Writing an Adventure Journal

8-10 yrs old

11-13 yrs old

Reading and Writing

Get shipwrecked in Minecraft and make the island your home, using whatever you can scavenge to make it comfortable.

Submitted By: Litcraft

September 26, 2019

Lesson Plan
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Skills

Communication
Critical Thinking

External References

Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson Minecraft world file

Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson world to support lessons.

Litcraft Website

LITCRAFT uses the popular Minecraft gaming platform to build accurate scale models of authorial maps from classic works of literature.

Java World

Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson Minecraft world file for Java editions of Minecraft.

Supporting Files

Writing an Adventure Journal

Full lesson plan and additional activities.

Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson Extracts

Extracts from Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson to support activities.

Learning Objectives

To identify the features of a journal text.
To understand why a writer may choose to write in a particular form.
To undertake a piece of extended writing by breaking it up into stages.

Guiding Ideas

This series of lessons is designed to help teach English Language Arts concepts through the study of "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe, and "The Swiss Family Robinson" by Johann Wyss.

Reading and Writing

IN-GAME writing. Read the extracts from Robinson Crusoe’s Journal.

What textual form is the author using in this section of the text? Feedback.
Pupils look at the extract again and identify the features that make this a journal.

Feedback to class and make a list of the key features of this kind of text.

• Once the class has agreed on a list, pupils return to the extract and find evidence of

those specific features in the text. Feedback.

• Ask pupils to think about the following:

i) How else might this section of the text have been written?

ii) What different options were available to the author?

iii) Why did he choose to write in the journal form?

Conclude by discussing other texts that the pupils have read in the journal form

Student Activities

Start by loading the Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson Minecraft world file found in the resources section. Open the chest you find there marked Task 5: Mini-Island

In-Game Activity: Mini Island

Go to the small island off the left-hand side (the West Coast) of Swiss Family Robinson Island.

This is the base for your own island adventure.

Use the descriptions of each stage of the shipwreck story to re-enact your own castaway story.

Write up each stage of your story in the Journal also in this chest.

Copy Crusoe’s journal form to help you write convincingly. Here are some ideas.

Make the island your home, using whatever you can scavenge to make it comfortable. Why might a smaller islet be safer

Shipwrecked!
1. Describe what it might be like being on a sinking ship. Think about the noises, the confusion, suddenly being alone.
Building Shelter
1. What are your priorities? What makes you most at risk? What does your shelter need to last more than a few nights? Describe what you would do to make it safe.
Exploring Surroundings.
1. Take a boat and go all round the isle, writing a description of what you see. And what you imaging may lie out of view.
Rescue.
1. Do you want to be rescued? If so, how will you go about helping it happen? What sort of beacons could you make? Or would you be content with an island life?
2. Create a journal of your life on the island.

FOLLOW UP TASK:

Read the short extracts relating to the narrative structure of the “Robinsonade” or shipwreck narrative.

Encourage the children to see that if they focus on each STAGE of the shipwreck they can build and sustain a longer piece of writing.

Let them use the shorter version they wrote in-game in their Journal as the basis for a fuller version of the narrative. (You can take screenshots of the book written in on screen and print these off if you need to get the writing “out” of the world.)

Performance Expectations

Students are active participants in each activity.
Students are able to identify the features of a journal text.
Students are able to understand why a writer may choose to write in a particular form.
Students are able to undertake a piece of extended writing by breaking it up into stages.