Games, Learning, and Life Lessons (EBIGFY)

Read the “Candy Crush” article together in class. This is also a good opportunity to model annotation skills and tackle vocabulary comprehension issues as they arise.

Discuss the main points of the article, focusing particularly on the cognitive impacts of the game and how we are prone to seek out cognitive rewards.

Assign the chapter on “Games” from Everything Bad is Good for You as homework.

Using a reading comprehension strategy (quiz, class discussion, group discussion, game, etc.), discuss the chapter.

Introduce the assignment. Focus on the different tasks being asked of students: summarizing the main points of the chapter, defining the terms for an unfamiliar audience, and applying the terms to a non-gaming example from their own lives.

Use brainstorming strategies (listing, discussion, clustering, free writing, etc.) to brainstorm for this assignment.

Use a revision strategy (peer review, conferences, group revision activities, etc.) to review rough drafts.

Assign a final draft of the paper as homework.

Because this paper asks for some very specific writing tasks (summary followed by personal narration), it lends itself well to outlining activities. Reverse outlining the rough drafts, in particular, can be a good way to demonstrate how to focus paragraphs and transition between writing tasks.