I probably shouldn't ask this question since I've just been hired to write one...
However, the question does get asked by students a lot: "WHY do we have to do this? Can't we do something interesting for a change?"
It gets worse with exam-prep books which are exactly what they sound like: you have to do the book so you can pass the exam which proves that you know what was in the book. It's a bit of a stupid circle, isn't it?
So the first thing we need to face is the idea that a coursebook isn't there to help the student learn, it's there to support the teacher. It helps the teacher know what to teach next and it helps her to support the assumption that "they know this material", whatever that means.
It also helps to standardize the course to the extent that a teacher can tell her boss "we've completed 3 units so far". In this vast system that we call education, I suppose there is some comfort in the idea that all children of a given age are turning pages at exactly the same pace all over the country. It's comforting if your aim is conformity, as opposed to, say, actual learning.
It seems, then, that we won't be getting away from coursebooks for a while. So how can we take them and make them more educational in the sense of wringing more real learning from them?
First, we can make it more interactive. From jigsaw readings to whistle-gap dictations, we can have the students working together by re-envisioning the basic exercises as pair-work puzzles.
Second, we can actually analyse and recreate the tasks. It isn't easy to write a good gap-fill or multiple choice, and seeing why that is makes for a far deeper level of understanding. Plus it's fun to make questions to see if your classmates, or the class next door, can actually answer them. It's even nicer to create workbooks for underpriviledged kids.
Third, we can break out of the workbook-test cycle completely by designing projects based on the coursebook material that are relevant in real life. This is where social media can be used to showcase the work beyond the classroom.
lunes, 29 de septiembre de 2014
martes, 23 de septiembre de 2014
Prospero's game
In Shakespeare's The Tempest, we see Europe on the cusp of a new era: the shift from the dark Ages and its attendant belief in magic and the supernatural to the Enlightenment, a period that saw the rise of scientific growth.
We meet Prospero the magician at just such a stage in his life. We see him about to perform one final act of magic before giving it up forever. But why does Prospero give up magic? And what makes it so difficult?
Prospero is a man with enemies. He is also a man with a beautiful young daughter. The temptation to dispatch the former with well-chosen curses and to protect the latter with arcane incantations must be overwhelming.
But...he knows that magic isn't real. You cannot really curse your enemies, and as much as any father would have it otherwise, you cannot truly protect your daughter.
And so we see him both wanting to face reality and scientific truth, and not wanting to give up the illusion magic has to offer.
The game:
Each player has the following cards describing powers:
They describe to each other what they would do with these powers.
Then the players begin to lose their powers one by one.
Each player must draw a card from the following deck (shuffled and placed face-down before them):
When they draw a card, they must discard the corresponding card in their hand. With each draw, their magical powers diminish. Each player then tries to force the other to admit he is no longer truly a magician. The loser is whomever admits defeat first.
In this game, the players experience what it feels like, not only to lose one's magical powers, but also the desperation with which Prospero wanted to hold onto them.
"Star Trek: the next generation" has an episode called Hide and Q in which one of the characters is offered omnipotence. He attempts to use his powers to give his friends what he believes they want: for the android to become human, for the boy to become a man, for the blind man to see. But they refuse, because they know these not to be real. "This above all else: to thine own self be true" says the android, quoting Shakespeare.
And so the parallel can be made between a magician giving up his powers and a teenager giving up the perceived powers of adolescence for the more mundane, yet infinitely more satifying life of the adult. The game is similar with the "adolescent" cards being:
and the "adult" cards being:
We meet Prospero the magician at just such a stage in his life. We see him about to perform one final act of magic before giving it up forever. But why does Prospero give up magic? And what makes it so difficult?
Prospero is a man with enemies. He is also a man with a beautiful young daughter. The temptation to dispatch the former with well-chosen curses and to protect the latter with arcane incantations must be overwhelming.
