactive, because after each short piece of the story we include a feedback survey. The younger students fill out the survey to give the authors input on what happens next.

I originally started working on these projects as a way to motivate writers and to encourage younger students to read for pleasure. I was able to be in the classes at both grade levels this time and it really seemed to accomplish that goal. We had high engagement at the high school, since they knew the younger students would be reading their work. And the younger students loved seeing what the high schoolers had written. All teachers involved were very pleased with the project.

How Did We Do It This Time?
In this case, students wrote their introductory "chapter" in a Google Doc. The teacher required three parts:

First came the introduction to the story. We encouraged students to introduce a character or two, establish a setting and lead up to a problem. 

Next, students added a link to a Google Form that asked some questions of the readers. We required students to ask at least two multiple choice questions and one open ended question. See below for more information about gathering feedback.

Finally, we required an author bio that included the students' interests and goals. In our case, most of the stories were written by two students working together. 

You can see the sample document we showed the class here. Check out the sample story (written by a student, with a few edits) and the sample survey to see how those might look.

The survey and link to the survey were the only steps of the project that required the students to learn some tech skills. I walked them through the process in class, but this document shows all the steps. The final part of it includes a link to a video tutorial. 

Other Details

• We were pressed for time at the end of our semester, so we only did two sections of the story that asked for reader feedback, then a third part that wrapped the stories up. It took us just about two weeks of class time to complete that. In the future we hope to keep the project going longer, with at least two more chapters.
• I shared the stories with the younger students by creating a Google Site that linked to each story document. Whenever I share stories like this, I make a copy of the student document, edit it if necessary, then post the shareable link to the document on the Google Site. 
• The authors should be encouraged to use some of the reader input, but they certainly don't have to incorporate it all. The open ended questions especially can bring in too many ideas. Ultimately the decision is up to the author on how the story proceeds.
• For the second chapter, we had students write an author note in place of the "About the Author" section. The note thanked the readers for their input, then explained just a little about how they used that input to write their story. Again, most of these documents, including the story, link to the survey and the authors' note, were only a page long.
• If you want more information about gathering feedback, see this summary I made for a similar comic project. You can read more about that in this post from a couple years ago.

Holiday Classroom Game and Creativity Activity

Here's a free resource that can be used for a few fun, creative activities in the classroom. At its heart, it's just a way to generate a random pair of words that students use to write a holiday themed haiku.

I'll list a few ways I've used similar activities in class, along with a brief explanation of each. Some will link to previous posts with more details.

First, click here to get your copy of the Google Slides presentation. It will open in your Google Drive.

Generating a Prompt
No matter which way you choose to use the activity, you will be generating a random prompt and students will use it to write a haiku. To generate the prompt, open the presentation so the class can see slide 2. Don't present it. Just display it as shown below. Draw two random words from behind the gift. You can grab them and drag them by the circle at the far right of the screen.

In the above example, the two words drawn are "gift" and "peace".

Students will then create a haiku using the two random words. You can require them to use the exact words, any variation (such as singular or plural) or maybe they just have to use the general idea of the word in their haiku. Of course, if you're using it for the holidays, that will be an implied general theme for all haikus they write. How generally or specifically you want to make this is up to you, but be sure to explain your requirements before they start any of the activities explained below.

Note that you can change the words too if you want. Just drag the words off to the side of the slide, so you can see the word. Double click on the word and it should let you delete the text and replace it with whatever you want. If it's a long word, you might have to stretch the text box to make it fit. Then drag the word back under the present, so it can be randomly selected during the activity.

A Class Writing Prompt
This is the easiest way to use the activity. The teacher can draw two random words from behind the gift. Every student in the class uses those two words (and any other requirements the teacher provides) to write their own haikus.

The writing can be done in class or as an assignment outside of class. Once the teacher has time to look at the submitted haikus, she can choose up to five of her favorites and type them on the A - E spaces  of that slide. At any time after that, the class can vote on their favorite using a poll/quiz application like Socrative or Kahoot, or they could just use a show of hands or submit a vote on a paper slip.

A "Game Show" With a Few Contestants
I used to do all my creativity games this way. It is a challenging exercise for the contestants, but if you have a creative group it can be fun. In this case, 3 - 5 contestants sit at the front of the class. The teacher draws two random words from behind the gift to form the prompt. The contestants each write a haiku using those words and the teacher's requirements. They should have 3 - 5 minutes to write it.

When they are finished, the haikus are read aloud and typed into the spaces A - E (or just summarized). The class votes on their favorite using a poll/quiz application or some other non-digital method. Each contestant gets points equal to the number of votes they receive. Points can be kept on the Score slide. Usually we have time for about three rounds when we do games like this.

If you don't want to give such a strict time limit, you could combine this format with the above activity. The contestants could write their haikus outside of class and turn them in the next day for the vote.

See this post for more details and tips for running these "game show" style creativity games.

A Game Played in Small Groups
More recently I started running these creativity games in small groups. In this case, you can do a sample round with the whole class, just so they see how to play. Then have them work in groups of 3 or 4 students. Each group will have one device to access their copy of the Holiday Haiku slide presentation.

They will play multiple rounds. Each round one student will be the judge. He or she will randomly draw out two words from behind the gift and show the other group members. Everyone other than the judge gets a limited amount of time to write a haiku that uses the two words and follows any other requirements the teacher has given.

When finished, the haikus are gathered and shuffled up. One student reads each of them to the judge. The judge chooses one as his or her favorite. The player who writes it gets a point.

Now the next player becomes the judge and another round is played. Rounds are repeated until each player has been the judge once. The player or players with the most points wins.

See this post for more details about playing creativity games in groups.

Reflection
No matter how I use these activities in class, I like to seal the learning by adding some reflection.  Here's the reflection sheet I used with one class after doing a similar small group version of a creativity game. Depending on how you presented the material and what the lesson content was, you will probably want to modify the questions somewhat.

