Choose Your Own Adventure!

I was going through my old chapter books that I had when I was in about fourth grade and I had all these memories coming back to me. It was then that I realized that is what I hope to help my students experience- the love of reading and being immersed into a plot of a great book.

How many of you recognize these from your childhood?!

Oh my gosh I used to love the "Choose Your Own Adventure" Series. I have a few books at home and my local library has a ton.

Now, they don't look all that appealing anymore. I don't know about your kiddos, but mine are obsessed with anything that looks like Diary of a Wimpy Kid lately (Dork Diaries, My Life as a Book, etc.) and these covers look like they're straight out of the 80s (which they are!) But lucky for you, this means that your local library probably has some books that aren't typically being checked out lately.

For those of you who may have forgotten, the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series is a book that allows the reader to determine the plot by making choices and flipping to designated pages to read on in that chosen plot line. For example, in the "Space and Beyond" book, the first decision you get to make is on page two where you have these two options- "If you choose Kenda as your birth planet, turn to page 3." or "If, on the other hand, Croyd attracts you, throw your luck to page 4." Ridiculous, but super entertaining and (I hope) engaging for my class.

So I was determined to use this in my classroom but I couldn't think of any ideas how.

My best idea I've had so far is to use the book to in my persuasive writing unit. This is what I'm thinking-

1. I'll introduce the book and explain how the book is interactive. 

2. Then I'll let the students vote with a hand raise for the option we should take. 

3. We'll read the book for a good chunk of time (whatever is appropriate that day- I'm thinking 10 or 15 minutes with the way my ELA block is set up). 

4. At about that time, I'll wait for a choice where the class is torn almost 50/50 and I'll tell them that it's just too close to call and that they'll have to write me a persuasive paragraph convincing me that their choice is the best decision.

5. Then I'll give them the rubric of requirements for a persuasive paragraph. And then they're off!

I used Heather Matthews' free rubric to create a rubric that best met my needs for this assignment. It was super easy to create and you can create yours too by going to her TPT store HERE.