It's a complicated sort of decision, but in the end it wasn't terribly difficult to make.
The full 168-page digital version of World Adventure Kids is now a 100% free download. You can get it now by popping over to the WAK page on English Raven; look for the green bar inviting you to download the book for free. No strings attached.
I might blog in the near future about why I've decided to head in this direction, but for now let's just say that:
I designed and wrote this because I wanted to enjoy the whole design and writing process. It was fun. Enormously enjoyable to make.
I'm a truly lousy (and lazy) salesman. I honestly couldn't be bothered putting all the time into advertising and pushing it. I'd rather children just read it, liked it.
It cost thousands to self-publish this sort of work (the illustrations alone put me back close to three thousand US dollars...), but it was bankrolled with part of the royalties from a massively commercial textbook series (and let's just say that, using that equation, I'm still well in front).
There is the risk, of course, that offering something up for free means that people will be less disposed towards valuing and respecting it. We'll see, shall we?
These are terms you might have seen bandied about a lot of late. We do, of course, want our learners to read extensively, read intensively, and do so based on voluntary interest in what they are doing.
It's not always as easy as it sounds, especially for highly reluctant readers and/or those children who are reading (or being 'forced' to read) based on a study schedule where, despite all of our best intentions and slogans, the rewards for reading are more often extrinsically motivated than intrinsically driven.
These were the sorts of issues that inspired me, several years ago, to write choose your own adventure style stories that address the reader directly and focus on the idea of having grand adventures, and for it to almost feel like a game.
One of the most interesting aspects of this came in the form of 'cheating'...
With both the print and digital versions of World Adventure Kids, the narratives are divided up into chunks and spread at random around different page numbers in the book (with directions on which part to go to next, often with a choice to make).
A common result, as with the pages illustrated at the top of this post, is that the readers find themselves looking at one part of the story on one page but also get a juicy preview of another stage of either the same or a different adventure thread in the book. The temptation to at least glance over that facing page (knowing that it might inform you about what is coming up later in the your adventures) can be quite irresistable.
Hence the reader looks beyond the section of the story to other sections (extending what they read), and does so voluntarily.
A similar sort of thing happens when readers are presented with choices. The temptation to do a little cheating and glance over at the results of both choices before selecting one to follow is natural (with more opportunities for voluntary extension outside the bounds of a single narrative).
The facilitation of these forms of 'cheating' is deliberate on my part in World Adventure Kids.
The readers may be cheating a little when it comes to 'playing' this story as a game, but they are winning (without actually realising it) when we consider the extra reading and critical thinking they engage in quite naturally through this process.
So, dear younger readers of World Adventure Kids, cheat to your heart's content. I'm all for it!
Rilla Roessel is one of those people you meet and work with in publishing who constantly surprises you and -- occasionally -- makes you realise there are people out there who see things you never even guessed at.
Rilla was kind enough to look over a very early draft of World Adventure Kids for me (I'd worked with Rilla extensively at Pearson through the whole process of making and then marketing the Boost! Integrated Skills Series) to give me some feedback and provide a few angles I might have missed.
She really liked what she saw/read, acknowledged that it ticked a lot of those boxes like CLIL, extensive reading, etc. and then made a comment along the lines of "another thing it really has going for it is that it has such a strong values curriculum embedded in it."
Values curriculum?
There was a new term to add to my thinking box...
Rilla is right, of course. There are a lot of different values and ethical or moral perspectives presented in World Adventure Kids. In fact, several of the decision pathway options in the reader-directed story deliberately target choices that could be said to embody ethical issues and 'values.'
I featured 'values' in this way in World Adventure Kids because it seemed to come naturally to a story for children -- young people still exploring ideas and choices in the world and trying to figure out what is inherently right or wrong about what they choose to do and why.
However, having identified (thanks to Rilla's astute observation) that my work definitely did have a 'values' orientation, I must admit that I started to feel a little uneasy...
Was I preaching at and attempting to moralize children in this story? In embedding a strong 'values curriculum' was I in actual fact falling prey to something more along the lines of the 'hidden curriculum'?
I looked back through the stories and choices again, eventually realising I was comfortable with the ethical choices presented. From the very start, World Adventure Kids are presented as having a very specific mission: to protect the world's environment, animals, people and cultural treasures. If you want to be a World Adventure Kid, lead a mission and use all the cool resources this mysterious movement has at its disposal, your actions and decisions need to reflect the values identified as being synonymous with WAK.
Hence I feel quite comfortable with choices presented to young readers along these lines (warning: may contain some plot spoilers!):
Free the anaconda?