Chromebook Activity for Kindergarten

The kindergarten teachers in my district asked me to do some very simple activities that would introduce their students to Chromebooks. Below you'll find the link to the one I've been staring out with this year.

The goal of the activity is to let students practice using the keys and touchpad and to show them the joy of creating with technology. See the notes below about how I set it up and get started in the class with it.

Click here to get a copy of the Google Slides presentation I use for the activity.

It is simply a series of images with clip art objects (all from Pixabay.com) that the students can move around to "tell their story". Every class I've used this with has greatly enjoyed it and the teachers thank me for sharing it. It takes about 30 - 45 minutes of class time.

Setting Up the Activity

• We use a generic Google account with a short username for many early elementary activities. I and a classroom helper log onto all the Chromebooks using that account. 
• As the admin for our Google domain, I set that account up so the Chromebooks will open to our elementary "launch page". If you don't have these options, talk to the person who manages your Google domain to have it set up.
• On that launch page, I post a simple graphic (like a sun in this case) with a link that will force a copy of the Google Slides presentation. It's important that the link will open as a copy (like my link does above). This helpful post from Kasey Bell shows how to get the link you will need for your slideshow.
• Usually I and the class helper sign into all the Chromebooks when the students are at lunch or recess. Sometimes we do it during some other activity that has them away from their desks.

Introducing It to the Students

• I prefer to have students sitting on the floor at the board when I first talk to them. If they're at their seats with the Chromebooks set up, I make a point that they have to know when to listen and when to use the technology. The students are always good about this! Of course, I'm the guest speaker, so I always get my free 5 - 15 minutes of their undivided attention!
• I tell students that I enjoy using my iPad and Chromebook to play games, but in school I can't use them to play. Instead they should be used for learning and making. This is so important, as it's tempting to use the tech as a plaything during less focused time at that early age. "Just get on Starfall or ABCYa," I often hear. I am so grateful for the chance to plant seeds early on about the appropriate use of tech in school.
• Using the teacher's computer and projecting on the board, I show them exactly how they will click the icon on the launch page to get a copy of their presentation. I show them that the computer does some thinking time after I click "make a copy", so they shouldn't keep clicking the link. 
• I show them how they can add their name to the first page, so we will know who made the stories. I also let the teacher and any class helper know most students will need some help at this point double-clicking in the text box. 
• I model how they can click to the next slide using the thumbnail images on the left. 
• On the first page with the clip art, I show the students how to select it and move it to where we want it. There's the option of dragging it, but that is hard for some students (and adults) on a touchpad. I also show them how they can move it with arrow keys. It's helpful to have a Chromebook handy too, so they can see where those keys are or how I'd use the touchpad. 
• We talk a little about how the image can be arranged to make a story. They like the idea that maybe the crab was holding the umbrella and blew into the sky for the beach scene, for example.
• As a challenge, I show them how they can make a shape bigger or smaller by dragging the handles. I just like to plant this seed and see later who figures it out.
• I then review the directions to get started then I set them loose.

As I mentioned, we usually have a helper in the class and the teacher. With me as well, a class of 25 or so students is fairly easy to manage. Some students definitely will struggle at first, but they do quite well once they realize they can use the arrow keys. 

There are plenty of things that can go wrong as they try to use the touchpad. Here are some common ones:

• They end up swiping with two fingers and go back to the previous page. Just click the forward button and their slideshow will load.
• They accidentally right click and open the right click menu. Just press the esc key. Show them clearly so they remember how to solve this themselves the next time.
• They might double click an object, putting it in crop mode. One student had a good laugh when he cropped the kids' heads off on one slide and I was a little surprised how he did it myself at first! If this happens, just double click again if necessary and slide the crop handles so the full image displays correctly.
• Remember the goal is to give them practice and to let them create. I really have no expectations for how they make their images look. 

Getting Access to the Stories

When students are working more independently, I sign in on one Chromebook using that same generic login. I go to Google Drive, create a new folder and then drag all the newly created slideshows into it. 

For whatever reason, there are always several more than I'd expect based on the size of the class. I'm sure some students start over a couple times when we don't realize and maybe creating all those copies at about the same time cause an odd error. All the extra copies can be spotted pretty easily (since they usually do not have a name on the first slide), so they're easily disregarded. 

I then share that folder with the teacher's Google account so she has access to the students' stories.

Using the name on the first slide, it's fairly easy to see who made each one just by browsing the thumbnails on the teacher computer. Sometimes we have enough time in class to show some stories, which is always fun for the class. Students who successfully stretched the images to large proportions become quite popular.

I hope you and your students also have as much fun with this activity as we have!

Practice Making Comics with Google Slides

For over five years I've been teaching students and teachers how to make comics with Google Slides. We still use the process in my district and students still love the creative possibilities.

Recently I started introducing it in a new, interactive way that has worked well. It will allow you to just assign it and let students learn and practice right in the one presentation. It's basically a hyperdoc created in Google Slides.

Click here to get your own copy of the Google Slides presentation.

Some notes:

• The easiest way to assign this would be through Google Classroom, with the option to make a copy for each student.
• This is written on the first slide, but remind students not to click Present to go through the slideshow. They need to keep it in edit mode so they can do the practice on the later slides.
• The final slide tells them to download it as a PDF and turn it in through Classroom. I like them to get the practice of downloading as a PDF, but you can change that if it's not a priority for your class.
• We use this presentation as the first step in a comic creation project. You might have a specific project in mind or you could introduce them to the process just so they have it as a creative option for any project in the future.
• Usually after students learn the process, I show them a tutorial like this one so they can use the Google Slides app to take photos on a phone or tablet.

