P3 begged and begged until I finally gave in and said yes we can start a new Minecraft project.
Last year I did a similar project with 'The City of Ember' and it was hugely successful. We used the novel to help visualise and create alternate endings to the book.
This year with Hoot we will be using it in a similar way. I like the students to be able to take meaningful notes and then use those notes to support the design process. Once they have completed the town they will use it to give a guided tour, retell a chapter and recommendations for the novel.
Students have been keeping specific notes about the characters and settings we have been introduced to in the story.
Coconut Cove:
- Golf
Course – 18 holes and a driving range
- The
camp of Mullet Fingers was off the golf course through a small forested area
- Roy’s
House
- Roads +
Bus Stop + Bus
- Police
station
- Mother
Paula’s Pancake house Construction site - Caravan, big fence and 4 dogs
- Auto
parts yard - Ice Cream Truck
- Garage - Bike Repair
- Trace
Middle School - Classrooms, cafeteria, teachers lounge, car park, bus bay
- Beach
- Dana’s
House - has a front porch
As they kept these notes they began developing a birds eye view map of 'Coconut Cove' the town from 'Hoot'. Once students had finished this we had a class vote on whose map they thought was the best depiction of the town.
No students have seen the movie so they were only going from description and and their imaginations.
Josh's map was the map the class chose as the best to use as a guide.
I printed out a copy of his map for each student to put into their reading book to help with planning out the city
We initially all went onto our own class server together but discovered that it was pointless until the roads were completed and each part of the map was plotted out because everyone was just building in random areas.
We nuked the server and started again. This time the roads groups went onto our class server first. Having a class server has been awesome, I have set it up to only allow 28 players (my class + myself) and they need my IP address to get on and this changes each day so no one from other classes can get on. I also have to have my direct server open on my computer for it to work, so no one can 'sneak' on during class time.
Once the roads are finished students will begin construction of their chosen buildings.
We will be blogging more about this process and students will be reflecting on their own blogs as we get further into the story.
UPDATE 10/9
Here are some pics of the buildings students have completed so far. We are aiming to be done in a week and then begin filming.
