AFTER THE STORM EDUCATOR GUIDE

Classroom, Inc. is a nonprofit t hat h elps s tudents d evelop literacy and leadership skills. By creating digital learning games and curriculum set in the professional world and supporting educators in creating student-centered classrooms, we invite students to take charge of their learning.

Classroom, Inc. envisions a world in which all students are given an equal opportunity to discover the power of literacy and leadership for success in school, career, and life.

After the Storm® was developed by Classroom, Inc.,

in partnership with FableVision Studios.

Classroom, Inc. is grateful to the teachers and students

at James P. Sinnott Magnet School IS 218 and

William McKinley IS 259 in Brooklyn for taking the time to pilot

After the Storm in their schools.

© 2015 Classroom, Inc.

All Rights Reserved

CLASSROOM, INC. is a nonprofit that develops literacy and leadership skills for mid-dle school students. Students become the boss through our digital learning games set in the professional world. In the process, they read closely, think critically, and solve real-world problems, all while balancing the hectic demands of an exciting workplace.

Classroom, Inc.’s learning programs spark the interest of students, and teach and reinforce key Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English Language Arts and 21st century college and career readiness skills. Our After the Storm® program com-bines an immersive learning experience, reading/writing, assessment, and teacher- led activities—including a 20-lesson hands-on Magazine Maker project in which student groups create their own magazines.

After the Storm is flexible and can be used in a variety of settings, such as during the school year, or in summer or extended day programs.

GETTING STARTED

THE GAMEROLE OF PLAYERPlayers take on the role of Editor-in-Chief of the online magazine, The Daily Byte, in the aftermath of a major storm that has caused considerable damage and disruption to the local community of Port Douglas. The Editor-in-Chief must balance the needs of reporting and distributing news to readers with the individual needs and concerns of The Daily Byte’s staff, who are themselves dealing with the storm’s aftermath.

In their role as an Editor-in-Chief, students are responsible for the following:

• Maintaining magazine operations and policies • Delegating tasks to staff members and freelancers • Reading draft magazine content and providing feedback to staff • Cross-checking facts and editorial details for articles • Ensuring technology is running smoothly • Editing site content • Writing editorial pieces • Motivating and developing staff • Managing communications with the publisher and advertisers • Overseeing magazine’s finances

POSSIBLE GAME PATHSThis example shows the two possible instructional game paths students might take during a class session: the Support path or the Challenge path.

CHALLENGE ACTIVITY: If students score 80% or better on the PRIMARY activity, they are directed to the CHALLENGE activity.

FIRST SUPPORT ACTIVITY: If students score 79% or lower on the above PRIMARY activity, they are directed to the FIRST SUPPORT ACTIVITY.

PRIMARY ACTIVITY/ASSESSMENT: All students complete a PRIMARY activity. In Morning, students use a highlighting tool to identify claims and evidence in an article.

SECOND SUPPORT ACTIVITY: If students score 79% or lower on the FIRST SUPPORT activity, they complete an activity at a lower reading level, and get more coaching from Super Ed before returning to try to correct their PRIMARY activity.

REPEAT: This same instructional loop is repeated for two additional class sessions, Midday and Afternoon.

RETURN TO PRIMARY ACTIVITY: If students score 80% or better on the FIRST SUPPORT activity, they are directed back to the PRIMARY activity, where they retake the items they got wrong.

FIRST SUPPORT ACTIVITY: In the support activities, students receive help from Super Ed, the program’s literacy coach.

WRITING: Each unit ends with a class period focused on a writing activity in the Evening for the student as Editor-in-Chief.

UNIT OVERVIEW

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENTIt’s the day after Hurricane Dante, a major storm that has hit the midsize coast-al city of Port Douglas. Players come to work as the Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Byte, an online news magazine located in and serving the Port Douglas community. In the direct aftermath of the storm, players have their hands full getting up to speed on what’s going on both in the office an d in th e co mmunity at la rge.

Activities in this unit include surveying the office and community to assess how people have “weathered” the storm, helping The Daily Byte’s lead reporter fix an im-portant article, choosing key elements for a blog post, and identifying emergency information the community needs to help them through this crisis. The day concludes with an assignment to write the lead article for The Daily Byte’s homepage.

CCSS reinforced in this unit: Reading: Informational Text: Craft and Structure, RI.6.4; Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, RI.6.7; Key Ideas and Details, RI.6.1; and Writing: Text Types and Purposes, W.6.2.

Editor-in- Chief PLAYER

The player is the Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Byte. The player is responsible for all of the operations and editorial content of the magazine, including personnel issues, deciding which stories to cover, writing and editing content, and ensuring technical operations are up and running and that established magazine policies are being followed.

Ernie Velasquez INTERN

Ernie is The Daily Byte’s intrepid intern, responsible for keep-ing his boss, the Editor-in-Chief, current on all that’s going on at the magazine. A college student, Ernie is just getting his feet wet in the world of work and often has questions for the player as his boss and mentor.

LaDonna Watkins SENIOR FIELD REPORTER

LaDonna is The Daily Byte’s senior reporter and the go-to writer for lead articles and interviews. Straightforward, head-strong, and charming, she’s great at getting what she needs out of an interview or a source—and sometimes out of her boss, the Editor-in-Chief.

