Modern Command


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All Standards English Language Arts History and Social Science Common Sense For Teachers




These are the Massachusetts State Educational Standards that Modern Command regularly targets. Please note: none of these standards are a "stretch". All of them are used in a genuine, meaningful, and real way as players lead their nations.


History and Social Science

Standard Group: Civics and Government
Standard: Give examples of several well-known international organizations (e.g., the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the British Commonwealth, and the United Nations) and explain their purposes and functions.
How is this standard referenced? Players will in fact JOIN the aboved referenced groups and must effectively use them to further their nation's goals.

Standard Group: General economic skills
Standard: Define and use correctly gross domestic product, economic growth, recession, depression, unemployment, and inflation.
How is this standard referenced? All of these terms are key indicators in Modern Command. Players must not only understand, but work to influence these variables in order to be successful.

Standard Group: History and Geography
Standard: Use geographic terms correctly, such as delta, glacier, location, settlement, region, natural resource, human resource, mountain, hill, plain, plateau, river, island, isthmus, peninsula, erosion, climate, drought, monsoon, hurricane, ocean and wind currents, tropics, rain forest, tundra, desert, continent, region, country, nation, and urbanization.
How is this standard referenced? Players must constanly reference a political map of the world in order to make informed and sound judgements about potential trade partners and advesaries.

Standard Group: History and Geography
Standard: Distinguish historical fact from opinion.
How is this standard referenced? Players regularly (very regularly) debate and argue about unfolding events in the context of nation's best interest. In this process is a regular unfolding of fact from fiction (the line is very fuzzy sometimes!).

Standard Group: The Role of Government
Standard: Explain how government responds to perceived social needs by providing public goods and services.
How is this standard referenced? Players, acting as world leaders, must provide public goods and services, or face the consequences of an angry constituency!


Instructional Technology



Standard Group: Demonstrate proficiency in the use of computers and applications as well as an understanding of concepts underlying hardware, software, and connectivity.
Standard: Identify capabilities of technology resources and understand how they can be used for lifelong learning.
How is this standard referenced? This game is one pretty obvious way, but in the course of governance, players will be impelled to find data, treaties, and information on the internet. As this information is highly specific, they will require a certain technical articulation to succeed.

Standard Group: Demonstrate ability to use technology for research, problem-solving, and communication. Students locate, evaluate, collect, and process information from a variety of electronic sources. Students use telecommunications and other media to interact or collaborate with peers, experts, and other audiences.
Standard: Routinely evaluate Web sites for authenticity when using them.
How is this standard referenced? Players need information. Just like real world leaders, they need to assess the validity of this information. As players will probably glean most of their information from the web, this skill becomes increasingly important.


English Language Arts



Standard Group: Students will use agreed-upon rules for informal and formal discussions in small and large groups.Students will use agreed-upon rules for informal and formal discussions in small and large groups.
Standard: 1.5 Identify and practice techniques such as setting time limits for speakers and deadlines for decision-making to improve productivity of group discussions.
How is this standard referenced? As leaders, players will be literally beseiged with requests for time and attention. They will need to develop strong time management skills.

Standard Group: Students will pose questions, listen to the ideas of others, and contribute their own information or ideas in group discussions or interviews in order to acquire new knowledge.
Standard: 2.4 Integrate relevant information gathered from group discussions and interviews for reports.
How is this standard referenced? As players discuss, debate, and deliberate over specific issues, there is a natural "bringing together" of information that happens

Standard Group: Students will describe, analyze, and use appropriately formal and informal English.
Standard: 6.4 Demonstrate through role-playing appropriate use of formal and informal language.
How is this standard referenced? Assuming the role of a world-leader, players wil use appropriate language to communicate with other world leaders (I hope we don't hear the Prime Minister of India saying "DUDE! WASSSSUP?!?).

Standard Group: Students will identify the basic facts and main ideas in a text and use them as the basis for interpretation.
Standard: 8.22 Identify and analyze main ideas, supporting ideas, and supporting details.
How is this standard referenced? "What is the issue?" players will be exposed to a literal plethora of information, and through discernment, they will find and act on, the real issue.

Standard Group: Students will identify the basic facts and main ideas in a text and use them as the basis for interpretation.
Standard: 8.27 Identify evidence used to support an argument.
How is this standard referenced? "So, you want me to give you a billion dollars to fight toe fungus, huh?" a pause. "Prove it."

Standard Group: Students will identify the basic facts and main ideas in a text and use them as the basis for interpretation.
Standard: 8.31 Analyze the logic and use of evidence in an author’s argument.
How is this standard referenced? This is another straight forward standard. As players assume the role of a world leader, they will need to demonstrate and apply this standard as issues come up.

Standard Group: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary or non-literary work by relating it to its contemporary context or historical background.
Standard: 10.6 Identify and analyze characteristics of genres (satire, parody, allegory, pastoral)...
How is this standard referenced? I only included half this standard; but players will (on a daily basis) encounter news reports and stories who regularly skewer the leader.

