[Edu] Just picking your brains...

[Carol Townsend]

Hi all,

I need your help.  :)

I'm in the process of writing a pamphlet for Looney Labs to give out to
teachers showing how our games can be educational.  What would YOU want to
have in a pamphlet?

What I'm doing right now is taking text from the National Standards (as I've
found them on this site: (http://www.education-world.com/standards/national/)
and showing how our games meet that standard.   An example of what I've got
so far is (a VERY ROUGH rough draft):


NANOFICTIONARY



After playing a game of Nanofictionary, students will be able to



            *Evaluate and appreciate other students' stories based on their
own knowledge of word meaning, word identification strategies and context. (
NL-ENG.K-12.3)  *

A game of Nanofictionary allows students to write their own short stories
and then evaluate each other's stories in a fun setting.

The students appreciate the difficulty in creating a story of their own, and
can use that appreciation in the evaluation of others' work.

My questions basically are:
 - is this sort of language helpful to you?
        I'm trying to couch it in all the teacher-speak I know from my... oh
lordy... 20 years in the education business? (9 years full time, 11 years
part time, subbing, etc).  Will this help you take a Looney Labs game to
your principal and tell her/him "This is great for my kids because..." or
even better "My lesson plan today includes this game because..."
       Is this language too stilted? Too "teacher-ese".  I know that when I
had to turn in weekly lesson plans, all of them started out with "at the end
of this lesson, students will be able to..." followed by action verbs.
      I'm basically just quoting the National Standard (sometimes slightly
paraphrased) and then showing how our game fits that Standard.  Is that
good?

- are these (http://www.education-world.com/standards/national/)  the
Standards I should be looking at?
       Should I be using the McRel standards (
http://www.mcrel.org/standards-benchmarks/) ?
        I was trying to fight my way through NCLB verbiage today and came up
for air without a lot of direction and a big headache.  I knew there was a
reason I hadn't read NCLB much before this!!
     Anyway.... Standards seem to be the most concrete way of dealing with
this idea - and using the National Standards seems to be best because all
State Standards and Benchmarks are derived from these National ones, right?
Please tell me if your mileage varies in your state!

 - am I barking up a wrong tree or am I headed in a right direction?  This
sort of pamphlet has been asked for countless times - I want to produce one
that is helpful to those in the trenches.

Your opinion will matter very much!  I know it's a busy time of year, but
hopefully we can have a draft of this pamphlet ready by this summer.  I know
I will need proofreaders and opinion-givers for this writing, and I hope I
can ping a few of you for this as well!

thanks for all you do - in the classroom, for your kids, as well as being
great people who play fun games!!

Carol
 - she who speaks more teacher-ese than anyone currently on staff.  :)
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