Originally published 4/7/22, but certainly worth the reprint:
This activity is not mine, but rather came from the big, juicy, delicious braaaiiiinnnnnssssss of Rob Bowman & Molly Fleming Schauer. To my knowledge, it is an activity they willingly shared. The person I got it from got it from another person. I could not find it on Teacher-Pay-Teachers either. If you know these individuals or know that they sell this activity, let me know, please, so I can take it down.
I did modify it slightly to fit my classroom needs.
The idea is to get your students to write a paragraph on how to survive the zombie apocalypse. The student is able to take one person they know with them, two objects from their house, and declare a destination where they are headed to survive. The students must explain why that person will help them survive and what is it about those two objects that will help them survive. The location also needs to be thought out and explained how it will help the student survive longer than their classmates.
At this point, the students should then get into groups of three or so and decide which paragraph has the best chance of survival. Give that student some prize. The group will then clean up the paragraph, fix the grammar errors, and fix the holes in the survival plan. Each group will then either present their paragraph to you, the class, or some crack panel of judges you assembled from asking other teachers or admin staff (it's a good lesson to do while being observed and make the ap a part of the judge crew).
I have two versions of it. The first is closest to the original and is designed for AP Lang (fun practice in arguing a point).
The second link is for a regular ed class. You can use either one for an honors class. The regular ed one just extends the time allowed to compose the paragraph and gives more guidance to the number of sentences needed for each section. I know there are differing opinions on guided writing, so if you don't like it, remove that text box. Personally, my students need the extra guidance.
This is great to help students understand giving supporting details. The genius of it is that it will work on almost all age groups. The original was designed for AP Language and Composition. However, I mention the idea to my 6th grade daughter (who is not into zombies in the slightest) and she got excited about figuring out who and what she would take. The she started texting her friends who all got into and tried to be the one who came up with a better solution. I somehow became the judge when they couldn't decide if something was "doable" or not. These sixth graders were spending their time thinking out the situation and supporting their assertions like champs. I may be a bit biased, but I do think my daughter came up with the best location - a high school. Her thought - easy to block off hallways to prevent zombies from getting in, plenty of room, food supplies in the cafeteria, and medical supplies already in the nurse's office.
I can't wait to try it out on my seniors.
