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Block Writer

Build your own sentence from words on colorful plastic blocks.

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- 24.8 mb
- .pptx format

One issue with most writing games is that they ask students to simply copy what they see written on the screen without thinking much about what they're writing.  This can still be good writing practice (and fun), but Block Writer aims to mix things up a bit (literally and metaphorically) by giving students choices and letting them build their own sentence.

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I've played a Minecraft-themed game called 'Sentence Craft' (by 'Kimberly Teacher' / 'rtw_acrobat') and I liked the concept of mixing and matching words to make a sentence, but my first thoughts when I played it were (1) I don't personally like Minecraft (and don't want to make games using copyrighted materials), and (2) I wanted to see something in that vein but using the ubiquitous plastic bricks we all grew up building with as kids.

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Enter: Block Writer, which uses blocks of 'Zero' bricks to give students color-coded options for building their own sentences based on your desired lesson content.  Students choose one block of each color and write the sentence that results from their choices, then see how many points each block they chose is worth.

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A visual timer and background music help remind students that they need to choose words and write, and the modular rewards keep them engaged in the activity.  Not all lesson contents are easy to break down into 'fully flexible sentences', so some slides limit the choices down to what makes logical / grammatical sense (thus helping teachers use more sentence structures) by placing a line or 'wall' between the top and bottom sets of choices: for these slides, if a student chooses a red block from the top, they must also choose a green block from the top (and vice versa... see the image below... and don't play with pizza).  

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Set to a soundtrack of chip-tune music (retro 8-bit video game music just seemed to fit with a game featuring plastic bricks) and including 12 additional alternate game slides for replayability and versatility, Block Writer can give you as many options as your imagination can come up with (simple mad-libs, anyone?).

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