What does a Queen, a puppet, eight famous authors, and plenty of choices have in common? Classcraft’s Quest of the Month makes use of them all with this multilayered high school English Language Arts lesson plan.
Each month at Classcraft, we choose one awesome quest to promote, and our November pick is this epic English literature unit, “The Grotto of Heroes,” created by Jerilyn McConchie (@macnbeans).
Quests are personalized, self-paced, choose-your-own-adventure lessons for students. “The Grotto of Heroes” encourages these strengths by featuring plenty of opportunities for student choice and student voice.
With 36 objectives, this quest is also a complete British Literature unit. It features eight short stories, and students can decide which four of those they want to complete They can also choose to read the PDF version of the story or listen to the audio version.
Student activities centered around the author, a fictional element and a final project round out this well thought out lit lesson. Import this quest now to start using it with your class.
If you use Classcraft, you can submit the quests you’ve created for the next Quest of the Month on our submission page. Our goal is to spotlight the amazing educators who inspire us and share creative, teacher-made content with our global community of forward-thinking educators.
The floor is yours, Jerilyn!
What are your teaching stats?
Jerilyn: I’m in my 14 year of teaching English IV, at Robert M. Shoemaker High School in Killeen, Texas.
What inspires you?
Jerilyn: Watching the fire ignite inside a student as they begin the journey of lifelong learning.
What made you decide to use Classcraft?
Jerilyn: I wanted to add a level of gamification. Classcraft offered me — someone who doesn’t know anything about coding or how to actually create such things — the opportunity to bring a fun element to my classes.
Your favorite things about Classcraft are …
Jerilyn: Pets!!!
Why do you love the quest you created?
Jerilyn: I love Toby, my creepy wooden puppet who shows up every single time students have to make a choice. The level of disgust my students felt with Toby was hilarious! They were SOOOOOO tired of him! It made the time I spent this summer creating The Grotto of Heroes especially worth it!
What did your students think of your quest? How did they react?
Jerilyn: My students, who are infinitely web-wise, were floored by the level of detail.
How do you spend your summer breaks?
Jerilyn: I love spending my summer days and nights dreaming of amazing projects for my students to complete. I’m a nerd, I spend most of the summer creating new material so that I don’t have to do it during the year.
What’s the best thing about being a teacher?
Jerilyn: Is staying current with all things that are new and interesting, like gadgets, movies, TV shows, celebrities (eye roll). Students keep me young without having to drink unicorn blood! Ha-ha!
What weird trends in student culture (Flossing?) are baffling to you and why?
Jerilyn: Since last year, my students have quit writing in the middle of sentences and even in the middle of a word. I will assign short answer questions and students appear to start answering, but then the sentence just dies off and the work is submitted as incomplete. I absolutely do not understand this.
If you could grow up in any decade, which would you choose?
Jerilyn: I was young in the 70s and a teenager in the 80s. I don’t think I would change any of that at all. There’s no evidence of me being a supreme dork from elementary or middle school and most especially, high school! I do love to use voice-changing filters in Snapchat and sing ridiculous made-up songs to my students. The technology of today is awesome, but I wouldn’t want to grow up with it.
Quest of the Month