Minecraft Writing Stimulus Workshop by Hyett Education (KS2-KS3)
School Workshop Provider: Hyett Education
Workshop Themes: Writing Stimulus, Reading, Note-taking, Instructions, Narrative, Poetry, Recount, Persuasion, Direct Speech, Indirect Speech
Age: Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3
Location: England, Scotland, Wales
Workshop Summary:
Our Minecraft Education writing workshops are stimulus sessions designed to engage and encourage even the most reluctant writers to write with enthusiasm.
Students enter our bespoke Minecraft Education worlds and start their investigations as Tarragon, the Dragon-Slayer (Literacy Shed). Their mission is to hunt down the dragon that is wreaking havoc upon a medieval town. As they explore and speak to characters non-playable characters, they read and learn clues as to where the dragon hides.
As students progress, they must complete various reading and writing challenges which can be used to support their writing after the session.
All non-playable characters display WAGGOLs for writing and some present students with writing challenges which must be completed and accepted by the teacher before students can move further into the investigations as Tarragon - great motivator for those reluctant writers.
Eventually, when students have completed writing challenges and used the clues to find the dragon, they’ll work collaboratively to slay the beast (which often results in an eruption of noise and great sense of collective achievement).
Writing challenge options include:
Note-taking
SPaG challenges
Identifying and adapting villagers’ descriptive language
Converting indirect and direct speech
Poetry writing
Instruction writing
Recount writing
Persuasive writing
Narrative writing
Additional Information:
We can produce bespoke Minecraft Education writing challenges for different topics. Speak to us to see how we could help bring your topic to life in Minecraft.
Additional learning resources and worksheets are available to use beyond the stimulus session.
The Dragon Slayer writing stimulus workshop culminates in students collaborating to bring down the dragon.
Students work collaboratively on the same server and share the virtual worlds.
This image, taken from a writing workshop we did around escaping from Pompeii, shows how students will receive information from non-playable characters to use and adapt in their own writing.
