Hi Carol! Some feedback regarding your standards search and the teacher pamphlet. First of all, COOL! :o) I think something like this will go a long ways in helping LL get their foot in the educational door. :o) And you are definitely on the right track as far as wording and such. However, I know from experience that trying to talk about standards in a way that works for people across the country is a very difficult undertaking. You stated that the National Standards are what all the state standards are based on. I don't think that is actually true. I believe the National Standards are in the process of being put together, and that they seem to draw from the national standards put out by various professional groups (such as the National Council of Teachers of English). Though this is a valiant effort that will probably help to create "official" national standards at some point in the future, right now it's not going to be real helpful for individual teachers. Think of it as a "state's rights" sort of issue. Currently, each state believes they should have final say over content. But at the same time, national funding and kudos go to those states and schools that can show improvement via standardized testing. Therefore, most states have chosen to write their own standards based on that state's beliefs about education, and use those standards to customize their standardized testing, which is how they get their money. So...though the national standards may be nice (although a little spotty IMHO), they aren't going to help teachers teach to the standards that matter to their administrators. That said, here is what I would suggest for your pamphlet. Rather than getting into the messy standards business in the pamphlet, I would suggest filling the pamphlet with great ideas for lessons. You could include formal lesson plans if you want, but in my experience, teachers would rather have lots of "half-baked" ideas to run with than one "fully baked" idea. In other words, teachers tend to customize to their situation rather than used "canned" lesson plans (as I'm sure you do, yourself!). I envision each LL game (or maybe just the most educational ones) having two pages (a spread) in this pamphet. These pages would show a picture of the game and some sample cards, list what ages it is appropriate for, how many can play, and the reading level of the card text (not the instructions). They would also give a short description of how the game is played. This might take half a page, or maybe a full page. The remainder of space would list bulleted little blurbs describing how the game can be used in the classroom, preferably by grade or specialty grouping. So it would look something like this: NANOFICTIONARY FITS A VARIETY OF CURRICULAR NEEDS: Grades K-2 ? Idea ? Idea ? Idea Grades 3-6 ? Idea ? Idea ? Idea Junior High/Middle School ? Idea ? Idea ? Idea High School ? Idea ? Idea ? Idea Remediation ? Idea ? Idea ? Idea Enrichment ? Idea ? Idea ? Idea After-School Programs ? Idea ? Idea ? Idea THEN the last thing to add to each "spread" would be a little....um...I can't think of the name of those wowwy-zowwy little things with all the points like they have in ads that say "LOOK AT ME!" Anyway...you know what I mean...one of those. And inside, it would direct readers to the LL web page that is constantly updated with all of the state standards that apply specifically to that game. Now I grant you, it will take A LOT of work to create these web pages that are specific to each game and list standards that apply state-by-state. But once the initial work is done, it wouldn't be difficult to update the list as new state standards come out (which happens every few years). And I bet you could get a Rabbit or two to help with that project. That way, you would be giving teachers BOTH a pamphlet chock full of ideas that fit their specific set of kids AND a link to information that is just what they need (specific to their state) to go to their particular administrator with the idea. Sorry for the long post. Hope this helps! Laurie P.S. I'd be happy to help with this project over the summer, but I just can't do it right now. In addition to end-of-year teaching mayhem, I also need to pack all my belongings and move to an undetermined new apartment by mid-June. Ack! --- Carol Townsend <carol@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hi all, > > I need your help. :) > > I'm in the process of writing a pamphlet for Looney > Labs to give out to > teachers showing how our games can be educational. > What would YOU want to > have in a pamphlet? > > What I'm doing right now is taking text from the > National Standards (as I've > found them on this site: > (http://www.education-world.com/standards/national/) > and showing how our games meet that standard. An > example of what I've got > so far is (a VERY ROUGH rough draft): > > > NANOFICTIONARY > > > > After playing a game of Nanofictionary, students > will be able to > > > > *Evaluate and appreciate other students' > stories based on their > own knowledge of word meaning, word identification > strategies and context. ( > NL-ENG.K-12.3) * > > A game of Nanofictionary allows students to write > their own short stories > and then evaluate each other's stories in a fun > setting. > > The students appreciate the difficulty in creating a > story of their own, and > can use that appreciation in the evaluation of > others' work. > > My questions basically are: > - is this sort of language helpful to you? > I'm trying to couch it in all the > teacher-speak I know from my... oh > lordy... 20 years in the education business? (9 > years full time, 11 years > part time, subbing, etc). Will this help you take a > Looney Labs game to > your principal and tell her/him "This is great for > my kids because..." or > even better "My lesson plan today includes this game > because..." > Is this language too stilted? Too > "teacher-ese". I know that when I > had to turn in weekly lesson plans, all of them > started out with "at the end > of this lesson, students will be able to..." > followed by action verbs. > I'm basically just quoting the National > Standard (sometimes slightly > paraphrased) and then showing how our game fits that > Standard. Is that > good? > > - are these > (http://www.education-world.com/standards/national/) > the > Standards I should be looking at? > Should I be using the McRel standards ( > http://www.mcrel.org/standards-benchmarks/) ? > I was trying to fight my way through NCLB > verbiage today and came up > for air without a lot of direction and a big > headache. I knew there was a > reason I hadn't read NCLB much before this!! > Anyway.... Standards seem to be the most > concrete way of dealing with > this idea - and using the National Standards seems > to be best because all > State Standards and Benchmarks are derived from > these National ones, right? > Please tell me if your mileage varies in your state! > > - am I barking up a wrong tree or am I headed in a > right direction? This > sort of pamphlet has been asked for countless times > - I want to produce one > that is helpful to those in the trenches. > > Your opinion will matter very much! I know it's a > busy time of year, but > hopefully we can have a draft of this pamphlet ready > by this summer. I know > I will need proofreaders and opinion-givers for this > writing, and I hope I > can ping a few of you for this as well! > > thanks for all you do - in the classroom, for your > kids, as well as being > great people who play fun games!! > > Carol > - she who speaks more teacher-ese than anyone > currently on staff. :) > > _______________________________________________ > Edu mailing list > Edu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > http://lists.looneylabs.com/mailman/listinfo/edu > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com