Dear Parents and Guardians,
Chimacum Middle School is pleased to inform you that your child is going to take an online class developed at Cape Fear Middle School in North Carolina. We are very excited to introduce this dynamic new class environment that focuses on the use of game play as a vehicle to teaching literacy, keyboarding and digital citizenship. This course has been developed to help students with important skills necessary for success in the 21st century. Most kids today are engaged in online social networking sites and have experienced video games. Using an online virtual world-based game, in this instance World of Warcraft, can provide an ideal starting point for a variety of lessons that are attractive to students and make learning exciting.
The goals of this class are to enhance students’ skills in one or more of the following areas: socialization, group work, leadership, use of 21st century technology, keyboarding, citizenship, digital citizenship, literacy, writing, and vocabulary. Please note that this game is rated “T” for teen. Please refer to the official game site to learn more about the game, its content, and rating: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com. I have played this game with both my children since they were young and I will be monitoring your child’s gameplay in this class so we will be safe online. All the accounts were set up by me so kids do not need to start their own account and you do not have to pay any money or download this game at home.
All participation will be in school and teacher supervised. For more information about the academic opportunities with virtual world game-based learning please go to http://wowinschool.pbworks.com/. I am excited to be working with your child in this thrilling new course. Students will be using their 3D GameLab accounts, as well as their blog and Shivtr accounts, for this class like they do in Science so you can see what they are doing at home as well. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Respectfully,
Al González
6th Grade Science & Technology Teacher, Chimacum Middle School
360-732-4219
Course-wide Common Core Elements
The following are elements of the Educational Technology and Common Core Standards for middle school 6th grade that apply to the course quests. Each quest includes any specific, additional standards to which it is aligned.
Educational Technology EALR 1.2 — Collaborate: Use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.
Educational Technology EALR 2 — DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP - Students demonstrate a clear understanding of technology systems and operations and practice safe, legal and ethical behavior.
Educational Technology EALR 2, GLE 2.2.1 — Develop skills to use technology effectively, specifically apply keyboarding skills to increase speed and accuracy.
English Language Arts Standards » Reading: Literature
Key Ideas and Details
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3 - Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.9 - Compare and contrast texts in different forms or genres (e.g., stories and poems; historical novels and fantasy stories) in terms of their approaches to similar themes and topics.
English Language Arts Standards » Writing
Production and Distribution of Writing
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.4 - Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)