But...he knows that magic isn't real. You cannot really curse your enemies, and as much as any father would have it otherwise, you cannot truly protect your daughter.
And so we see him both wanting to face reality and scientific truth, and not wanting to give up the illusion magic has to offer.
The game:
Each player has the following cards describing powers:
|
You are
immortal
|
You command the spirit world
|
You have the ability to fly and defy gravity
|
You have a deep knowledge of magic
|
You have the ability to cast spells to help and to curse
|
They describe to each other what they would do with these powers.
Then the players begin to lose their powers one by one.
Each player must draw a card from the following deck (shuffled and placed face-down before them):
|
You are mortal
|
You are alone
|
You must obey the laws of physics and the natural world
|
You have a deep understanding of scientific truths
|
You have the ability to set a good example for others
|
When they draw a card, they must discard the corresponding card in their hand. With each draw, their magical powers diminish. Each player then tries to force the other to admit he is no longer truly a magician. The loser is whomever admits defeat first.
In this game, the players experience what it feels like, not only to lose one's magical powers, but also the desperation with which Prospero wanted to hold onto them.
"Star Trek: the next generation" has an episode called Hide and Q in which one of the characters is offered omnipotence. He attempts to use his powers to give his friends what he believes they want: for the android to become human, for the boy to become a man, for the blind man to see. But they refuse, because they know these not to be real. "This above all else: to thine own self be true" says the android, quoting Shakespeare.
And so the parallel can be made between a magician giving up his powers and a teenager giving up the perceived powers of adolescence for the more mundane, yet infinitely more satifying life of the adult. The game is similar with the "adolescent" cards being:
|
You believe death happens to other people, mostly the old and the
stupid
|
You are popular and have a big group of friends
|
You live for speed, excitement and danger
|
All the information you need is contained in your
cellphone so you don’t need school
|
You rebel and “fight the system”
|
and the "adult" cards being:
|
You have faced your own mortality
|
You have your
family
|
You carefully weigh the risks and benefits of each action
|
You understand that knowledge, experience and wisdom, which cannot be
“googled” is trae power
|
You recognise your rights and responsabilities
|
jueves, 18 de septiembre de 2014
Action research
At one point it seemed that the tendency in education was to subdivide fields into ever narrower subjects. They actually did it Ecuador in some schools with EFL, so the kids had a course called "Reading & Writing" which would be separate from another course on "Grammar" taught by a completely different teacher with different books.
Coursebooks used to be written with very little unity as well. The unit would very often have a title such as "Around the World" but the reading and listening texts would only tangentially touch the theme while the grammar exercises would ignore it completely.
Currently it seems that some people are trying to steer the trend in the opposite direction. Now the idea of cross-curricular unity, and the idea of having a learning axis is coming back into fashion (at least here).
It is said that there is no unemployment in Azeroth (the fictional world of World of Warcraft) and this is because the player always has clear goals to work towards. In its simplest form, the idea resembles Super Mario Bros, where the aim is to keep Mario moving to the right in order to eventually arrive at the castle.
The idea of the Missions and Quests that were are designing for the EFL classes at UDLH is to use the Missions as a goal using all of the knowledge and skills acquired in the Quests. We are a long way from doing it perfectly, but in my humble opinon, we are getting better with each passing term. We are trying to make the "quests" in the form of readings, videos, essays, grammar points and vocabulary all lead to information that will help the student finally complete the mission.
Coursebooks used to be written with very little unity as well. The unit would very often have a title such as "Around the World" but the reading and listening texts would only tangentially touch the theme while the grammar exercises would ignore it completely.
Currently it seems that some people are trying to steer the trend in the opposite direction. Now the idea of cross-curricular unity, and the idea of having a learning axis is coming back into fashion (at least here).
It is said that there is no unemployment in Azeroth (the fictional world of World of Warcraft) and this is because the player always has clear goals to work towards. In its simplest form, the idea resembles Super Mario Bros, where the aim is to keep Mario moving to the right in order to eventually arrive at the castle.
