Trying to explain Choose Your Own Adventure books to the creative writing kidlets makes me feel old because 1)about half of the kidlets have never heard of them before 2) the kidlets who have heard about them always say something along the lines of "Oh yeah! I think my mom read those way back when she was in school!" and 3) I am actually pretty old.
Since this generation has grown up with interactive EVERYTHING, the kidlets aren't initially impressed with the idea of a story that changes depending on a reader's choices. Then they start reading the different endings... the different super tragic endings full of random plot twists and cheesy dialogue that could put a Sharknado sequel to shame. Once those kidlets have been eaten by a shark, or buried alive in an Egyptian tomb, or suffered amnesia after finding a treasure and rescuing their one true love, they are hooked. Nobody loves depressing ending and cheesy dialogue like junior high students (and junior high teachers).
But because the Choose Your Own Adventure format is unfamiliar to the little people (2nd person point of view and present tense verbs make their cute little brains itch), many need to read a bunch of examples before they feel ready to tackle stories of their own. And since reading real Choose Your Own Adventure books takes more time than we have, I wrote a couple of shorter examples for the kidlets to peruse before starting their own books.
The kidlets liked reading through my little example books, but growing class sizes and diminishing copy counts made it difficult to have enough booklets on hand for everyone to read through them at the same time. So, since we live in the computer lab for most of the adventure writing unit, I thought it would be nice if I could put the books online. And last week, I did it!
But if you are going to embark on a Choose Your Own Adventure, remember:
1 comment:
Good idea. I remember about making copies. The school I worked for was sooo Nazi-ish about it. So good on ya that you thought to put them online. I can't wait to take a peek! And yes, 2nd person and present tense do make junior high kids freak out. Haha!
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