New possibilties for Choose-Your-Own-Adventure

The fourth grade Choose-Your-Own-Adventure project was always one of my favorites, but was too difficult for many, even with lots of scaffolding, and not as relevant a skill set as blogging, so I've relegated it to an after-school club.

I've always hoped to expand the project, though--to incorporate video into the adventure, for example, or to include a historical fiction element, for example, as with the revolutionary war-based adventures or the age of exploration ones that included one branch that was what really happened in the life of the student's chosen explorer and others that imagined what might have happened had the explorer chosen differently.

Here is a lovely example of a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure done by design critic/novelist Rudolph Delson that serves as both a witty and entertaining adventure, and a thoughtful critique of the Port Authority Bus Terminal. I love that way Delson has used the CYOA structure in a fresh new way, and will keep this in mind as inspiration for future projects.