Aziz Lari PHOTOGRAPHER

Aziz is The Daily Byte’s photographer, a former war correspon-dent who has settled into a simpler, quieter life in Port Doug-las. He remains serious about his vocation, however, and takes on each story as if it’s as critical as a war dispatch. Intense, mysterious, and a bit distant, Aziz is the best at what he does but can be a bit uncommunicative and gruff.

GAME CHARACTERS

Maggie Ito SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR

Social Media Editor, Maggie always has her smartphone with her as she keeps The Daily Byte’s presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram up-to-date and posts to the magazine’s blog. She frequently knows where and how to best reach the magazine’s readers and she’s equally deft at keeping an eye on social media to anticipate trends that may lead to the next big story.

Grace Howard DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY

The Daily Byte’s Director of Technology, Grace has been around since the magazine’s founding. Trained in computer science, she is responsible for the technical operations of the day-to-day running of both the magazine and the office itself; she is always keeping an eye out for new and innovative ways technology can aid in making the magazine better.

Zeke Davis CITIZEN

A rabble-rouser, conspiracy theorist, and thorn in the side of many, Zeke is Port Douglas’ most outspoken critic of the government and just about everyone else. Zeke is one of those people who walk the line between “crazy but has a point” and “just plain crazy.” He will often rant at whomever he’s talking to without taking in their responses.

Teresa King CITIZEN

An employee of Port Douglas’ community bank, Teresa lost her home to Hurricane Dante and is deeply engaged with recovery efforts after the storm. She is both a voice for victims of the storm and a valuable source to The Daily Byte for goings-on in the community.

Super Ed LITERACY COACH

The face of the game’s instructional support, portrayed as an editing program application, Super Ed is the player’s guide through support-level activities and the writing assessments. He provides coaching on key concepts, general hints and tips about developing and applying certain skills, and quizzes play-ers to make sure they understand key concepts.

NAVIGATION GUIDE

LOGGING INBoth you and your students access After the Storm through a single login screen. You are automatically directed to the main teacher menu, which allows you to manage your classes, review dashboards, play the game, and edit their personal account details.

Students are directed to a menu of the sections of the game currently available to them. Once they select a unit and section to work on (e.g., “Unbiased Reporting: Morning”), they can begin to play.

STARTING THE GAMENavigation in After the Storm is largely player-driven. Although certain activities and interactions are locked until others are completed, players are generally allowed to perform tasks in the order of their choosing. There are a set number of tasks for each class period that can be accomplished by completing assessment activities, reviewing information sources, or getting key information from other characters, but the order of completion is up to the player. These tasks are spelled out on the player’s To Do List, and each corresponds to a specific in-game activity.

GAME LOCATIONSUnits of the game take place at The Daily Byte’s offices and in the surrounding com-munity. The game locations are:

The Daily Byte Offices: Other Locations:Editor-in-Chief’s Office Cadman ParkBullpen The Coffee ShopAudio-visual StudioBreakroom

Each location contains information sources, some of which are fixed (such as the Editor-in-Chief’s computer in the player’s office), while others come and go over the course of the unit (such as co-workers in any of the work areas, and bulletin-board postings in the breakroom). As the game progresses, the specific information available from each source changes (e.g., new emails on the computer, new videos available in the studio, different dialogues with various co-workers). Players should mouse over items and doors in the game to discover various resources.

The objects in the Editor-in-Chief’s office feature (or lead to) information sources, most of which change during the day.

Door leading to bullpen

Tablet

PaperweightPhone

Laptop

PLAYER TOOLSPlayers “travel” with a phone, which is embedded in the game navigation and available to players at any time during game play. The phone features the fol-lowing tools:

To Do List—A list of all the things players must do to complete a given section of the game (e.g., the Morning of the unit). Each task corre-

sponds to an action in the game, such as talking to a character or reading a docu-ment. When players complete a task, that item is automatically checked off in the list. One item on the To Do List always cor-responds to the Assessment Activity for that section of the game. This item is only marked as complete once players have completed the entire instructional path, including all support- or challenge-level activities.

Messages—Periodically, players will receive phone messages directing them to the tasks that are most important in their day. These include a setup of the unit goal, as well as periodic reminders and feedback on other tasks or decisions.

Glossary—An embedded glossary is linked to hotspots in game texts. When players click on a blue word, the glossary opens up over the text they are reading and they get the entry for that word. The Glossary is also searchable.

Notes—Players have access to a note-taking tool that they can use to re-cord thoughts and impressions as they go. Notes persist throughout a given unit of the game, and the player is sometimes encouraged to take notes on specific topics that will be covered elsewhere in the game (for instance, in the writing assessments).

Progress Bar—When a To Do List item is completed, a new check appears on the prog-ress bar at the top of the screen, giving stu-dents a visual sense of their progress through-out the game.

ACTIVITIESThe numerous assessed reading activities in After the Storm give students practice in the target CCSS shown on p. 4 of this Guide. Activities differ in look and user inter-action, but include some basic common functionality features, annotated here:

ENDING A CLASS PERIOD/LOGGING OFFClicking on the coffee pot in the breakroom will either cause players to exit the game or, if they’ve just finished Afternoon, lead them to an ending sequence in which they see the effects of the decisions they’ve made on the community and their staff.

Read chat messages from coworkers for activity context.

Follow activity directions to complete the assignment.

Read main text of the activity.

Scroll to read longer documents.

Click on green check box to submit answers.

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