You've found an anaconda trapped in a cage in the depths of the Amazon Rainforest. Do you let it loose (which could obviously present some danger to yourself) or leave it right where it is (a course of action very enthusiastically supported by that member of your team who is absolutely petrified of snakes)? Should the fact that anacondas are illegally caught and sold as pets in other countries really matter?
Be the first to meet the Hi-Merima?
You accidentally stumble upon the village of the Hi-Merima tribe, an uncontacted people secreted away in the Amazon (this one is based on actual fact). Be the first modern humans to meet them and get your name in all the newspapers and research journals, or leave them alone? Does the fact the tribe is hostile to outsiders and at serious health risk based on lack of immunities (from things like the common cold) warrant consideration? What about their right to continue living their lives the way they always have, not bothering the outside world?
Touch the treasure?
After a perilous underground journey, you've finally discovered Pharaoh Sety's hidden treasure and it is truly SPECTACULAR! Haven't you earned the right to be the first to touch and examine it all, even if there is a bit of a risk that your inexpert hands might break something? And does the notion of the treasure rightfully belonging to the people of Egypt (first and foremost) really carry any water? Why is Tootenhootin in the British Museum, anyway?
Worth the risk?
This one is presented in World Adventure Kids in various guises in the face of different dangerous situations where a specific item of equipment hasn't been chosen by the adventurers and is necessary for safe navigation through the danger. Swim across a river full of Black Caimans? Sprint along a corridor despite a specific warning it needs to be walked in complete silence? What about your responsibility as team captain to ensure the safety of your team members and not take any unnecessary risks?
I'm not sure about other people's feelings on these issues, but I don't personally think these dilemmas represent ethical consideration that is inappropriate for children to tackle.
Yes, they do make an attempt at a set of values to be thought about and exhibited, and to that extent they perhaps do comprise a 'values curriculum.' But given World Adventure Kids are up front about what they expect from their team members, I would hardly say they form any kind of 'hidden curriculum.'
And in any case, the 'values' stuff isn't the only criteria for challenges and choices. Most of the other pathways depend more on critical thinking skills, which is something I will blog about in the near future.
Then again, isn't a values curriculum yet another way to encourage and facilitate critical thinking?
One of the most important parts of reading, from a skills and foundation point of view, is building vocabulary. This is particularly true for young readers engaging with texts in their second language, but is generally relevant to first language learners as well.
How robust the approach to building vocabulary is can depend on a variety of factors. Some readers can sort of 'absorb' new words just through the process of guessing from context and doing a wide range of extensive reading. Others can get by reasonably well enough by occasionally referring to a dictionary or asking an adult for explanation and elaboration when it seems called for. Some readers benefit from writing up word lists with basic definitions.
Working with learners of all ages in a context where English was a foreign language and a major priority of reading in English was to develop vocabulary, some years ago I developed a workbook approach to supplement reading texts called 'Word Hoard' (and later: 'Word Wise'). It worked so well that I thought it would be a good idea to apply it as an optional resource for the World Adventure Kids stories as well.
What follows is an overview of how to use the World Adventure Kids Word Wise resource (available as a free PDF download here) and what it covers and why. I've also included an introductory/instructional video specially made for the children-users themselves (though I'm sure teachers and parents could benefit from it as well!).
Basically, Word Wise WAK 2-1 is a 69-page workbook designed to be used in conjunction with the World Adventure Kids reading sets. It can be printed out and added to progressively as learners encounter and explore new words in the story texts. It caters to 8 'units' of 20 words each (hence 160 words altogether), but these numbers can be easily adjusted upwards or downwards based on reader and classroom preferences.
The first step involves the Master Wordlist at the start of the book. As learners read through and experience World Adventure Kids, the idea is that they look for words that feel new or that they would like to explore more. When a word has been chosen, it is entered first in the Master Wordlist at the front of the book (to create an initial reference point) -- the example used here is the word 'adventure'.
Each word is then placed into a special work grid, presented in the workbook as above, with three word grids per page and twenty per 'unit'. This is where the word is going to be really worked with and explored in a much more robust fashion, and the video below explains and demonstrates how it all works (this was specifically made for young readers to understand the process, by the way!):
So, in essence, a word grid features the following exploration:
A. Listing the word
B. Translating it into a learner's first language (or writing a definition for it)
C. Writing the word out three times neatly
D. Identifying the word's part of speech
E. Finding words that represent related ideas (building 'convocation' and lexical sets)
F. Writing the word in context using the full example sentence initially encountered in the World Adventure Kids text
G. Writing the word in a new sentence of the learner's own creation, using it accurately in a new context and/or personalising its use
H. Drawing a sketch or diagram (or pasting on a picture) to help visually conceptualise the word
Having experimented with vocabulary development for children over many years, I've found this has been one of the most comprehensive when it comes to really exploring the notion and use of a word.