The idea of the Missions and Quests that were are designing for the EFL classes at UDLH is to use the Missions as a goal using all of the knowledge and skills acquired in the Quests. We are a long way from doing it perfectly, but in my humble opinon, we are getting better with each passing term. We are trying to make the "quests" in the form of readings, videos, essays, grammar points and vocabulary all lead to information that will help the student finally complete the mission.
miércoles, 17 de septiembre de 2014
The most challenging issue
TeachThoughts's blogging question for today is "what do you think is the most challenging issue in education today?"
Sounds like a simple enough question...but it ain't.
First there's the in-and-out of education:
1. How can we improve the way the information goes in? Clearly the I-talk-you-shut-up method isn't working so well. We need to look for alternate methods: multiple intelligences, project-based learning, game-based learning etc.
2. How can we improve the way we measure what comes out? Pencil-and-paper standardized tests can really only go so far in telling us what we really need to know about what our kids are learning.
Then of course there's the curriculum itself:
1. How did the stuff on the curriculum get on there? Who decided? On what basis?
2. What else could, or should, be on there? What could, or should, be removed?
The fact is when my grandmother sent my mother to school, she could guess pretty much what future her daughter would have. When my mother sent me to school, she could pretty much guess what future I would have. But what does the future hold for my daughter? What skills will she need in a world where she will have the sum total of the world's information at her fingertips?
How the hell do we design for a future that is so radically different from our past?
Sounds like a simple enough question...but it ain't.
First there's the in-and-out of education:
1. How can we improve the way the information goes in? Clearly the I-talk-you-shut-up method isn't working so well. We need to look for alternate methods: multiple intelligences, project-based learning, game-based learning etc.
2. How can we improve the way we measure what comes out? Pencil-and-paper standardized tests can really only go so far in telling us what we really need to know about what our kids are learning.
Then of course there's the curriculum itself:
1. How did the stuff on the curriculum get on there? Who decided? On what basis?
2. What else could, or should, be on there? What could, or should, be removed?
The fact is when my grandmother sent my mother to school, she could guess pretty much what future her daughter would have. When my mother sent me to school, she could pretty much guess what future I would have. But what does the future hold for my daughter? What skills will she need in a world where she will have the sum total of the world's information at her fingertips?
How the hell do we design for a future that is so radically different from our past?
martes, 16 de septiembre de 2014
Tests as research questions
The answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, according to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is 42. The answer doesn't make sense because the question was poorly posed.
Most tests are answers to a poorly posed question which is usually a variant on "how much have my students understood about X?" The problem is the word "understood" which isn't clearly defined.
Therefore a test needs to be specific in its scope. The question "can students read?"is meaningless because if a student gets all the answers right, it's entirely possible he still can't read, depending on what reading means in that specific context. A six year-old may be able to identify letters while a 22 year-old may be able to read a medical journal.
Of course I will never know if she can read and understand ALL medical journals, so here's the challenge: to create a test that isn't too long (so it's humanly possible to concentrate that long) yet comprehensive enough to give me an idea of what she can do. So what's MY research question? Can this student read scientific articles in medicine well enough to understand what the hypothesis was, what the results were and whether the methodology was sound. Now that I can prepare a test for.
Most tests are answers to a poorly posed question which is usually a variant on "how much have my students understood about X?" The problem is the word "understood" which isn't clearly defined.
Therefore a test needs to be specific in its scope. The question "can students read?"is meaningless because if a student gets all the answers right, it's entirely possible he still can't read, depending on what reading means in that specific context. A six year-old may be able to identify letters while a 22 year-old may be able to read a medical journal.
Of course I will never know if she can read and understand ALL medical journals, so here's the challenge: to create a test that isn't too long (so it's humanly possible to concentrate that long) yet comprehensive enough to give me an idea of what she can do. So what's MY research question? Can this student read scientific articles in medicine well enough to understand what the hypothesis was, what the results were and whether the methodology was sound. Now that I can prepare a test for.
superpower
If I could have a superpower as a teacher, it would be to give my students superpowers to learn, do and achieve anything they want.
