For today’s Teacher Tuesday post, I suggest a combination of a board game and a short story, two of my favorite Perfect Pairings. Board games are the perfect tangible, concrete form to illustrate plot, conflict, resolution, consequences, setting, journey, and many more literary techniques. Board games are also affordable and readily available, and students can create their own versions of their favorite board games with a short story theme.
Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s masterful short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” is popular among high school English classes, and I’ve used it in my college classes. I believe her story pairs perfectly with the board game, Jenga. In groups, students should scan the story for excerpts that demonstrate the main character’s worsening mental state. Each group takes a turn to play Jenga, and each player reads a quote aloud before sliding out a brick. Just as students remove each brick, causing the tower to weaken, the woman locked in the bedroom with the yellow wallpaper loses her sanity, day by day. They will physically feel the risk and the tension of the story as they watch their Jenga tower sway and wobble with each quote. Have fun with this one!