Note that the grid doesn't necessarily need to be filled out in that order, and I have in fact seen children complete the grid in all sorts of different sequences. Great! Let them find what works for them. I've also found that a basic dictionary, physical or online, is a great help for filling out some of these sections.
When a word grid has been completed (or completed to the best of the learner's ability), it can be checked by a parent or teacher (you'll probably find it easier to check several at a time) and have 'stars' allocated for each complete 'row' on the grid. There are six star rows in each grid, and many of them represent 'easy points' (for example, writing the word out, finding its part of speech, copying the sentence it comes from in the main text, etc.). This star point allocation is meant to be reasonably flexible; I have, for example, been willing to circle a complete star in cases where most of the row was successfully completed.
The star points can be tallied on each page of the workbook (there is a space at the bottom of each page to do this) and then a points tally can be made for an entire 'unit' of 20 words. There are basically 120 star points per unit up for grabs, and I've divided them into grade rankings (not very scientific or statistical, mind; I've just found that this allocation tends to reward learners willing to put in the hard yards without slapping an unnecessarily shocking grade on those who aren't quite as dedicated!).
There is also a chart at the end of the workbook that allows learners and teachers/parents to track how well they performed across all of the units.
The final part of a unit features an integration/use activity encouraging learners to write 'a report, article, short essay or story using at least 15 of the vocabulary items from the unit'. This is strictly optional of course, and one of the great things about this printable resource is that, if you feel this is going just that little bit too much overboard, you can always not include it!
The basic idea here is for the learners to do some extended writing of their own, using the words they've explored for a targeted writing purpose.
Here are just some of the ways this section could be used for readers of World Adventure Kids:
1. Write a quick report about what has happened in your adventure so far.
2. Write about some of the new things you've learned so far(World Adventure Kids is rich in subject-based learning, so this ought to be a relatively rich area to choose from).
3. Rewrite key parts of your adventure so far, using past tense (the adventure itself is written in the present tense, so this can be an interesting way to highlight differences between the two tenses).
4. Create a spin-off story (take one or more parts of the adventure and add new narrative to change or extend it in some way).
5. Rewrite the key points of the adventure so far from the perspective of one of the other characters (for example, pretend to be a different team member or even Golden Sky or a Jump Jet/Heliporter pilot observing the adventure from a distance).
6. Create a timeline or map with labels summarising the adventure so far (good for learners who aren't confident with extensive writing but may like more visual activities).
Generally speaking, I've found this section to be a great way to encourage reviewing and rethinking over what one has read so far, with the new vocabulary integrated into the process. There is a second listing in the summary at the back of the workbook which allows a score to be allocated for this writing section alongside the actual word building grid work.
I've gone into quite a lot of detail here, which I hope hasn't been off-putting, but I would remind you that this sort of word work isn't a necessity when it comes to engaging with World Adventure Kids. For those who want to squeeze a bit more out of it, however, this can be a particularly rich resource.
Funnily enough, and despite the work involved, I've found that most children actually like the Word Wise approach and get into a nice rhythm with it. Many of them are very proud of the end result and get a real sense of having learned a lot of new things. And the pictures/conceptualisations... my goodness, kids are brilliant with that part and make us adults look very one dimensional indeed!
If you're interested in using the Word Wise approach in other sorts of language learning contexts, you might like to also check out my post here:
There is a more extensive instructional video there for teachers as well as adaptable open source versions of the Word Wise resource for you to download and use as you will.
Over many years of doing reading with learners of all age groups, I must confess that the actual act of reading something--while itself often very enjoyable--pales in comparison to what happens when we use that reading, or follow up from it.
Project tasks, either on an ongoing basis while a reading text is being engaged with or as a series of follow ups after the whole story has been wound up, are brilliant for encouraging a deeper layer of analysis and comprehension as well as taking full advantage of opportunities to engage in creative and critical thinking.
Basically, I think reading expansion projects (when done right) rock, and without them stories and texts only really capture a fraction of their thinking and learning potential.
My personal preference is to let the whole story be experienced first, with some 'in the margin' discussions if it is being scaffolded or shared with other readers, and then apply a range of small project options which will encourage the learners to go back over the text, look at certain parts of it more carefully, and then extend it (often in application to their own lives) in creative new ways.
In a whole-class approach to using World Adventure Kids 2-1 (as outlined on the blog here), however, it could be an option to apply mini projects in an ongoing way as in class or at home extensions between one part of the adventure and the next.
