League of Literacy

Build a shelter inspired by Minecraft: The Island by Max Brooks in this build challenge offered in partnership with Random House and supported by the National Literacy Trust.

Open in Minecraft

Submitted by: Minecraft Education

Updated: September 16, 2023

Learning objectives

As part of the League of Literacy challenge, students will:

Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea

Increase familiarity with a wide range of books, including myths, legends and traditional stories, modern fiction, fiction from our literary heritage, and books from other cultures and traditions

Give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings

Introduction:

Join us in supporting literacy with this new build challenge and curriculum offered in partnership with Random House and supported by the National Literacy Trust. Students will build a shelter inspired by the first official Minecraft novel, Minecraft: The Island by Max Brooks. Educators in the U.S. may submit student work as part of a competition for the chance to win Minecraft prizes. All educators may sign up for the digital resource kit and access the build challenge world to use in their classrooms.

Challenge Prompt:

Read the text (or excerpt) of Minecraft: The Island by Max Brooks. Build your own unique Minecraft base in the League of Literacy arena, improving upon the protagonist’s home base and drawing on descriptions from the text. Create a short video showing your Minecraft build and explain how you used the six P's featured in the text: Planning, Preparing, Prioritizing, Practice, Patience and Perseverance.

Instructions:

The following will help you prepare to run this challenge with your class:

1. Setup Minecraft: Education Edition

Make sure you have the latest version installed. You can check your version and update if necessary with these instructions. Download Minecraft: Education Edition [Download | Minecraft Education Edition]. Details on licensing and installation can be found in our knowledge base [Get Set Up – Minecraft: Education Edition Support].

2. Sign up to receive the text

Vist the sign up page to request a free copy of the text for your students (limited print copies availalbe in the U.S. and digital downloads available to everyone). Minecraft: The Island tells the story of a new hero stranded in the world of Minecraft, who must brave the harsh, unfamiliar environment to survive.

3. Read the text and challenge prompt

Read the text with your class. Lesson activities and Common Core standards alignment can be found in the Teacher’s Guide.  Additional alignments for UK KS2 and KS3 as well as suggested activities can be found in the support files section. After reading the text, challenge your students to build their own unique Minecraft shelter in the Leagues of Literacy arena, improving upon the protagonist’s home base and drawing on descriptions from the text.

Watch the challenge video for an introduction and overview. 

4. Create a video for assessment and submission

As an assessment tool, each student or group should create a short video showing their Minecraft build and explaining their use of the six P's featured in the text: Planning, Preparing, Prioritizing, Practice, Patience and Perseverance. Educators in the U.S. can submit their students’ work between April 25th and June 1st for the opportunity to win Minecraft prizes. Educators outside the U.S. can download the League of Literacy Challenge Toolkit to run their own challenge.

For contest submissions, videos must include the following:

  • Game Recording of the project (maximum length 2 minutes) with no personal identifiable information as part of the video, sharing only the students’ team name, school, and country.
  • Brief description of the team’s project including how it improves upon the protagonist’s home base and demonstrates the 6 P's (Planning, Preparing, Prioritizing, Practice, Patience, and Perseverance), either within the video as a voice-over, on-screen text or attached as a supplementary text file.
  • What the team learned as part of their involvement.

As part of thier particpation in this project, students will do the following:

Read the text:

Vist the sign up page to request a free copy of the text for your students (limited print copies availalbe in the U.S. and digital downloads available to everyone). Minecraft: The Island tells the story of a new hero stranded in the world of Minecraft, who must brave the harsh, unfamiliar environment to survive.

Watch the video:

Watch the challenge video for an introduction and overview. 

Build in Minecraft:

Decide if students will work in teams or individually. Download the Leauge of Literacy world from the website or from within the Minecraft: Education Edition game Library. Load the Minecraft world. Speak to the NPC character to get an overview of the challenge (see Teacher Prep and Notes for prompt). Each group should choose one of the book-shaped build plates to create their shelter. 

Make video:

As an assessment tool, each student or group should create a short video showing their Minecraft build and explaining their use of the six P's featured in the text: Planning, Preparing, Prioritizing, Practice, Patience and Perseverance. Educators in the U.S. can submit their students’ work between April 25th and June 1st for the opportunity to win Minecraft prizes. Educators outside the U.S. can download the League of Literacy Challenge Toolkit to run their own challenge.

There are multiple ways students can document their work in Minecraft: Education Edition. Depending on the curriculum requirements or teachers’ comfort level with the platform, you can arrange assesment materials can be gathered digitally with in-game screenshots and the Book & Quill tool, through student presentations or writing projects, or through online forms.

For the challenge, it is reccomend that each student or group create a short video showing their Minecraft build and explaining their use of the six P's featured in the text: Planning, Preparing, Prioritizing, Practice, Patience and Perseverance. Educators in the U.S. can submit their students’ work between April 25th and June 1st for the opportunity to win Minecraft prizes. Educators outside the U.S. can download the League of Literacy Challenge Toolkit to run their own challenge.

For contest submissions, videos must include the following:

  • Game Recording of the project (maximum length 2 minutes) with no personal identifiable information as part of the video, sharing only the students’ team name, school, and country.
  • Brief description of the team’s project including how it improves upon the protagonist’s home base and demonstrates the 6 P's (Planning, Preparing, Prioritizing, Practice, Patience, and Perseverance), either within the video as a voice-over, on-screen text or attached as a supplementary text file.
  • What the team learned as part of their involvement.

Minecraft: The Island Teacher’s Guide
Standards aligned lesson activities for your classroom.
Digital Resource Kit
Digital Resource that includes a classroom poster and extended excerpt of Minecraft: The Island by Max Brooks.
National Literacy Trust
UK National Literacy Trust League of Literacy page.

Skills

  • Collaboration
  • Communication
  • Creativity

Estimated time

2 hours