Korean Job Discussion Forums

[blunder1983]

I was thinking about decent books for my middle schoolers today, and I was suddenly thrown back to the 80s (scary i know ) when I was a huge fan of the "Choose your own Adventure" books. These consisted of a paragraph of text, culmulating in a choice (like push the big red button or don't push the big red button, turn right or turn left). They had LOADS of different themes, time travel, horror, wild west etc. etc. Now I'm thinking these might be pretty awesome for my kids, but through my misty eyes recalling my days of yore I am not 100% on the difficulty of them. They aren't long as u often die or finish the story in one native readers sitting but I cant remember specifically the language level. On ebay atm there are 60 of these books going for a paltry £20. Shipping them here will be an issue, but I cant let the bargin slip me by if they are gonna be as good as I remember.

Anyone else know what I'm talking about, and know if they'd be suitable??

[blunder1983]

Found an example online of what I'm talking about, only its been made my primary school kids. Its pretty dark considering how old they are!

http://www.eastbourne.vic.edu.au/special/timeout/

[Qinella]

Man, I used to be addicted to CYOA novels! My brother and I had the entire collection at one point.

They might be tough for my students, but you gave me a good idea. I'm gonna write some of my own little stories for my more advanced students, using vocabulary I know they know.

Haha, great idea, thanks!

Q~

[excitinghead]

I used to like the odd CYOA in the 80's too, but have to agree that they would be too difficult for most middle-school students by themselves who, let's face it, can't hold a conversation in English for very long. But perhaps in a Friday class you could do something like a story-telling session with all the students, toning down the English and using body-langauge etc. to get what's in the book across, with the class voting on what choice to make?

Personally I used to read the "fighting fantasy" books much more...much more of a step up with their skill, stamina, and luck levels and deciding fights by rolling dice...sigh, those were the days. Unfortunately too difficult to use for teaching I think, but I had to mention them because it gets me all nostalgic!

[mithridates]

Yeah, I was thinking about that just yesterday too! This series was better though:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Machine_%28book_series%29

Also this book, I think I played this one some 50 times:




This one was good too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Wolf



Look!

http://www.projectaon.org/

All there, for free!

[Qinella]

[blunder1983]

Yeah I LOVED Fighting fantasy when I was a kid. My best day one holiday was going into a bookstore and finding them inexplicably prices at 10p each (as opposed to their normal £4 price tag) I blew all my cash on them that day and had the best holiday ever!

So we saying they are too hard? Or not? I know they are tricky but most of them were over in 20 paragraphs....

[chaz47]

thanks for this post i spent a relaxing day nostalgically geeking out to my hearts content.... i did a google for "fighting fantasy *books*(?)"

good stuff...

http://www.ffproject.com/

i think these guys have done a great service to geekdom or dorkdom... i lost track of the shifting boundaries of nerdiness awhile ago...

[Universalis]

Two words: Deadwood City.

[uber1024]

That "Sorcery" book brings back some serious hardcore memories. I finished the first 4 but could never get all the way through the 5th one.

[blunder1983]

OMG I had 1 & 3 of Sorcery, the first i got from my dad (god knows when he had it) and the 3rd from a charity bookshop in the 90s. I always wondered how it ended, and what that spell with no explanation did (began with a Z). I only thought there were 4 in the series tho?