So here are four initial expansion projects for the first sections of World Adventure Kids 2-1 (before the narrative gets too deeply into particular adventures), which could be used as part of a re-reading/re-thinking of the story or as a series of challenges while the story progresses.
1. Secret Names
Part of being a World Adventure Kid is having your own secret name.
A. What is your secret name and why did you choose it?
B. Look at other characters' secret names in the stories. Why do you think they chose those names?
Make a Secret Names File to help you remember World Adventure Kids' secret names and what they could mean!
2. The Next Secret Meeting Place
Golden Sky asks you to meet her in the tallest tree in the park near where you live.
But next time she wants to meet you in a different place. It needs to be secret, where you can meet and talk about new adventures in private.
A. Make a map of your neighborhood.
B. Choose and circle three secret places where you could meet Golden Sky secretly.
C. Send a message to Golden Sky and explain each meeting place to her (where it is and why you chose it).
3. Amazing Transportation Machines!
In World Adventure Kids 2-1, you get to travel in a Jump Jet or a Heliporter.
Apparently, these machines are completely quiet and produce no pollution.
How do you think these machines could work? How do they move so quickly? How do they stay so quiet? How do they avoid making pollution?
A. Draw a diagram of a Jump Jet or Heliporter.
B. Show how you think it works, drawing lines to different parts and explaining what they do.
4. Pilot Preparations
In World Adventure Kids 2-1, you meet and travel with two special pilots: Cumulus Swift from Malaysia (flying a Jump Jet) and Blue Stratus from Turkey (operating the Heliporter).
Would you like to be a World Adventure Kids pilot?
Well, there are many things to learn and do before you can become a pilot. Two of the most important are designing a secret place to hide your Jump Jet or Heliporter (called a hangar), and learning about all the different places in the world.
A. Design a secret hangar (in your house or somewhere close to where you live) for your transportation machine and send the design to World Adventure Kids. If it is a good design, they will send experts to build the hangar for you!
B. Make a list of the most important cities and places in the world. For each place, find out what country it is in and what makes that place special. (Look back at the stories and find the information Cumulus Swift and Blue Stratus have found out about the different places they fly to.)
Of course, this is just a small taster of possible expansion project ideas for just the initial parts of World Adventure Kids 2-1. You and your reader(s) can no doubt think of many more, and/or tweak the ideas presented here to help them better fit the interests of the reader. I think there are also exciting opportunities to integrate technology skills into many of the projects (for example, using Google Maps for projects 2 and 4, using something like Excel for projects 1 and 4, using visual design tools for projects 3 and 4, etc.).
I'll also be presenting other project ideas for World Adventure Kids here on the blog in future, so keep your screens (and adventure ideas) peeled!
World Adventure Kids 2-1, like any reading text available out there, can be used in a variety of ways as part of a reading program. Aside from possibly the most obvious application (independent reading from individual children), I have been getting questions and suggestions from teachers of classes about how to best utilise WAK 2-1 for whole-class reading.
I am happy to say that the interactive, reader-directed format of World Adventure Kids actually makes it an excellent resource to use with a whole class for those contexts or situations whereby a teacher would like to apply it in a way that all the learners progress through it at the same pace. In fact, the role of decision making in the progress of the overall narrative really enhances opportunities for classroom discussion and debate (more so even than with a standard linear narrative).
To use WAK 2-1 with a whole class of learners aged 8-11, I would be inclined to apply it in the following way:
- Print out one copy of the whole book.
- Beginning at the start, take in one section of the story at a time, photocopying just that particular section so that each student in the class has a copy.
- Have the students read the section silently on their own (or out loud in turns if that is your context's preferred approach to 'reading').
- Elicit summaries of the section and explore key or difficult vocabulary as a class.
- (Optional:) Further explore any of the cross-curricular elements in more detail (for example, photosynthesis, an historical note, the effects of poisonous venom, etc.)
- If the section ends in a range of decision options, invite individual students to make suggestions and explain why they have chosen that option (alternatively: get the students into pairs or small groups and have them debate the choice together and then report back to the whole class). Then have the class debate and vote for the pathway the story will take next.
- If the section ends with a single link to the next part of the story, invite students to make predictions about what comes next and why, or to summarize their feelings about the narrative up to this point.
- (Optional:) Have students add an entry to an ongoing 'adventure journal' summarising what happened in that part of the adventure, how they feel about it and the decisions made as a group, and what they think might happen next.
- Based on the voted on decision or single pathway link, the teacher knows which adventure entry number to prepare and photocopy for the students for the next class. In this way, students add to their adventure narrative from one class to the next, perhaps filing the text (in order) in a folder of some sort.