If you like this simple, self-contained introduction to comics, please consider purchasing one of my inexpensive tech activities on Teachers Pay Teachers:

• Comic Projects with Google Tools Bundle
• Animation and Interactive Stories Using Google Slides

Updated Creativity Game for 2019

This week I presented an updated version of what has been the most popular post on this blog for years. I used a different tech tool this time (Google Sheets) and I run the game part of it completely differently. (Click here for the original post and here for another recent way I've used it.)

I led this version of the activity for a class of about 30 students from grades 9 - 12. It was very well received and the teacher told me the students asked to play more the next day. 

Since I've written at length about these activities elsewhere, I will just link to the new resources below and explain this updated process.

The creativity exercise is based on a game system I designed with my friend, Kory Heath. The lesson follows this outline:

1. Talk to the class about the importance of creativity for success in today's world.
2. Lead into the creativity game Why Did the Chicken...?
3. Show them how the game works. Ideally this will include tips on how to make creative answers.
4. Run at least one round with a group of students from the class.
5. Show how students will use the spreadsheet when they play on their own.
6. Let them play the game in small groups of 3 - 5.
7. Have them complete a reflection sheet.

Resources:  (Most of these are Google files that will open as a copy in your Google Drive.)

• This is the presentation I used. Read the speaker notes for details, as I explain what I talk about for each slide.
• Here is the spreadsheet students will use to play the game. It's a sample way to generate random riddles without printing and cutting out tons of cards.
• This video shows how to use the spreadsheet to make riddles.
• Here is the reflection sheet students should complete at the end of the lesson.

Other Notes:

• I used to provide a lot more time to practice making good answers. The problem was we didn't have much time to play the game. After presenting it this last time, I plan to put a maybe five to ten minutes more practice and practical advice in the talk next time.
• There's no doubt students will find it difficult to come up with answers. Remind them that they're probably trying to get an answer that makes perfect sense. Sometimes the key is just coming up with the answer that makes the judge laugh!
• There are just over 50 words in the spreadsheet, but ideally it should be well over one hundred. Feel free to add to it. The best lists contain things from the students' school or community.
• Remind everyone to keep answers school appropriate and to be kind to each other! Everyone needs to feel safe writing down a dud response. This is an important lesson for working creatively with a group.
• Make sure students understand the role of judge passes from player to player each round. (See the detailed rules below for the flow of the game.)

Here are the steps to playing Why Did the Chicken...? this way:

• Each group of 3 - 5 students will need:
• One device to open the spreadsheet and make a copy. (I suggest sharing the link with them through Google Classroom.)
• Pencils
• Several slips of paper.
• Pick a judge for the first round. The judge will use the spreadsheet to generate a random riddle.
• The judge reads the riddle to the other members of the group.
• They get two minutes to write as many possible answers as they can think of. Each answer should go on a separate slip of paper. After writing an idea, they put it in the center of the table face down.
• After two minutes, no new answers can be started. Anyone can finish writing their current idea if still writing. Then all slips are gathered by the player to the left of the judge.
• That player reads each answer to the judge. We like to have the judge read the question aloud each time, then hear the answer. It adds to the fun of the riddles.
• After hearing all the possible answers, the judge must pick a favorite (or two favorites if they want).
• The player(s) whose ideas were selected get a point.
• The judge passes the device to the player on his or her left and the process continues.
• Play until everyone has been the judge at least twice.

Making Video Slideshows from Photos With iMovie for iPad

I just finished this introductory lesson (along with four related video tutorials) for our redesigned Middle School STEM course. It walks students through the process of making a video from photos using iMovie on an iPad.

As the course goes on, our students will be expected to use this process to create short videos about their other projects.

The document at the link below contains all the links to the short video tutorials. It will require students to:

• Take seven photos
• Add them to a new iMovie video project
• Change the order, length and transitions as they like
• Add movement to each photo using the pan and zoom effects
• Add titles to at least two photos
• Export the video to the Photos area on the iPad
• Upload the video to Google Drive using the Google Drive app

Note that our students share iPads, so the directions instruct them to share the video file from the iPad's Google account to their personal Google account. As with any part of the document, you can edit those directions to fit your needs.

Click here to get a copy of the document with all the directions.

If you find that free lesson helpful, be sure to check out these other tech based activities I created for Teachers Pay Teachers.

• Bundle #1:  Animation Projects and Interactive Stories Using Google Slides - Only $3!
• Bundle #2:  Comics with Google Slides - Only $2!

My Updated Animation and Interactive Stories Projects

I updated two of my popular lessons recently:

• Simple Animations Using Google Slides
• Interactive Stories Using Google Slides

Students love both of these simple projects and the lessons come "ready to assign".

You'll get access to student directions in a Google Doc that you can simply post in Google Classroom. Students will follow the step by step instructions and watch video tutorials as they go. 

Both projects work well in any subject area for grades 5 - 12. The students will create their projects using Google Slides.

The lessons are $2 each on Teachers Pay Teachers, but you can buy both in a bundle for just $3. Here are the links.

• Simple Animations
• Interactive Stories
• The Bundle of both projects

Making a Story Together - High school and elementary connections for authentic audience and engagement

We recently tried another interactive story experiment connecting older students with younger students. As always, the goal with this is to encourage reading in the earlier grades and creativity with the older students. All feedback so far indicates this was a success.

I've written previously about ways to do this with comics or just writing in a Google Doc and one very different method with less input from the younger students.

This story we just finished up is more like the latter case, with a twist inspired by our Boomwriter activity from last winter. The final result can be read at the links below, but first here is the process we used.

