#MinecraftMondayMusings: Immersive Book Reports
A favorite activity of mine growing up as a young learner was always completing book reports. I was an avid reader as a child, and an excellent student, so book reports were an easy way for me to show how often I would get wrapped up in a book and share my love for reading with whoever would read them. In today’s technology-infused classrooms, book reports can take on a new dynamic while still providing an avenue for readers to share their understanding with the audience. Put away those paper book reports and prepare for dynamically immersive book reports using Minecraft: Education Edition!
The idea for doing a Minecraft-based book report came to me when I was exploring ways a teacher friend of mine could bring more Minecraft: Education Edition into the classroom easily. I know they did a lot of book reports as a way of tracking books/pages read, and thought that an open, blank slate world like Minecraft could truly let the creativity soar! To my surprise (and delight), checking out the Minecraft: Education Edition lesson library (here) showed that a Monthly Build Challenge lesson and world were already available for teachers to use!
Titled Story Setting (here), this lesson allows space for students to create and build the setting from the book they are reporting out on. I did not mind the world that was already made available in the lesson library, but I noted (as did the author of the lesson themselves), that students could also just use a starter Biome for the environment that best matched the setting for their story. This way, the setting design would come much closer to the setting as told in the book.
Screenshot of the lesson plan for Story Setting in the Minecraft: Education Edition lesson library.
Students could build the setting of their story, and even a couple different locations if they so wished. They could add slates, signs, and boards to their world to help summarize the surrounding environment and explain the story in detail. Students could add NPC’s (non-playable characters) who could be those from the story to help tell the tale from their perspectives and provide a deeper glimpse into the story. The possibilities for student customization are truly endless!
The assessment piece for the book reports could come from a rubric of needed elements provided to students ahead of their build: setting locations, some number of signage telling summaries of the story at that location, and possibly even photos and captions captured from inside their world builds using the in-game camera, portfolio and book & quill (which can be exported as a .pdf file!) The students’ world builds could be exported and shared to the teacher as .mcworld files through their classroom LMS, like Teams, Classroom, Canvas, or others.
The joy and creativity that Minecraft: Education Edition brings to students can always be harnessed to invigorate the minds of students. Taking something like a normal book report and instead using Minecraft: Education Edition provides an avenue for students to let their creativity soar, and for those students who might not be the most confident at writing their understanding of the book could instead show off their learning through a Minecraft world build, instead.