In my reading, one of the biggest impediments I've seen to integrating games into the composition classroom is a confusion about where to even start. With this in mind, I believe that examples of what other instructors have done before can be incredibly helpful. This is true even (or especially) when those examples are unable to live up to the lofty expectations we are setting here. This doesn't mean that the lesson plans reviewed here are failures (wow, that would be an overly strong word). Instead, they are steps forward. It is honestly asking too much for any teacher to have developed the perfect answer--if someone only would, our work could be so much easier, right?
On the pages that follow, I will be evaluating other's plans for implementing lessons around video games as well as some of my own (with some mixing of the two as well). Each page begins with a time frame for the lesson, a list of which of Gee's learning principles it uses, and which methods of game implementation it follows. At the end of each page, I will also provide a quick summary of what I see as the strengths and weaknesses of the lesson. Hopefully, this section will grow over time. If you have a plan I could add, please do contact me.
A Brief Summary of the Examples:
Gamified Classroom: Tanya Sasser outlines the specifics of how she might gamify a first year composition classroom.
Rhetorical Peaks: Graduate Students at the University of Texas at Austin created a game about rhetoric to integrate into a composition classroom.
Tech Comm Game Discourse: Anne Richards and Adrienne Lamberti outline two analyses papers based on gaming discourse communities.
WoW Composition Class: Colby and Colby describe how to structure an entire composition class around World of Warcraft.
Also included under My Gaming Lesson Plans are the lesson plans that I've developed.