• I found five high school students who were interested in trying this and their teacher agreed they could work with me. I managed it all through Google Classroom.
• I also gave a survey to elementary students asking them to name some characters, choose a general setting and choose some character traits. This was presented to all students in grades K - 4, but only a few classrooms really participated. 
• In pairs or individually, the high school students wrote short introductions to a story that fit the criteria generated by that survey. Alone or in groups, they generated a total of three different starters.
• I made a second survey presenting those story starters to the elementary class so they could pick their favorite.
• For the next round of writing, the high school students added to the story starter that the elementary students liked best. Again, each of those groups or individuals wrote the next part as they wanted the story to turn out. That again produced three different possible stories. 
• We continued this for a couple rounds of elementary students voting on their favorite, writing the next parts, voting again and so on. Along with asking which story the elementary students liked best, I'd also ask for suggestions for dialogue or action. It gave them a fun chance to be creative.
• Then since school was getting out soon, I had the high school students work together on bringing the story to a conclusion.

As you might imagine, the students wanted it to be humorous. That and the disjointed way we built the story definitely made it silly. You can read the story here:

• This page has the first three parts.
• This page has the final parts.
• I also had the students at the high school write these short bios so the younger students could get to know them.

The teachers told me that both groups of students, young and old, really got into the activity. We had to rush a few stages, so by the last round only one 3rd grade class was still voting. Their input showed enthusiasm, though, and the teacher told me they were excited to see where the story was going.

Which Method Is Best?

Having tried a few different methods now, I have to say my original approach (again, you can read it here) is still my favorite. In that one, the readers gave their input on the direction of the upcoming chapter, then the writers wrote it how they wanted to. I prefer that because:

• The writers have more control (and therefore more buy-in) over the outcome of each chapter.
• More importantly, they won't be disappointed when the ideas they worked hard on don't get picked. As I said with the Boomwriter activity, I can tell some students lose enthusiasm when their work isn't chosen.

There are still some downsides. You'll have to manage multiple stories if you have multiple groups of writers. Along with this, the readers will probably not be reading every story. They too will work in groups and probably will read only one or two different stories.

Quick Image Effects Without Green Screen

Who needs a green screen for image effects?Here's a simple process for making fun composite images using Google Slides and remove.bg. This can come in handy for making comics. (I've written about the comic creation process in many posts such as this one.)

The short video below shows you exactly how I do it on an iPad. Any phone or tablet should make this easy and then you can use another device to edit the slides (and possibly add the comic elements.) Here are the steps:

1. Go to remove.bg.
2. Tap the Select a Photo button and choose the option to take a photo.
3. The site will automatically remove the background. I've had great results so far! Copy the image that has no background.
4. Paste it into a slide using the Google Slides app. 

Ideally you'll have some other background you're pasting into. Those slides can all be set up ahead of time as needed either on the same device or a computer.

 You can watch the process here:

Boomwriter for Engaging Collaborative Writing

Boomwriter is not new, but I hadn't used it with a class until recently. I am presenting a session about collaborative storytelling at the MACUL conference this week, so I asked our middle school Creative Writing teacher if she'd be willing to let me run the activity in her class. After I explained what it is, she was excited to try it.

For those unfamiliar with it, Boomwriter is more or less a game where students write stories one chapter at a time. Everyone writes, then everyone votes on the submissions. The winning submission becomes the official next chapter. The process continues until the story is done.

Overall Thoughts

If this sounds at all interesting, definitely try it out. The students really enjoyed the activity. Due to a number of circumstances, the teacher and I had to rush much of the activity. I'm not thrilled with the quality of the writing that came out of it, but I am looking forward to trying it again. So are the students!

What We Did

Our class had 27 students in it, mostly seventh graders. I divided them randomly into groups of 5 or 6 students. The site allows students to dress up their "Boomer" avatar using Boomer Bucks. More Bucks are earned through writing and winning the votes. I wasn't sure how seventh graders would take to this, but our group was definitely into this feature.

With five groups, that means we had five stories. I provided a single sentence as a story starter. Boomwriter has several initial chapters to choose from and, judging by the ones I saw, they expect the first chapter to provide a lot of detail. I didn't want to give them a long passage to read, so my first "chapter" was just one sentence. For example, one of them was The main character is trapped in a video game. I wanted the students' imagination to drive the direction as much as possible.

I set the length of our stories to five chapters, so that meant we had four rounds of writing and voting. The teacher and I were very impressed with how the students were engaged by the activity. Almost all the chapters they submitted were fairly short, but the teacher provided some feedback on the second round of writing and I saw an improvement.

We had many snow days this semester, so we have been pressed for time in all classes. For this activity we really rushed a few rounds. In a couple class periods we just rapidly went through as many rounds as possible (usually two writings and a vote). This amounted to a lot of frantic clicking on my part as I approved chapters, called for some revisions and moved stories along to the voting stage.

When the stories were almost done, we gave the class a survey about the experience. When asked how they liked Boomwriter for collaborative stories, 68% gave it five stars and 20% gave it four stars. Some were disappointed when we didn't immediately start a second story!

Before we did the activity, I wondered if the voting process would discourage students who didn't get picked. Well I did see some sign of this, only 12% said on the survey that it affected them in this way.

Be aware that Boomwriter hopes you and the students' parents will buy the stories as books when they are done. Because of this, I didn't find any way to view the complete stories. Maybe I missed it, but the only solution I came up with to see the whole story was to copy and paste each winning entry into a single document. (While I'm not against them selling a product and I would consider buying one in the future, this time around our stories were not good enough for that.)

What I'd Do Differently Next Time

We plan to use the activity again next marking period. If we do, I will have larger groups and fewer stories. I was hoping to keep the number of submitted chapters down, so students didn't get tired of reading several. Since there was very little sign of that problem in our class, I am going to aim for about 10 students per group in the future, which means three stories.

This should help with what I considered to be the biggest negative on the site. The students' submissions were organized by story, so I was constantly clicking on a story, then clicking through the submissions to approve them. I had to keep going out of one story and into another to find the students who were ready to be moved along. It would have been much easier if there was another view where I could just approve any student regardless of the story he or she worked on. Having fewer stories will at least make this a little less frantic.

