how do you analyze fun?

This week, we'll be playing board games to practice evaluation skills! For this Connect module, we will practice the skills of informative writing and persuasive writing as we analyze games - and we'll refine our technological publishing skills.

Module summary:

• Expose: Break down an effective review
• Practice: Play and evaluate board games
• Create: Write board game review blog posts
• Reflect: Critique and revise posts​

Even people in stock photos enjoy a good board game!

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essential questions

• What is informative writing - and why is it important to do it well?
• How do we evaluate something comprehensively and creatively?
• How can the online medium enhance our writing?

goals

• Students will understand that informative writing is unbiased, logical writing that accurately conveys an idea.
• Students will understand that explaining clearly is beneficial in many scenarios: in school, in a job or college interview, in court, in a relationship...
• Students will understand that effective evaluation looks at multiple criteria consistently and in detail.
• Students will understand that writing online allows us to add depth to ideas by incorporating video, photos, and links to further information.

activities

Tuesday:

• Warm-up: read pointers on writing an effective game review
• Review syllabus, week schedule, and expectations
• Discuss elements of a quality game review
• Study Klask
  • read the instructions thoroughly and discuss effectiveness
  • explore game play - set up board and review pieces/cards/extras
• Play and evaluate Klask
  • Take photos of set-up and game play
  • Evaluate with review sheet
  • Discuss pros and cons
• Draft a review of Klask - write up in Google Docs
  • Overview of game play
  • Pros and cons
  • Insights from game discussion
  • Bottom line recommendation and reasoning

Wednesday:

• Study Game #2
  • read the instructions thoroughly and discuss effectiveness
  • explore game play - set up board and review pieces/cards/extras
• Play Game #2
  • Take photos of set-up and game play
  • Evaluate with review sheet
  • Discuss pros and cons
• Draft review of Game #2 - write draft in Docs
  • Overview of game play
  • Pros and cons
  • Insights from game discussion
  • Bottom line recommendation and reasoning

Thursday and Friday

• Finalize game reviews - finish drafts and get content approved by Kathy
• Upload blog posts to Weebly
  • Format review with distinct sections, each with a heading (Overview, Pros and Cons, etc - you can personalize and arrange these sections as you see fit)
  • Add 2 photos for each blog post - integrate smoothly (not a small image surrounded by white space)
  • Include a link to purchase game
• Self-evaluate blog posts with blog Writing Scoring Guide
• Conference with Kathy about blog posts
• Revise and re-publish posts as needed

c-tachs

Writing

• Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
• Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in flexible and dynamic ways (open to feedback, link to other information). 

Speaking and listening: 

• Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions

resources

Board games and blogging syllabus 
Game review pointers
Game play evaluation
​Blog Writing Scoring Guide

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