Sample Practice: Level 3

Practice 3.8.3: Playing the Believing Game 1 is the first half of a big new skill for kids: critical analysis of the content and form of a text. The Believing and Doubting Games ask kids to play pretend and first, imagine that they believe absolutely everything in the text and use that believing brain to analyze what the text is saying and doing. Then once they’ve finished that step, they switch to pretending to doubt everything in and about the text. Kids get free rein to dissect every possible problem with the text. Finally, the kids use their work in the games to develop an informed opinion about the text.

The Believing & Doubting Games are usually only taught in high school (or beyond) but are fun ways to introduce younger children to the process of critical analysis. Kids get very excited about the idea of playing a game. June Writers builds on this skill in subsequent levels to teach kids about self-editing their ideas and writing—a challenging task that is all too infrequent even in the adult world.

We begin the Believing Game sequence with a text that is light and ridiculous and then build to more challenging texts.

Practice 3.8.3: Playing the Believing Game 1 can take kids multiple sittings to complete, which is fine. We encourage kids to take their work in manageable bites and turn in their progress for feedback as they go.

Ready for your child to play the Believing and Doubting Games? Enroll today!