And along those lines, I also hope we will have a lot more time to work on each chapter. My plan would be to use the activity along with other things we are doing in the class. After several days of having the chapter open for writing, we would close it then vote. That way I could send back revisions and raise expectations on what they are submitting (in content, spelling, grammar, etc.).

I'm looking forward to our second attempt with Boomwriter and I hope to share some of the stories next time around!

When Older Students Write Stories for Younger Students

Do you have a dream project? I've been able to do a few in my career. Here is one that I've done three times now, expanding on it each time. I'll repeat it again soon with another group of students. It has been so successful this year that I believe it will become a regular event in our district. I'm still tweaking many aspects, but I'm excited to share it with you.

Overall Goals

I wanted to make a project that would get younger students excited about reading. I designed a simple routine that requires older students to write short stories for and about younger students. After doing it a few times now, I've found these additional benefits.

• It's very engaging for older students. Even the most unmotivated students write a story.
• We have good conversations about what makes an inspiring story.
• We relate the important theme of finding our gifts and overcoming obstacles to our own lives.
• It can make use of as much or as little tech as the teachers want.
• There are many options for extending the learning.

As you read this lesson idea, keep in mind I have the advantage of working in any building in our district. If you're a classroom teacher doing this project, just think of another teacher you could work with and what each of your roles would be in the activity.

I usually work with an elementary teacher and a middle school teacher, so I'll use that in my explanation. The steps below are usually separate class periods, but but I try to do the first few in consecutive days. The goal is to get the students writing right away. The whole project takes two to three weeks, mostly because the middle school class spends 5 - 7 class periods writing their stories. 

Step 1:  What Makes a Good Story?

I take one class period with a middle school class. I explain that we will be writing stories for elementary students and that requires us to find what makes a good story. Through examples and discussion, we build up to a definition I have written about before, based on Donald Miller's books. He explains that every good story is about...

• A character...
• Who wants something...
• And overcomes conflict to get it.

We look for this pattern in movies and books we like. I also have them (in groups) read one-page biographies of famous people who did something good after overcoming obstacles. I'm still tweaking this part, but some of these people have been Helen Keller, Ben Carson, Louie Zamparini and Phiona Mutesi. We sum up those biographies in terms of the conflict the person overcome and what good they offered the world after that.

By the end of the class, I show them some of the slides I will share with the elementary students. Of course, as I talk about what i will tell the younger ones, I'm really trying to reach them too. I explain:

• I want students to use technology to discover and use their gifts. And we all have a gift.
• We also all have obstacles we face in life. I have referred to these as "walls" or "challenges".
• If we learn to overcome those obstacles, we can discover and use our gifts.

Summing it up, I explain that their stories will be based on how the younger students want to help others (their gifts) and what challenges they face. I explain that we will ask the younger students some questions in a Google Form and I take suggestions from the class about what to ask. 

As you can imagine, I have no problem getting ideas from the class. By now the students are always excited to learn about the younger students.

While the list of suggested questions varies each time, for the most part we get the same types of questions. I always include a few of my own to sharpen the focus of the survey. I'll give examples below. 

And last of all, I take a picture of the class before I leave. The younger students love to see who is writing for them.

Step 2:  Meeting the Younger Students

I usually meet with third grade classes and I try to make this part take about 20 - 30 minutes. It's always such a pleasure to talk with younger students and see their excitement. As I told the older students I would, I begin by explaining my job and how tech can help us discover and share our gifts with others. I talk about one student I worked with a few years ago who started writing and selling her own books on Amazon. 

I explain that we all have gifts that the world needs us to use. I also talk about walls we face in life. I explain how I was voted "most shy" when I was in school and how hard ti was to get in front of a class. I also talk about my wife. She faced abuse as a child, but as an adult has helped many homeless people in our community. 

Then, before I set them loose on the survey, we go through each question that I and the class came up with. 

Speaking of the survey, one big challenge is to include what the middle school students wanted to ask without getting too much information. If I come back to the middle school with too much information, the students try to include everything. Their stories turn into long lists of random events, each revealing some tidbit the young student put on his or her survey.

I want the older students to feel they contributed to the survey, but there are really just a few key things we need to do this right.

The surveys usually are something like this:

• What nickname do you want us to use for you? (We don't use their real names.)
• Are you a boy or a girl?
• Who lives with you? (I explain they don't have to list names, but just things like "two brothers, my grandma", etc.)
• What do you like to do in your free time?
• What is one gift you have that you think you could use to help others? (We talk about some examples, but I have to be careful here or they mostly just tell me things I listed as an example!)
• What is one challenge you face in life?

I use Google Forms for this survey, since it's easier to compile the results in the next step. 

As with the older students, I try to take a picture of this class as they take the surveys. It really inspires the older students to start writing! (Actually, if I have the chance I take a picture of the class before I even meet with the older students. Starting the whole discussion off with the photo puts it in context.)

Step 3:  Compiling the Survey Results

I use Autocrat to compile the students' survey results into a single document. That Google Sheets add-on can be a little intimidating at first, but when it compiles 25 or so surveys in about a minute, it's well worth the investment of setup time.

This is an example of one student's responses compiled in
a table. Notice his "gift" is walking dogs!

I made my template for Autocrat so that it puts each student's answers in a table. I print those, then work with the classroom teacher to decide how we will assign the younger students to the older students. It depends a lot on class size, but so far we have always combined two younger students for each story. Most students will end up in two stories. Sometimes the older students work individually and sometimes we put them in groups.

Note that attendance can be a complicating factor as  you wait for all survey results to be in. You will want all younger students to be represented in the stories, but we've had cases where a student was absent for several days and we had to start writing before we had the results. This requires flexibility. While I haven't had to do it yet, there are times I just moved along with the process and I planned to write a story myself for any student who turned in a survey very late.

