Name
Digital storytelling with Minecraft
Topic
Narrating a true story
Learning time
Designed time
2 hours and 30 minutes
Size of class
20 students
Description
The lesson is an attempt to make known to students the story of Mohammad Aljaleel, The cat man of Aleppo. His story touched the hearts of millions when his sanctuary featured in a BBC video in 2016. He had to leave the city when it fell to Syrian government forces, but he went back - in an area nearby - and helped children as well as animals. The students will attempt to recreate Alaa's story as a game in Minecraft and try to figure out ways to create a digital version of Ernesto's Sanctuary, the shelter he built for cats in the middle of a war crisis. The general aim of the lesson is to make students sensitive to social and controversial issues such as the implications of war, refugees, animals and children as victims of war, solidarity, volunteering, and the power of social media in the 21st century. The lesson also aims to familiarize students with the Minecraft digital environment and make them practice their English language skills for narrating a story (reading and writing) as well as their ICT skills.
Mode of delivery
Classroom-based
Aims
Brainstorm and generate ideas and opinions Sum up and categorize information in a table Build a story as a game inside Minecraft Education Edition tools Play games Evaluate games Gain Digital Badges for recognition of achievement Communicate Collaborate Create, Produce Publish Evaluate
Outcomes
No outcomes are set
Editor
benjamin.hertz@eun.org
Derived from
Digital storytelling with Minecraft by Fryni
Edit
Module 1: Introduction to the story of the Cat Man of Aleppo. This lesson is designed to help students brainstorm and generate ideas and opinions, sum up and categorize information in a table.
50 minutes)
  • Read Watch Listen
    10
    20
    2
    Students watch a video about the Cat Man of Aleppo, a man from Aleppo, who set up a shelter for cats in the middle of a war crisis. Aleppo is a city in Syria, serving as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 4.6 million in 2010, Aleppo was the largest Syrian city before the Syrian Civil War.
  • Discuss
    10
    20
    0
    Students discuss the videos they have watched and brainstorm ideas about the ways and the means this man used in order to build the shelter, achieve funding and provide medical care for the cats.
  • Investigate
    30
    4
    1
    Students form groups of four in front of a PC or laptop and access a website which presents the story of Mohammad Aljaleel and his work with cats so far. They read the information on the website and try to verify the answers at the questions of the previous brainstorming activity. After the students read the information on the website, they have to fill in a table with information from the web page and ideas of their own. The table includes sections such as: time, place, people, funding, services, etc
Notes:
OUTCOMES • Knowledge Find out/discover Identify Select List • Comprehension Describe reasons for Summarise Classify
Resources linked: 2
Module 2: Building the story of the Cat Man of Aleppo and Ernesto's Sanctuary as a game inside Minecraft This lesson is designed to provide an opportunity to mix world building with storytelling while using many of the Minecraft Education Edition tools. Credits: The module on Minecraft is inspired by https://education.minecraft.net/lessons/fairytale/, a sample lesson plan in https://education.minecraft.net/class-resources/language-arts-subject-kit/, submitted by Steve Isaacs. It was adapted to fit this lessons aims and objectives and it helped me navigate the Minecraft world of Language Arts.
50 minutes)
  • Read Watch Listen
    25
    20
    1
    Teacher will provide a short demonstration of the use of the world builder and narrative tools in Minecraft: Education Edition. Narrative tools that can be used: find and place in inventory - slate, poster, board, sign, NPC Teacher provides a short demo of placing and using these tools to develop story within Minecraft.
  • Produce
    25
    4
    1
    Students will form groups and re-create the story of Cat Man in Minecraft. Students will build the world of Ernesto's Sanctuary and incorporate narrative. As an extension activity, students will add elements using redstone and other tools to create a more interactive experience for the reader.
Notes:
OUTCOMES • Application Construct Assemble Use • Analysis Analyse Break down List component parts of Predict Relate Select Subdivide • Synthesis Combine Compile Compose Conclude Derive Design
Resources linked: 1
Module 3: Play, Evaluation and Digital Badges This lesson is designed to provide the students with the opportunity to present and play their story in Minecraft, peer-evaluate their story and earn digital badges in recognition of achievement.
50 minutes)
  • Practice
    30
    4
    1
    Students publish their completed work to be shared with a global audience at https://education.minecraft.net/community/connect-with-others/. This way each team will find the other teams' game online and play their version of the story. They can play the game at the computer lab (or at home in order to save teaching time at school). Then, each team will evaluate the version of the story they played according to the criteria identified in the next activity.
  • Discuss
    20
    4
    1
    The teacher created a digital credentials rubric using Credly's intuitive Credential Dashboard to provide to students an achievement recognition system. Students will use the following list of criteria in Credly to evaluate their classmates' work: OBJECTIVES AND PERFORMANCE INDICATORS Students will recreate the story of the Cat Man of Aleppo inside Minecraft. Students will demonstrate an understanding of digital storytelling and guiding the viewer through a complete story experience. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the narrative tools in Minecraft Education Edition (slate, poster, board, signs, NPCs). Students will demonstrate an understanding of the world builder tools including the fill and clone tools. This way they will build Ernesto's Sanctuary inside Minecraft. Students will collaborate on the creation of their project and share responsibilities among a group. Students will utilize redstone and other elements in game to combine coding / engineering skills with storytelling. PERFORMANCE EXPECTATIONS All students will submit a completed story as a .mcworld file. Expectations include the following: Story is complete and a player can travel through the entire story. Directions for the player are clear - it should be clear where to go, what to do, etc. so a player doesn't get lost in the world. A variety of narrative / story telling tools should be used throughout including: slate poster board sign NPCs Students should use the fill and/or clone tool to make building more efficient and add interactive elements with redstone After they finish their evaluation they present and share the digital badges they earned.
Notes:
OUTCOMES • Evaluation Criticise Defend Evaluate Give arguments for and against Give feedback Judge Justify Reflect Support
Resources linked: 2

Learning Experience

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