ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES

INTRODUCTION:

This lesson is designed to guide teachers through creating a "Choose Your Own Adventure Story" in HyperStudio or PowerPoint. In this type of story the reader gets to make choices at the end of every section and thus the story unfolds in the way their choices lead them. In creating these stories students make buttons to click on for each choice. To keep the idea simple, usually one choice is the right one and the other doesn't work out.

Click here to see an excellent example of a "Choose Your Own Adventure".

Click here to see a quicker simpler one done in PowerPoint. (This example is only to show how they work-students will be required to have better descriptions and plot development.)

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

LANGUAGE ARTS:

It is expected that students will:

• explain their preferences for specific authors, genres, types of print, visuals, and media
• use questioning, predicting, summarizing, inferring, skimming or scanning, and graphic organizers to accomplish specific purposes for reading, viewing, and listening
• use text and electronic media features, including indices, tables of contents, and keyword searches, to locate specific information or material
• identify and represent the main ideas or events in stories, poetry, informational material, videos, and other media
• use information they have read, heard, or viewed to develop questions and activities that will extend their understanding
• organize details and information they have read, heard, or viewed using a variety of written and graphic forms, including charts, webs, and maps
• describe information provided in simple and direct illustrations, maps, charts, or other graphic representations
• develop personal responses to materials and support their responses with reasons, examples, and details
• use grammatically correct language when writing and speaking
• locate, gather, select, and record information for specific purposes from various human, print, and electronic sources
• create various personal and transactional communications, including real and invented narratives, poems or lyrics, summaries or retellings, descriptions, letters, informal oral presentations, charts, and posters

COMPUTER SCOPE AND SEQUENCE:

• Write a simple caption or story to accompany a picture.
• Save, name and retrieve files.
• Change the line attributes (thickness, pattern, arrows).
• Change brush shape/size and spray size.
• Create a simple drawing with the pencil/paint brush in a paint program.
• Apply principles of effective communication and good design
• Use special effects in multimedia presentations to influence a message.
• Create basic animations and other visuals.
• Create multimedia documents using a variety of electronic sources.
• Create simple slide show presentations (e.g. Hypercard, ClarisWorks).
• Incorporate digital graphics into documents (e.g. scanned images).
• Understand concepts of communicating using multimedia.
• Become conversant with terminology.
• Operate basic software.
• Navigate a variety of multimedia documents (e.g. Hypercard, Kidpix, HTML).
• Access and use a variety of multimedia accessories (e.g. scanner, digital camera).

LESSONS:

1. Students can bring in some of their own "Choose Your Own Adventure" Stories or you can get some from your school library. Here is a link to a site with information about the books: http://www.netaxs.com/~katz/game/cyoalist.htm

2. With your class discuss how the books work and create a page of important aspects of the books that students can use for a guideline when creating their own. It is important that students realize that these books do have plot development and some character development.

3. You could create one with your whole class on the chalkboard by using a flow chart format. This would be a good way to model the writing of the stories before students try on their own.

4. Hand out the flow chart sheet (Click here to print the worksheet out from MS Word or here to print it from Adobe Acrobat) for students to use to begin mapping out their stories. Photocopy this for them on large paper. This stage is extremely important and although they will not be fully developing their stories until they are on the computers, they will need to have the idea for each slide done and the slides numbered before they enter the lab.

5. Students should pre-plan their story on the flow chart. They do not need to use this exact form and can create their own if they like. Another neat way to do the planning would be to use Sticky Notes and a large sheet of paper. It is IMPORTANT that each card including endings had a number on it.

6. When students are ready you can start working on the stories in the lab. In PowerPoint or Hyperstudio have students create all the slides first before connecting them with buttons. For instructions on basic PowerPoint click here. For instructions on HyperStudio click here. Make sure that students create the slides in the order that they are numbered on their plan. This really helps when students begin to put the buttons on.

7. When all the slides are created students can start adding buttons. Click for instructions for how to add buttons in PowerPoint written in MSWord or Adobe Acrobat (PDF).

EVALUATION:

Click here for a rubric to use for evaluating and self-evaluating this project.