Be aware that the younger students do not always understand what I meant by their "gift" and a "challenge". Sometimes they are very literal. Many times instead of writing a significant life challenge, they will write something like doing wheelies on their bike. It's understandable and middle school students often get a kick out of how they interpret the questions! 

Often their challenge will be a school subject they find difficult. We end up with a lot of stories about learning math! Sometimes they are a lot more serious, like dealing with bullying. One time a student even said her challenge in life was dealing with the loss of her mother. Those things can be difficult, but handled gently, they make an important learning experience for all involved.

Step 4:  Starting the Stories

Each page of the story template has space
for an image and some text.

A lot of the details of the writing process are completely up to the classroom teacher, so I am not very involved with this part. I do come in the first day and give some examples of how I would use a student's survey results in a story. I also show the class the simple template we use.

The length of the stories and how long the project takes are all up to the teacher.

A few things to note:

• The teacher I've worked with the most has them write an outline and then a draft, both on paper first. Once approved, they start writing on the Google Slides template.
• While we haven't mastered this yet, we use some guiding questions to help them plan a story that focuses on the students' gifts and the challenges they want to overcome. All the other details they find on the survey results are meant to flesh out that story, not distract from it. 
• None of our students have purposely included inappropriate content, but the teacher and I have redirected a few things here and there. As you would imagine, you will want to have at least a couple points in the process before they turn them in where you can read their stories in detail.
• When the writers are working in pairs, we have one student open the template in Classroom, then share that with his or her partner. So the one student actually never has to use Classroom for the assignment. This is just a simple way for us to monitor their work throughout, as we have access to the stories in Classroom. (And it lets us easily provide the template.)
  
• I come back at a later date and show them  examples of title pages. I don't go into great detail on the features, but I point out how to add Word Art, gradient fills and drop shadows. I don't start with this, because it will distract some of them from the writing.
• As I mentioned earlier, every student has written a story so far in this project. I always see a couple students who are obviously tough cases. I've been warned by the teacher that they might not complete a story. So far no one has dared to make their assigned student go without a story. 

Step 5:  Editing and Compiling the Stories

I have been working with a middle school elective class most often on this. While we've been happy with the students' engagement and effort, stories submitted by middle schoolers are rarely ready to go straight to the younger students. Here's what I do to edit them and prepare the files for the younger students.

I share the stories with the younger
students on a Google Site.

• I open the Drive folder from Classroom and I make a copy of all the completed files. I do this so the teacher can grade the students' stories exactly as they were submitted.
• I then drag those copies into a new folder and share that so everyone in our school can view it if they have the link.
• I read each story carefully and make corrections to spelling, grammar and punctuation. I change some words for young readers if necessary.
• I change the name of the story so it matches what the writers put on the title page and I also include the nicknames of the students it is written to. For example, a story might be The Day at the Park for Anna and Chloe.
• Last of all, I create a Google Site for the project and I add a link from that site to each story. I usually use pictures I've taken to decorate it too, so it's inviting to the younger students. I link to that page from the website the students see when they sign into Chromebooks.
• Last of all, I tell the elementary teacher that the stories are ready.

Step 6:  Students Read Their Stories and Respond

As anyone would expect, it's an exciting time in the classroom when the students read their stories. There's no doubt my goal of hooking them with stories written for and about them has been accomplished. They read their stories as well as stories for their classmates. 

At this point there are many other options to continue the project. One teacher had her class write handwritten thank-you notes back to the middle school students. Another teacher wanted to have the classes meet up through a Google Hangout. Even though the schools are only about eight miles apart and some of the students even knew each other, both classes absolutely loved it.

That teacher also had her students (with their hearty agreement) write stories back to the middle schoolers. We gave a quick paper/pencil survey to the older students. The elementary teacher invited me to join them during their writing hour each day for a week. I taught them some basics of using Google Slides and they had a wonderful time making their stories.

I also have a follow-up reflection survey I like to give the older students. It encourages them to consider their interests in writing stories. Very importantly, it also asks them if the project has helped them think of their own gifts and challenges in life. I'm still perfecting this stage of the project, but I believe the reflection is essential to solidify the most beneficial lessons.

_______________

So that's my dream project. I look forward to developing it more each time we do it. I'll be glad to hear what you'd add to it or what you like best.

Making a Choose Your Own Adventure Story with Google Slides

Update 6/26/2019:  I just posted an updated lesson plan for this on Teachers Pay Teachers for $2. It includes several improvements I made this past school year. My goal was to make a lesson you could assign in Google Classroom and the students wouldn't need any help from you to complete it.

As I mentioned last week, I'm teaching a class called Learning Through Gaming. In the survey I gave the class the first day, many students indicated they wanted to make games. To give them a taste of creating a game, I had them create a Choose Your Own Adventure story using Google Slides.

Here's a document based very closely on the directions we gave our students.

The document contains all directions and a link to this very basic sample story I made. I also included a link to Eric Curts' excellent example. (If you're not familiar with Eric's amazing site, Ctrl Alt Achieve, be sure to check it out. Like so many of his posts, he has the definitive guide on Choose Your Own Adventure stories for class.)

A few other things to note about this assignment:

• I put a video tutorial in the later stages of the document that shows how to create the links. 
• Students will probably want to get started on the links right away. As you'll see, I emphasize planning first.
• As Eric says on his blog, his story was written and illustrated by middle school students. Like the Choose Your Own Adventure books many of us loved as children, the endings sometimes involve your death. Keep this in mind if assigning this to younger students.
• The example stories I link to are published to the web. That means they open in full screen. I didn't include directions for that for the students. In their case, they start the story by clicking the Present button in Google Slides. 
• Like many of our activities at the middle school level, I will be posting the students' stories on our school website. The school will vote on their favorites and the winning authors will get a prize.