Teachers may also be able to apply the same sort of process with digital versions of the material, by editing the main download and breaking it into discrete sections (the open source format in PDF facilitates this) which are mailed to or downloaded for students one bit at a time. The actual reading could even take place outside the classroom at home, with the checking, discussion and decision making happening in class before the teacher mails out the next part of the adventure.
Admittedly, an approach like this one really slows down the overall speed of the adventure experience, but it certainly does facilitate a lot more discussion, collaboration and analysis at each step along the way. It could also lend itself well to a syllabus whereby WAK 2-1 follows up other classroom learning in the first part of the lesson (or earlier part of the week), with 'adventure reading' being the reward at the end of the class or end of the week!
And... another thing you might like to consider is the potential for you to create an ongoing reader-directed adventure for your students using the same basic principles. And from there, adventures written and shared by the students themselves! For some useful guidelines and even software applications on this front (as well as numerous other existing story resources), I encourage you to check out Larry Ferlazzo's outstanding The Best Places to Read & Write "Choose Your Own Adventure" Stories.
The use of the direct 2nd Person as the underlying narrative style in World Adventure Kids was a very deliberate choice on my part, with affective, interactive and linguistic rationales in mind.
For a start, this is a powerful way to 'insert' the reader directly into the story. It is appropriate for a narrative whereby the reader makes the choices and finds out where the adventures go based on his/her own decisions.
But I think it is an important affective device as well. For reluctant readers in particular, I think personal involvement (and a sense of freedom through the story options) can do a lot to pique their interest about what happens and why. I can recall my first experiences with Choose Your Own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy storybooks, at about age 10, and loving the sensation that I was in charge, that this was my adventure and not the far-fetched exploits of some abstract fabricated character I might never really relate to.
This format also allows for a deeper sense of interaction. The picture you can see at the top of this post comes from a section of one of the adventures where YOU have decided it could be fun or fame-enhancing to go and meet the Hi-Merima (a genuine Uncontacted People secreted away deep in the Amazon) and be the first modern person to do so. As you can tell, your team members aren't impressed with the idea. Panther Step warns it could be dangerous for you (the collective you this time) as the Hi-Merima have a fierce reputation. Think Sharp, your science expert, points out some of the risks modern humans pose for Uncontacted Peoples who have limited immune systems...
This is just one of a great number of interactions that take place in the stories between you, the reader, and the team members you go adventuring with. In a way it adds more life to the characters as well as the story. You get to see different sides of your co-adventurers and their personalities based on the decisions you make during the story.
And then there is your interaction with the story itself. Certain sections finish up with a direct question to you, and the options for going ahead are phrased in the 1st person.
For example (this was the text immediately preceding the scene depicted above):
It does, admittedly, put words in your mouth to some extent, but at least you get to choose which words they are, and you get to see what happens as a result of those words.
Last but not least, I like what this format does linguistically. The 2nd Person (combined with Present Simple tense) makes for beautifully direct and simple language. In my opinion, it helps to keep the narrative clean and simple, especially for struggling readers or second language learners. It also, to some extent, presents more language that is more relevant to spoken or personal English -- something that only happens in regular 3rd person and past tense narratives via dialogue sections.
Admittedly, those (more common) narrative styles yield a lot of precious language models as well, but I think the World Adventure Kids format makes for a valuable (different) supplementary model as well as a potentially rich source of comparison and noticing.
I might even venture so far as to say that narrative employing a lot of 2nd Person and Present Simple tense can facilitate easier access to reading, for those who might benefit from it. And the format of the reader-directed story means this happens in a way that feels natural, not contrived.
So...
What do you want to do now?
I think I'll leave a comment here telling the writer what I think of his ideas
I'll go back to my web-surfing now and look for something more worthy of my attention!
It's taken a while, but very pleased to announce that World Adventure Kids has finally arrived and is now available through my site.
Initial feedback has been very positive, including this from my 10-year-old niece:
Hey Uncle Jase,
One word: AMAZING! I can't wait to do the worksheets when Mum gets some more paper!
Given that this young lady is a pretty 'discerning' reader for her age and is never backwards in coming forwards to tell you what she's really thinking, hopefully I can interpret her analysis as being reasonably free of bias!
Here's a quick intro to the new book:
You can find out more about this 'adventure reading' approach and how to get your hands on it over on the main English Raven site here.
And... given there are several layers to the approach and design, I hope you won't mind me blogging from time to time about some of the things I'm trying to achieve via 'adventure reading'.
Oh, and thank you so much for all the very heartening well wishes and encouragement I've had today via Facebook. It took three years to build this boat, so it's wonderful to finally have it in the water...
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