Standard Group: Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the purpose, structure, and elements of nonfiction or informational materials and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
Standard: 13.21 Recognize use of arguments for and against an issue.
How is this standard referenced? Pretty straight forward stuff. Issues are the meat and potatoes of this game, and players will need to understand both sides of an argument.

Standard Group: Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the purpose, structure, and elements of nonfiction or informational materials and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
Standard: 13.22 Identify evidence used to support an argument.
How is this standard referenced? Players will regularly present, evaluate and test evidence as they make a case for their cause.

Standard Group: Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the purpose, structure, and elements of nonfiction or informational materials and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
Standard: 13.26 Analyze and evaluate the logic and use of evidence in an author’s argument.
How is this standard referenced? Does it make sense? The use of logic and reason to bolster an argument is a good thing. They'll practice it regularly.

Standard Group: Students will identify and analyze how an author’s words appeal to the senses, create imagery, suggest mood, and set tone and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
Standard: 15.9 Identify, analyze, and evaluate an author’s use of rhetorical devices in persuasive argument.
How is this standard referenced? A silver tounge may move mountains! Players not only identify rhetoric, but also use quite a bit of it.

Standard Group: Students will plan and present dramatic readings, recitations, and performances that demonstrate appropriate consideration of audience and purpose.
Standard: 18.5 Develop, communicate, and sustain consistent characters in improvisational, formal, and informal productions and create scoring guides with categories and criteria for assessment of presentations.
How is this standard referenced? The essence of Modern Command is for players to assume the role of a world leader and act on their nation's best interest. While we don't have scoring guides, we do have an award system that awards good role play.

Standard Group: Students will write with a clear focus, coherent organization, and sufficient detail.
Standard: 19.18 Write formal letters to correspondents such as authors, newspapers, businesses, or government officials.
How is this standard referenced? Players will create and read formal pleas, correspondence, and maybe even legal stuff. They will post formal letters on a politcal board system.

Standard Group: Students will write with a clear focus, coherent organization, and sufficient detail.
Standard: 19.26 Write well-organized essays (persuasive, literary, personal) that have a clear focus, logical development, effective use of detail, and variety in sentence structure.
How is this standard referenced? Making a case, making a speech, or writing a rebuttal is common and usual in the Modern Command world.

Standard Group: Students will write for different audiences and purposes.
Standard: 20.4 Select and use appropriate rhetorical techniques for a variety of purposes, such as to convince or entertain the reader.
How is this standard referenced? This is the very art of the political world, and is applicable in the military and economic sphere's as well.

Standard Group: Students will write for different audiences and purposes.
Standard: 20.6 Use effective rhetorical techniques and demonstrate understanding of purpose, speaker, audience, and form when completing expressive, persuasive, or literary writing assignments.
How is this standard referenced? Again, the very essence of Modern Command is to persuade others to join with you for a cause.

Standard Group: Students will use knowledge of standard English conventions in their writing, revising, and editing.
Standard: 22.7 Use additional knowledge of correct mechanics (apostrophes, quotation marks, comma use in compound sentences, paragraph indentations), correct sentence structure (elimination of fragments and run-ons), and correct standard English spelling (commonly used homophones) when writing, revising, and editing.
How is this standard referenced? Modern Command is a text-based game. There are no graphics, or sounds, just text. As we use this medium to engage and explore our world as a leader, the effective and proper use of written English is very important.

Standard Group: Students will organize ideas in writing in a way that makes sense for their purpose.
Standard: 23.15 Craft sentences in a way that supports the underlying logic of the ideas.
How is this standard referenced? Again, text and the written word is our medium. It's our canvas upon which we create a world. As players manipulate the world around them, they need to "speak" with other world leaders in a cogent, clear, and concise manner.

Standard Group: Students will gather information from a variety of sources, analyze and evaluate the quality of the information they obtain, and use it to answer their own questions.
Standard: 24.5 Formulate open-ended research questions and apply steps for obtaining and evaluating information from a variety of sources, organizing information, documenting sources in a consistent and standard format, and presenting research.
How is this standard referenced? Players will regularly investigate and hypothesize scenerios, plan for eventualities, and organize information in order to come to a conclusion.

Standard Group: Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the conventions, elements, and techniques of film, radio, video, elevision, multimedia productions, the Internet, and emerging technologies, and provide evidence from the works to support their understanding.
Standard: 26.4 Analyze the effect on the reader’s or viewer’s emotions of text and image in print journalism, and images, sound, and text in electronic journalism, distinguishing techniques used in each to achieve these effects.
How is this standard referenced? Players will regularly have stories written about them, and thus will have the opportunity to directly understand how media effects their governance. Some players may choose a journalism career, and will write stories about different people, often with an agenda.

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Modern Command is copyright (c) Boris Enichov, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008. Licensed under the Creative Commons license.