Short Music Video Project for Middle School

Here's a quick music video project we did for our middle school Computers class. We used iPads with the Pixlr app, GarageBand and iMovie.

The video that students produce will be very short and the song will be very simple. Here's a sample one I made with my family. It took about 30 minutes from start to finish, but students will probably take at least two class periods to work through everything.

All of the directions can be found in this document. It links to the sample video and to four tutorials. We assigned it in Google Classroom and the students were editing pictures and making songs in no time!

Here are a two notes:

• I made the tutorials as a series of slides rather than capturing the iPad while I used the apps. It was a shortcut that leaves out some details, but I like the students to have to explore and learn the apps rather than watching every single tap.
• Our iPads are shared between classes, so each one has a generic Google account on it. We encourage students not to sign in on them with their own accounts. That's why the final steps explain that the students must share the files with their account. If you have a different setup, you will want to modify those last steps.

It's really easy to add some class content to this project. Just have students sing a simple chorus or make a short rap about what they're studying. They could hold signs in the pictures or use text features of Pixlr or iMovie too.

I'll be glad to hear feedback if you get a chance to try this fun activity with your students!

How to Make a PDF eBook Using Google Slides

In class and for my personal use, I have created PDF "ebooks" using Google Slides. It's a simple method that can make attractive files that are easy to share.

There are essentially two steps:

1. Make a slideshow in Google Slides. This will take the longest. And it can take a very long time depending on how attractive you want it to look and how many pages you'll be creating.
2. Download it as a PDF. This takes about 10 seconds. Literally, it's just two or three clicks.

I made the tutorial for this process. It doesn't go into great detail about how to do the layout, but I show a few things briefly about the most important tools you'll use.

If you don't want to watch the entire thing, click the links below to open a new tab at that section of the video. I highlighted the two key ones for anyone familiar with Google Slides in general.

Contents:

1. Process overview 
2. Making a New Google Slides Presentation
3. **Changing the dimensions of your pages
4. Basic tools in Google Slides
5. Example of how the book will look before download
6. **How to download the PDF
7. How the PDF ebook will look
8. My blog

Creativity Game with Google Slides - Abe & Einstein

This post contains a link to the template you need to play this game, but you'll also want to see this post  which explains how to run these creativity games with your class using Google Apps.

My most popular posts on this blog are the creativity games and exercises. Over the past year I have been translating some of those ideas into a Google Slides format.

When played as a classroom game, this one allows 3 - 5 creative students to compete to make up what two random well known people would say if they met. For example, what would you overhear in a chance meeting between Spider-man and Santa Claus? How about Harry Potter and Justin Bieber?

The whole class participates by voting on their favorite response. The creative thinking required for this game can be a challenge, but I've seen middle school and high school students have a lot of fun with these games.

I also have suggestions at the end of this post for other ways to use the activity, possibly with less time or allowing more students to create the fun answers.

First, here's the flow of the game when used with the whole class. There is a video that shows this process below.

1. Choose 3 to 5 students to be the contestants in the game. They should sit at the front of the room. They'll need either paper or a computer, depending on how you want them to share their riddle answers with you.
2. The slideshow for the game (at a link below) is displayed so the class can see it. It will usually be on the game slide, slide 2.
3. The teacher draws two random names from the group and displays them for the contestants to see.
4. The contestants get two minutes to write a few lines of what those people might say if they met. Each student sends his or her lines to the teacher.
5. The teacher reads them to the class and they are entered in the game slide so the students can see them.
6. The students in the class now have the chance vote on the their favorite haiku (using a classroom response system or possibly Google Forms).
7. Points are awarded to the contestants based on the number of votes they received.
8. Steps 2 - 6 are repeated three or four times, then scores are totaled to determine a winner.

Here is the Google Slides presentation that you'll need to play this game or to do any of the activities listed below.

Click to have a copy of the Google Slides presentation added to your Google Drive. 

Video Overview

This 4 minute video shows how to play these creativity games with a class. It contains a different game about answering a riddle instead of writing dialogue, but the process is the same. (If you're interested, here's the post about that game.)

Tips and suggestions for other ways to use the activity

• Obviously this chance conversation should be brief. Students should try for 2 - 4 short lines.
• To indicate who is talking, students can use initials. So using the Spider-Man and Santa Claus example, a student could write:
• SC:  Hey Spider-man, can you teach me to crawl walls like that?
• SM:  Sorry Santa, lay off the milk and cookies then check back when you look this good in tights.
• You might not be able to fit the whole dialogue in the boxes on the game slide. Read the full submissions from students, but for voting, t's usually sufficient to just sum up it up a few short words to help students remember each one.
• Usually the students make funny conversations in this game, but you could require different criteria for the "best" one.
• Have some things to show the rest of the class or to talk about while the contestants write their dialogue. See my post about creativity exercises to get some ideas that will involve everyone.
• It's easy to change any of the names that I made for the game. Just draw one out and double click on the text. Use names of people related to what you're studying in class. Or pick names of people at your school, like your principal or the custodian. This gives the students a chance to practice being funny while still being respectful. Note that I did put "Your Teacher" in the mix!
• You can have the rest of the class write their own ideas for dialogue too. After the vote, have some of them share what they wrote if they want.
• If you don't want to devote much class time to the game, just draw two words at the end of class and have all students make a haiku for homework. You can select your top 5 and have them vote on the best one as a warm-up in a later class.

Announcing My Game Design Project Packs

This week I went live with my game design project pack website. You can check it out at ClassroomGameDesign.blogspot.com.

