When teaching “The Necklace,” usually I make enough time to read, discuss, teach my students how to annotate what we have read in class, review the elements of a story and explain relevant literary devices. Now, that I am back to teaching freshmen honors, in addition to the regular level freshman survey course, I have my work cut out for me. Knowing that my students, for the most part, will read work assigned at home for homework, what can I do that would utilize class time most effectively? For them to understand the parallels of life from this short story and in an adult life, I thought it would be interesting for them to actually play The Game of Life. After finding a complete game that my mother bought my children at a garage sale, and after asking my colleagues, I managed to wrangle up three complete sets of this game. (Thank goodness, because I would have had to spend around $85 to get six sets of this game!)

To start, I inquired about who had played this game before. Regardless of whether they did or not, it is pretty safe to assume they may have mostly played the online or app of this game and not the physical board game, I reviewed the basic rules of play.

As they played the game, I asked them to take notes on what their career, salary, debt, income and other life experiences that occurred over the course of the 30 minute game we were able to fit in during one class period.

That night, students were asked to write a story using their experience when playing the game. They had to compose a narrative, either first or third person, in this short story of about 300 words using all elements of a story, which include:

1. -A protagonist (themselves)
   

2. -An antagonist (life, their spouse, job, money?)  
   

3. -Exposition (develop background as to why their character has the job they were given)
   

4. -Setting (they can make this up)
   

- Plot that must include: rising action, a climax (so some decision is made) and falling action

1. -A resolution
   

The next day, they had to get into smaller groups and share

these stories. I also gave them time to be sure they did

identify all story elements before presenting. When they

read these to their peers, I encouraged them to revise, add

and edit their story.

Here are some excepts from the stories I received:

“I was just reading a book one day on my favorite sofa in my

lofty Chicago condo, when I started to reminisce about how good

life has been to me. You always hear about people who never

make it in life, but for some reason I was blessed and had lived

a full life. Now that I’m retired, I can look back at my life with glee.”

“That summer I had a few problems. I had to pay rent on my apartment and I had a decent rent, but that was $4,000 for four months and I paid it three times a year. I had only gotten $1,400 summer pay check, but my normal salary is $900 every two weeks on a normal basis. Another thing that happened that summer is that my great aunt died so I had to deal with the expenses, which even though it wasn’t all of the expenses, it was still quite a bit because my share was $750. When I went to my family reunion that year, I had gotten my car stolen when all four of us went inside to eat. So I needed a new car and I found a used one for $4,000, and I was in debt about $1,500 to the bank.”

“Day 200- Okay, so in the past several months I’ve given birth to twins, called Calek and Steart. I cashed out my inheritance to pay fees, but I had to take out a loan. Oh, and I’m pregnant with ANOTHER set of twins.”

“After a few months of being homeless, Tom was approached by a strange, but kind man in a black suit with a black hat that covered his face. This man saw Tom while walking down the alley and gave him words of encouragement. At first, Tom was reluctant to listen to this man’s words, but there were no other choices; either Tom believes this man, or dies wondering if he still had a life to live or not. Luckily, Tom followed his instincts and sought out a chance at a new beginning. Once again, Tom went to school to find a profession that sparked interest to him. Tom later qualified to become a dentist.”

I really enjoyed reading these narratives. I loved how they incorporated the details from the game including how much items cost; from their salary earned, to how much the house cost, to money they earned from their career. They would take a simple direction from the game board like: “Family Picnic” or “Adopt a Pet,” and integrate into the story so well to give their protagonist so much life and interest. So in addition to learning about the story elements and having fun writing their own, I hope they did learn that their are many paths an individual can take in life!