“Choose Your Own Adventure” Options in Social Studies, explained by Mr. Mazon

Many parents have come up to me recently to ask about the choose your own adventure (CYOA) activities and the secret agent game that we play in my seventh and eighth grade classes throughout the year.  Since  the 7th grade students will be creating their very first CYOA soon, today’s post will focus on this part of the social studies curriculum.

The CYOA activities were created with a teacher friend out in California two summers ago. When designing the CYOA projects, we both wanted to give our students an opportunity to show their understanding of the content in a different way. We all know that tests are just one form of assessment and that not all students excel at test taking. The goal of CYOA’s is to encourage creativity and student ownership of their learning.  

One of many CYOA projects about the Revolutionary War

My colleague and I came up with 75 different options for students to choose from.  We typed up instructions for each activity and have shared them all with our students via Google Documents and Edmodo.

Here's a copy of the rubric used for all 75 project options.

These activities are broken into three categories: Profiler, Artist, and Detective.

• Profiler activities involve learning about people and how they think. Students imagine themselves in historical situations and write about how they would react.
• Artist activities focus on pictures to learn about the past. Students produce drawings and crafts to present information to others in a unique way.
• Finally, the detective activities involve examining historical facts and putting them together in many forms. Students work with charts to represent information clearly and logically. They enjoy answering questions and finding details.

Students have also been encouraged to design their own CYOA’s. Some student additions from last year included movie making, dioramas, and using the 3D printer.

Overall, students have enjoyed having the choice to show their understanding. This year alone, I have seen creative writing pieces, songs re-written to describe the 13 original colonies, and many advertisement videos of students trying to convince me to move to the colonies. Last year, I got to see many students come up with board games, bloom balls, and model dioramas.

In social studies, we will typically complete CYOA’s after each unit. Students have a point goal to reach as they choose from the 75+ options. They write a plan out that I approve and then get to work on the CYOA. I usually provide a couple of in-class work days to work on the CYOA so that I can assist as needed. I have many supplies in my classroom for CYOA’s, but I am always happy to receive donations; old shoeboxes are always in high demand!

Now in its second year, the CYOA’s continue to be received positively by the students, and I can’t wait to see the creative ideas that the 7th and 8th grade students produce in the near future.

Thank you for reading!