The project packs are collections of resources that help students make fun, simple games based on your lessons. Some key features are:

• Through group discussion and individual reflection, students will explore the class content in order to apply its themes to a simple, novel game.
• Creative teachers and students can use the project in many subjects, but they work best as creative projects for social studies and language arts.
• The games are non-digital, so you won't lose class time while students learn to program a computer.
• All resources are created in Google Apps, so it's easy to assign and students can collaborate on the games.
• The project is very flexible. Teachers can focus on the game design process as much or as little as they want.

Right now I have two project packs, both of which appeared on this blog in two series of posts. I plan to add at least two other packs by the end of the month.

Another part of the site I'm excited about is this page designed for students. It offers several resources for those who want to dig deeper into game design.

Game Design Exploration 2 - Reflection on Re-Designing Love Letter

This final stage of the project can be the most important, as it requires students to reflect upon what they learned about the lesson topic for your course as well as game design. In it each student Students will complete the document at the link below. 

Do not give students the document until they worked through Parts 1, 2 and 3 of the activity. That means they should have created a game based on the Love Letter game, tested it and played at least one game created by another group before they try to answer the questions. 

If you modified the activity in Parts 1 - 3 of the project, you might have to change the questions in the document to fit what your students experienced. Also, change the references to "the course topic" so they ask about the specific topic students studied in your class.

Through reflection, students should gain deeper insights from the activity. Their responses also provide you with a look at what they've learned about the lesson topic. That can be used to guide followup instruction or class discussion.

The reflection questions in the document come in three parts:

• The activity itself
• The game design process
• The lesson topic and how they connected elements of it to their game theme

You can find the Game Design Exploration Reflection Sheet here.

Game Design Exploration 2 - Printing and Testing the Games

This is the third part in a game design exploration based on the game Love Letter*. The activity would work well in any language arts or social studies class.

Be sure to see the previous posts in the series:

• Learning to play Love Letter
• Adding a new theme to Love Letter

In this stage, students will test the games. They might play their own game or just play each other's games. You could even incorporate revisions and further playtesting. It all depends on how much time you want them to spend on this. Details follow below.

Note that this post draws heavily from what I wrote in the playtesting stage of my first game design exploration from last year.

Is everyone ready to proceed?

If a class is working through this design activity, at this point each group of students should have redesigned the Love Letter game to fit the lesson content. At the very least they should have done the following. (All of this is explained in the second post in this series.)

• Chosen a theme for their game based on the topic studied in class

• Created a title for their game

• Written a short introduction about the game

• Redesigned the cards and changed them on the template found in Part 2 of this series.

Optionally, the groups might have designed additional rules and components for their game.

Making the Cards

In the previous stage of this activity, students revised a template to create new cards based on the Love Letter game. Before they can test the games, they'll need to produce some cards they can actually play with. One way to do that is to print on card stock, but I've found it's easy to see through most card stock I've used over the years.

Whether it's a first draft or a late stage prototype, here's the method I've been using lately. 

• Buy some card protector sleeves like these, found on Amazon.
• Put an old playing card or some other game card in them that you won't need. This keeps them stiff enough to shuffle.
• Print your cards on paper and cut the cards out. (Or for first drafts, you might just write them by hand on slips of paper.)
• Slide those paper "cards" into the sleeves.

Here's a short video that I created for students that shows how I use this process with early and late stage prototypes.

If the groups added rules for additional cards or components, all of those pieces need to be printed and cut out or gathered as well.

Depending on how much time you want the class to devote to this playtesting experience, groups could make two or more copies of their game so multiple groups could play them at once.

The importance of playtesting and revision - the iterative process in game design

This testing and revision stage of the game design process is essential. It can be fun and rewarding or sometimes very frustrating! It's often the heart of the creation process and it will probably take more time than all other parts combined.

Being so important, students need to see it. With limited class time, though, it is likely you will use it in this activity only provide some exposure to the concepts and a chance to have fun with the designs. Tell students it is important when making any type of game, but remind them to really test and improve their game they'd need to work on it a lot outside of class.

Keeping that in mind, tweak the following outline and resources to fit your needs.

Groups test their own games

Game designers often play their own games first, just to see if the creations even work at all. At this stage, each group should play their game at least once.

After playing, students should discuss these questions:

• Did the game work as we intended?
• Did we find anything (good or bad) that we didn't expect?
• How much do we think other groups will enjoy our game?
• What changes could we make to improve the game?

Depending on how much time you have for this design exploration, students could rework their cards. Simple changes might be handwritten right on the cards. Significant changes might require students to actually alter the cards in the original Google Drawings they made in Part 2 of this activity.Of course, that would require them to print and cut out more components.

If time doesn't allow a students to make all the changes they want to, remind them that they can improve the game as much as they want on their own.

Groups test a game designed by another group

For this part of the activity, each group will play at least one other group's game. Ideally this will be "blind playtesting", meaning the groups will play the games without additional assistance from the game designers.

The game components should already be created by now. Game introductions and possibly new rules need to be printed (or shared through Google Drive) so groups have everything they need to learn and play the games.

Along with these materials, give each group a copy of this Game Playtesting Sheet. It provides questions for before and after playing the game. 

Additional considerations

• Give the groups time in class to read and discuss the Game Playtesting Sheets that test groups filled out for their game.
• Groups could test games from more than one group if possible.
• Students could take their games home and have other people play them to get more opinions.
• Have a class discussion (possibly virtually) at the end of this stage so you and the students can look for patterns on what worked best in the games.
• It would be ideal to get test groups from a class that did not go through the design process themselves. In other words, they would likely be unfamiliar with Love Letter, so the whole experience would be new to them. This requires the designers to put a lot more work into their written rules.

In the next post (and final stage of the activity) students will reflect on their game designs and the design process.

*Love Letter was designed by Seiji Kanai and published by Alderac Entertainment Group. I have permission from the publisher to use their game as I have in this exploration. Please consider supporting them by buying a copy of the game that your students can play as they learn the basic rules.