Reading About & Meeting Luke Navarro! THANKS LUKE!

Today two interesting things happened in our gaming & literacy unit...first, students read this review by Luke Navarro about the game we just played (New Super Mario Bros Wii). Students had to explain why Luke gave the game the rating he did, quoting details from the text. They also had to explain if they agreed with him and why.

Reviews are all about opinions...and you can have any opinion you want but your opinion WEIGHS MORE if you can back it up with substantial reasoning. So what was Luke's reasoning?

After reading and answering questions about the review, students got to meet the author! Through the magic of Skype, Luke spoke with our classroom from his home in California. Students had paired up and prepared questions for him. One student got to come to the microphone at a time & ask the question, while the other wrote down the answer. The written responses will form the basis of our upcoming news report.

In addition to writing gaming reviews, Luke also reviews movies and books (check out guyscanread.com for his weekly book podcasts).  However, our focus today was exclusively on gaming!

Many boys were interested in hearing Luke's opinion about COD, which was very exciting. COD enthusiasts seem to have their own language...and I personally think it was cool for the boys in our class to meet an adult that could speak that language (I personally do not speak COD)...not to mention that he writes about such things (and guess what guys? He likes books too!). This is one of the reasons I think Luke is a great role model. He demonstrates that it is possible to enjoy video games AND books and that one can think critically and intelligently about both.

I'm convinced that if COD were a part of the curriculum, we have student experts who would not only ace that class, they would be able to teach it! Part of my motivation in having Luke as a speaker is to validate that interest and to draw that interest into literacy.

Luke made the statement today that video games are 'art'--a sentiment with which I wholeheartedly agree. Not every one in the class did, however, and I would love to continue the discussion on whether video games are indeed a 'low' form of entertainment compared to books...or not.

One of my goals as an educator interested in games based learning is to prove that there are more things similar than different between books and games. We may have Luke back again as a speaker to explore this concept further!

Again, thanks Luke! We appreciate you taking the time on your Tuesday morning to discuss your reviews & gaming!

Interview with Luke Navarro!

Next Tuesday we are very lucky to get to interview Luke Navarro via Skype!

Luke participated last year in my J/I Boy's Literacy Event. He is an avid reader, co-creating the site guyscanread.com with Kevin McGill where they both discuss and review books via podcast. (Here is the J/I event from their perspective.)

Luke also created his site 52weeksofgeek.com where the name 'geek' is proudly worn as he watched (and reviewed) 52 movies, read 52 books and played 52 video games in one year.

Here is the list of games Luke reviewed. 

Our class will soon be writing a report about Luke (based on this interview) and a game review (based on games we are playing in class and/or a game of student choice).

Later in the year, we will also write a movie review and a book review--following in Luke's footsteps!

Thank you, Luke, for volunteering some time to be with us on Tuesday!

Here is a bit more info about Luke from the guyscanread site.