Codex : Lost Words of Atlantis
An Adult Literacy Project
People ForWords , a collaborative research team , won the grand prize out of over 700 entries in the Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPrize for Codex : Lost Words of Atlantis .
The team is a partnership between SMU Guildhall , SMU Lyle School of Engineering , SMU Simmons School of Education and Human Development , world leading literacy experts , and non-profit Literacy Instruction for Texas ( LIFT ). Together , their shared expertise in game development , education , and adult literacy built an immersive and fun mobile application to advance the adult literacy field .
Created to empower low-literate adults to take control of their literacy education , this app couples engaging gameplay with phonological decoding and encoding , as well as morphological awareness . The game is accessible on mobile devices so that learners can operate it from anywhere , at anytime , thereby overcoming key barriers to literacy learning . The pedagogical approach for the game supports research-based practices in literacy learning and game-based learning . All instructional
elements are positioned in the context of the gameplay as learners solve challenges to solve mysteries of Atlantis , identifying letter sounds , CVC patterns , sight words , and eventually sentences . The game begins with support in the form of guidance for the learner that decreases as they demonstrate mastery of basic literacy skills . Core gameplay revolves around crafting English phonemes , onset-rime patterns , and sight words to “ decode ” an ancient language . In the gameplay , players find a ‘ codex ’ in an attic and then use it to translate letters and words from the lost city into English pronunciation sounds , building phonemes and words to unlock secret locations inside major archeological sites around the world .
Sites are based upon real-world and mythical locations , such as Egypt and Atlantis . After completing each location , a player will see the level transform with images of real locations . This helps keep users engaged in progressing further in the game , as it enables them to see and learn more about real-world areas outside of their current city . At each location , players are presented with new artifacts to decode . As the codex translates each artifact , it helps the player understand the ancient language and unlock the next set of doors to progress in the game .
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