Mesopotamia
On the show 2 1/2 Men, the early seasons involved Alan Harper trying to convince his son to study.
Alan: Now, what year did Magellan circumnavigate the globe?
Jake: It's not gonna be on the test.
Alan: Maybe not, but it wouldn't hurt for you to know it anyway.
Jake: Why would I want to know something I don't have to?
Alan: Because maybe you'll need to know it in the future.
Jake: Well, then that's when I'll learn it!
Alan: Why can't you just learn it now?
Jake: 'Cause there's only so much space in my brain that if you put Magellan in there, I might forget my locker combination
http://www.tvfanatic.com/quotes/characters/alan-harper/page-54.html
How do you convince a 12 year-old that they ned to learn ancient history? Obviously Alan's arguments above failed to have an impact.
The solution is to create what Salen calls a "need-to-know", or "just-in-time learning".
I was asked to give a demo lesson on Mesopotamia. I loosely based my activity on http://www.instituteofplay.org/work/projects/quest-curriculum/mission-pack-i-spy-greece/
The resulting task: Alexander the Great wants to make Mesopotamia part of the Greek Empire. You are his advisers and you need to find answers to his 2 questions:
1. What elements of Mesopotamian culture should we assimilate?
2. What elements of Mesopotamian culture should we eliminate and how can we do so without inciting the people to riot?
It turned out surprisingly that women's rights, which under the early Mesopotamian Empire included owning property and businesses were to be curtailed, while the practice of slavery was to be kept and expanded. So how did we get from there to where we are today?
Alan: Now, what year did Magellan circumnavigate the globe?
Jake: It's not gonna be on the test.
Alan: Maybe not, but it wouldn't hurt for you to know it anyway.
Jake: Why would I want to know something I don't have to?
Alan: Because maybe you'll need to know it in the future.
Jake: Well, then that's when I'll learn it!
Alan: Why can't you just learn it now?
Jake: 'Cause there's only so much space in my brain that if you put Magellan in there, I might forget my locker combination
http://www.tvfanatic.com/quotes/characters/alan-harper/page-54.html
How do you convince a 12 year-old that they ned to learn ancient history? Obviously Alan's arguments above failed to have an impact.
The solution is to create what Salen calls a "need-to-know", or "just-in-time learning".
I was asked to give a demo lesson on Mesopotamia. I loosely based my activity on http://www.instituteofplay.org/work/projects/quest-curriculum/mission-pack-i-spy-greece/
The resulting task: Alexander the Great wants to make Mesopotamia part of the Greek Empire. You are his advisers and you need to find answers to his 2 questions:
1. What elements of Mesopotamian culture should we assimilate?
2. What elements of Mesopotamian culture should we eliminate and how can we do so without inciting the people to riot?
It turned out surprisingly that women's rights, which under the early Mesopotamian Empire included owning property and businesses were to be curtailed, while the practice of slavery was to be kept and expanded. So how did we get from there to where we are today?
lunes, 8 de septiembre de 2014
The meridian game
Challenged by a trainee to come up with a lesson to teach longitudes and latitudes, I came up with three games:
1. Battleship.
Each player marks 5 locations with hidden bombs or battleships which the other tries to guess by naming geolocations. This helped to familiarize students with searching and naming geographical points.
2. Rescue mission
Thee are two teams. The teacher names a geographical location, eg: 40N, 116E and the students have to locate the city where the missing person is as fast as possible.
3. Conference call
Students are assigned cities. They work with each other to find a convenient time for a phone or video chat. Then the whole class tries to find a time to meet online.
1. Battleship.
Each player marks 5 locations with hidden bombs or battleships which the other tries to guess by naming geolocations. This helped to familiarize students with searching and naming geographical points.
