Hi all! I know we all have different approaches, and someone on the Discord server (hi Jeremy!) asked about mine. I put together a thread on it, then thought I might post it here in case anyone else was interested.
I'm also happy to run a quick intro to my approach and live Discord discussion this week or next, if anyone's interested? I'm PST, and would have to meet on M/T/W, but if a few folx post they're into it, I'll happily put a date and time together!
So, on my approach, here's a quick summary of what I run for kids (but don't sell):
My approach is tying character advancement and story moments to game.
- Kids write between sessions, and we begin each with read alouds. Amount written determines how many "story points" are earned; these can be spent for re-rolls, to gain Tags and Special abilities (I can nerd about this, but there it is), or to add dice to your pool (different system).
- There is no penalty for not writing - just no reward. People can share story points, so the kid who writes a lot can save the kid who didn't, and create social incentive to invest next time.
- The other key is that read-alouds are ALWAYS celebratory, and done with voices, questions, and excitement. I'll offer "bonus" point challenges for kids who need work on one skill or another - dialogue, paragraph breaks, comma use, reading aloud, descriptive prose, narrative vs. explication, etc.
- All this happens on a shared google slides doc, so kids can see everything and riff off one another's stories. One principle I work off of is kids work for peer recognition - tie a skill to cheering peers and they'll hustle on it! This is amplified when their stories become woven into the events of the game.
- My feedback is qualitative, based on their portfolios after 5~6 classes (4~5 stories), and focused on glows and grows. Parents appreciate the detailed response.
I've written a fair amount on my approach on my blog. You can read a bit here:
- https://www.luckoflegends.com/post/how-story-games-work
- https://www.luckoflegends.com/post/making-educational-games-for-kids-part-1
- https://www.luckoflegends.com/post/making-educational-games-for-kids-part-2
- https://www.luckoflegends.com/post/beyond-d-d-teaching-kids-with-rpgs-ages-7-13
If anybody wants me to go into dice mechanics, agreement questions, safety tools, online character keepers, online die rolling, or what-have-you, holler!