Gamified Writing
We have used the young writer’s program side of the NANoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)
site: http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/ as the basis for an ongoing gamified writing unit.
Here are some of the components to this unit:
- We set up online shareable novel documents, so that both the elementary/middle school student writers and teacher/s had editing rights and then made connections with high school students to provide collaboration and peer editing for the young authors as well.
- We set word count goals and introduced earning badges in multiple ways throughout the writing process (these badges were digital and were awarded inside the novel document).
- Once a week, our students needed to post three questions about their writing for their teachers and mentors to answer.
- Once the first drafts of their writing were done, and the final word counts were in, students chose one or two classmates to share their novels with to work on the editing process.
- Once editing was completed, the students used an online publishing site to design covers and create a hard copy version of their novel.
- Students shared book reviews of their writing with their classmates and three stories were chosen to be made into movies. Authors were producers, peers interviewed for character roles and set design and filming began. Final movies were shared with the school community and sold at the annual auction.