2. Rescue mission
Thee are two teams. The teacher names a geographical location, eg: 40N, 116E and the students have to locate the city where the missing person is as fast as possible.
3. Conference call
Students are assigned cities. They work with each other to find a convenient time for a phone or video chat. Then the whole class tries to find a time to meet online.
Play tested: AR addiction
"You have a secret addiction that nobody at this university knows about, but you can't keep this secret much longer. Maybe your teacher can help you. Write a journal to her telling her what you're addicted to, how it feels and how you've managed to keep it secret. "
This was the secret message each students received on a folded piece of paper as they entered class today.
The creativity of the responses was astounding. We had people addicted to shopping, cocaine, pain, sex... You name it! We spent the better part of an hour reading and answering each journal with questions to lead each story in new directions. The idea is to get the students to understand that if you're addicted to something, it's because it feels good but the consequences are bad. The idea is to counter the message that drugs are bad. They aren't: they can make you feel wonderful...until they don't, and THAT is the danger.
jueves, 4 de septiembre de 2014
What's to love about teaching?
What do I love the most about teaching?
On the planning side, I love coming up with lesson ideas that will help my students see the world differently.
When I get into the classroom I love it when they take my ideas and run with them or twist them to give them even more meaning.
On the planning side, I love coming up with lesson ideas that will help my students see the world differently.
When I get into the classroom I love it when they take my ideas and run with them or twist them to give them even more meaning.
Ethics game results
In a previous post I mentioned how I have students pass around the Slash doll when they hear each other speaking Spanish.
Then I thought about that: students policing each other...it sounded a bit Nazi-ish to me. I wondered if the students would have a problem ratting each other out.
I had invented a few new games to help my students review grammar (also detailed in another post), but they all require cards with the names of the grammar points and the example sentences. Since my philosohphy is to have the students do as much of the preparation work as possible (they have to learn English, I don't), I had them prepare the cards. The problem was, I knew it would take a while and I knew it might be kind of boring.
So I added these instructions:
I was curious to see if and how the students would try to communicate, and if and how they would "rat each other out".
As it happened, two girls immediately began ratting out their classmates. But then everybody got smart: instead of asking each other for information, they simply started writing information they already knew, like "X is taller than Y".
Then one guy took it a step further with sentences like: "Everyone in this class is shorter than me." I saw where this was going, and sure enough he did not disappoint. He eventually came up with a sentence beginning with "Everyone at this university..."
I thought the students had brilliant responses to the ethical conundrum I had set.
Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly the game I had envisioned. What I wanted to do was my game "Factory Line" (see my blog for June 7, 2014) the aim of which was to have my students try to get to know each other better. Because of the parameters I had set and the sneaky way they got around it to be more ethical, that didn't happen.
Lesson: Never underestimate how ethical my sudents really are.
Then I thought about that: students policing each other...it sounded a bit Nazi-ish to me. I wondered if the students would have a problem ratting each other out.
I had invented a few new games to help my students review grammar (also detailed in another post), but they all require cards with the names of the grammar points and the example sentences. Since my philosohphy is to have the students do as much of the preparation work as possible (they have to learn English, I don't), I had them prepare the cards. The problem was, I knew it would take a while and I knew it might be kind of boring.
So I added these instructions:
TRY TO FIND
OUT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR CLASSMATES AND INCLUDE THIS INFORMATION IN YOUR
SENTENCES. FOR EACH SENTENCE ABOUT A
CLASSMATE, YOU GET 2 EXTRA POINTS, BUT IF A SPY CATCHES YOU, YOU LOSE ALL OF
THE SENTENCES YOU HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT YOUR CLASSMATES UP UNTIL THAT POINT.
YOU ARE
ALSO A SPY. IF SOMEONE TALKS DIRECTLY TO
YOU, YOU CANNOT RAT THEM OUT BUT YOU CAN RAT OUT OTHER PEOPLE IF YOU SEE THEM
COMMUNICATING. FOR EVERY PERSON YOU RAT
OUT TO ME, YOU GET 5 EXTRA POINTS.
I was curious to see if and how the students would try to communicate, and if and how they would "rat each other out".
As it happened, two girls immediately began ratting out their classmates. But then everybody got smart: instead of asking each other for information, they simply started writing information they already knew, like "X is taller than Y".
Then one guy took it a step further with sentences like: "Everyone in this class is shorter than me." I saw where this was going, and sure enough he did not disappoint. He eventually came up with a sentence beginning with "Everyone at this university..."
I thought the students had brilliant responses to the ethical conundrum I had set.
Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly the game I had envisioned. What I wanted to do was my game "Factory Line" (see my blog for June 7, 2014) the aim of which was to have my students try to get to know each other better. Because of the parameters I had set and the sneaky way they got around it to be more ethical, that didn't happen.
Lesson: Never underestimate how ethical my sudents really are.
miércoles, 3 de septiembre de 2014
Games for grammar review
STEP 1
Have students work individually. For each structure
write the name of structure on one card and three cards with examples (with the
structure underlined). Repeat this for all of the structures you need to review.
STEP 2
Game 1:
Memory: 18 structure cards + 18 example cards
Instructions:
place all cards face down. Take turns to
flip over two cards. If they match (structure-example)
the player keeps the pair and continues.
The player with the most cards wins.
Game 2: Gin:
only example cards
Instructions:
Start by dealing 5 cards to each player.
Place the rest of the cards face down on the table. On each turn a player may discard one card
and pick another up from the pile. The
winner is the first player to get 5 examples of the same structure
Game 3: Card
game: only structure cards + books
The deck is
face down on the desk. Turn the card
over. The first player to find an
example of the structure in a book keeps the card. The winner is the player with the most cards
at the end.
Know what's in my ss heads
The most dangerous word a teacher can use is "they", as in "they enjoyed the class" or "they understood the material".
There shoudl be no such thing as a geberal "they". Innstead the focus should be on each and every individual learner: "What did Maria learn? What did Pedro have trouble with?".
Of course every teacher thinks that they've answered that question only to find nasty surprises when deadlines and tests come around and they find that not all of "them" do well.
I'm no exception.
This term I vow to try harder to do better: to be more aware of what's going on in every student's head at every minute of every lesson.
Impossible, you say? Teachers do at least six impossible things every day!
There shoudl be no such thing as a geberal "they". Innstead the focus should be on each and every individual learner: "What did Maria learn? What did Pedro have trouble with?".
Of course every teacher thinks that they've answered that question only to find nasty surprises when deadlines and tests come around and they find that not all of "them" do well.
I'm no exception.
This term I vow to try harder to do better: to be more aware of what's going on in every student's head at every minute of every lesson.
Impossible, you say? Teachers do at least six impossible things every day!
Enforcement-free English only
I can either be teacher or "cop", not both. Alfie Kohn points out that one major flaw with a system of rewards and punishments is that if it's to be enforced, you have to be vigilant. That cuts into my teaching time. If I have one student with a legitimate question and one student speaking his mother tongue instead of English, I don't want to be diving my attention.
Fortunately, an idea a friend gave me a long time ago got buried in my subconcious and finally resurfaced the other day.
I have a little doll that's supoosed to look like Slash, the rock guitarist (a long-time crush of mine). If I hear someone speaking Spanish, I simply put Slash on that student's desk. Then I step back. If that student hears someone else speak Spanish, he gives the doll to her. Whoever has Slash at the end of the period loses a point off their final grade.
Now I don't have to be cop.
Of, course, they're now policing each other, and as we all saw in the Harry Potter stories, that's not exactly a sweet thing either...
Fortunately, an idea a friend gave me a long time ago got buried in my subconcious and finally resurfaced the other day.
I have a little doll that's supoosed to look like Slash, the rock guitarist (a long-time crush of mine). If I hear someone speaking Spanish, I simply put Slash on that student's desk. Then I step back. If that student hears someone else speak Spanish, he gives the doll to her. Whoever has Slash at the end of the period loses a point off their final grade.
Now I don't have to be cop.
Of, course, they're now policing each other, and as we all saw in the Harry Potter stories, that's not exactly a sweet thing either...
martes, 2 de septiembre de 2014
What capoeira taught me
As a Jewish child, every Passover I was taught that we had been slave in Egypt for four hundred years. Despite the rich traditions surrounding the storytelling, the concept of slavery meant little to me.
As a teenager, I read Harriet Jacob's "Incidents in the life of a slave girl" and I was moved to tears.
As a twenty-something in Latin America, I decided to learn capoeira, an athletic, dance-inspired Brazilian martial-art done to music. I learned that, unlike the more severe martial arts of the Far East, capoeira was not an upper-class military activity. It was preparation for a slave revolt. It was disguised as dance to make the overlords think "Oh, how sweet, the slaves are dancing". In reality it was practice for a fight to death or freedom. To disguise it even further, it is traditionally performed inside a human circle.
Then I learned capoeira angola. Instead of energetic high kicks and acrobatics, this version was slower and closer to the ground.
The performers of capoeira angola had worn leg irons.
Suddenly the brutal dehumanization of slavery hit me in the gut. I understood slavery from the inside. That feeling of raw empathy has stayed with me.
That is the power of games. When you hear about an injustice, you understand it intellectually and move on. When you read a first-hand account, you feel sympathy. But when you experience the injustice through the mechanics of a well-designed game, you come to understand the true horror of having your freedom curtailed, if only for a fraction of a second. But it stays with you.
As a teenager, I read Harriet Jacob's "Incidents in the life of a slave girl" and I was moved to tears.
As a twenty-something in Latin America, I decided to learn capoeira, an athletic, dance-inspired Brazilian martial-art done to music. I learned that, unlike the more severe martial arts of the Far East, capoeira was not an upper-class military activity. It was preparation for a slave revolt. It was disguised as dance to make the overlords think "Oh, how sweet, the slaves are dancing". In reality it was practice for a fight to death or freedom. To disguise it even further, it is traditionally performed inside a human circle.
Then I learned capoeira angola. Instead of energetic high kicks and acrobatics, this version was slower and closer to the ground.
The performers of capoeira angola had worn leg irons.
Suddenly the brutal dehumanization of slavery hit me in the gut. I understood slavery from the inside. That feeling of raw empathy has stayed with me.
That is the power of games. When you hear about an injustice, you understand it intellectually and move on. When you read a first-hand account, you feel sympathy. But when you experience the injustice through the mechanics of a well-designed game, you come to understand the true horror of having your freedom curtailed, if only for a fraction of a second. But it stays with you.
I'd incorporate MMOs
Today's blog prompt from www.teachthought.com asks us to write about a piece of technology we'd like to incorporate in our school this year.
Gamers need to use English to communicate, particularly those playing MMOs (massively mulitplayer online games). As an EFL teacher, I would love to encourage my students to play these more so they can see how English really is necessary: not just in some distant far off future in some distant far off land in the real world, but in some distant future in a distant land right now on your computer!
Gamers need to use English to communicate, particularly those playing MMOs (massively mulitplayer online games). As an EFL teacher, I would love to encourage my students to play these more so they can see how English really is necessary: not just in some distant far off future in some distant far off land in the real world, but in some distant future in a distant land right now on your computer!
lunes, 1 de septiembre de 2014
Goals for this year
Katie Salen of the Institute of Play talks about the principles of game-like learning, the 7th of which is "it kind of feels like play". My teaching goal for is year is to make everything feel like play. It already does for me...but how to make it so for my students. Ay, there's the rub!
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