Logic: the game

It's often easier to understand logic by noting its absence.
All men are mortal.
Socrates was a man.
Ergo, Socreates was mortal.

That's a fairly simple and obvious syllogism.  But what about this one:

Everything that is rare is expensive.
Cheap horses are rare.
Ergo, cheap horses are expensive.

The game of logic then is to teach a particular logical concept, then have students create examples where they flout the rule and see if their classmates can spot the mistake.

Homeless in Nepal and Ecuador

My students played my homeless child game:

A) Listen to Cardboard Box City by the Levellers: what’s the song about?

Choose one of the following songs:

·         “Rosemary” by Lenny Kravitz

·         “Nobody’s Home” by Avril Lavigne

·         “Little Miss S.” by Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians

Listen to the song and follow the lyrics (you can find both on the internet).  Answer the following questions:

1.            How old do you think the girl in the song is?

2.            What do you know about her life from the song?

3.            What advice does the singer give her?

Talk to students who chose the other two songs and discuss the different stories.  Note down similarities and differences.

 

B) Cut up the following cards and place them face down on the desk.

 

FOUND AN OLD FOOTBALL- PLAYED FOR AN HOUR – WE WON!	SOMEONE DROPPED A CELL PHONE – SOLD IT TO A GUY FOR $25	SAT OUTSIDE A BAKERY- RICH TOURIST BOUGHT ME CHOCOLATE CAKE
FALL FACE DOWN IN MUD- EVERYONE LAUGHED	COLD – SLEPT IN DOG HOUE IN RICH NEIGHBORHOOD	WATCHED JEAN CLAUDE VAN DAMME MOVIE THROUGH WINDOW OF ELECTRONICS STORE
BIG KID JOE BEAT ME UP	GUARDS THREW ME OUT OF MALL – COLD	BIG KID JOE STOLE OLD LADY’S PURSE – SHE THOGUHT IT WAS ME – HAD TO RUN
FOUND FRENCH FRIES IN GARBAGE CAN	STOLE GLUE FROM STATIONERY STORE – SNIFFED FOR AN HOUR –FEELS GOOD	FELL ASLEEP IN PARK – SOMEONE STOLE MY SHOES
BEGGED IN FRONT OF CHURCH – GOT $6.32	DOG TREED ME FOR 2 HOURS	WAS LOOKING IN CAR WINDOW-FELT COP HIT ME ON HEAD WITH NIGHTSTICK
WON CONTEST WITH CAB DRIVER TO SEE WHO COULD PEE FURTHEST- HE BOUGHT ME A BURGER	SAW DRUNK SLEEPING IN PARK – STOLE HIS JACKET AND HAT	PASSED A SCHOOL – KIDS COMING OUT IN NICE CLOTHES – I HATE THEM
STOOD OUTSIDE RESTAURANT LOOKING IN – NEVER HAD ICE-CREAM BEFORE	STOLE A COLA FROM A STORE – OPENED CAP AND WON A FREE ONE	WON $4 FROM BIG KID JOE ‘CAUSE MY FOOTBALL TEAM BEAT HIS
FELL ASLEEP IN PARK – BIRD POO ON MY FACE	THIRSTY – FOUND ½ BOTTLE OF WATER IN GARBAGE – WIPED OFF LIPSTICK MARKS	STOLE BUSINESSMAN’S WALLET ON BUS - $75

 

With a partner, take turns choosing a card.  Decide if the event described is a happy one or an unhappy one from the point of view of a homeless child using the following scale:

 

 

-3            -2            -1            0             +1           +2           +3

 

Then add up your score.  Which child had a better day?

 

C)  Think of events that might happen in a day in the life of a homeless child.  You can use ideas from the cards above or invent your own.  Imagine the order in which they happened during the day.  Write each event next to the times below:

 

·         6:00am:

·         8:00am:

·         10:00am:

·         12:00pm:

·         2:00pm:

·         4:00pm:

·         5:00pm:

·         7:00pm:

·         10:00pm:

·         12:00am:

 

A)      Using the timetable you created above, write a story about a typical day in the life of a homeless child.  Write the story in the first person, for example “This morning I woke up under a bridge”.  Start by explaining where, when and why the character woke up, and end with where he or she goes to sleep.  Include details about the character’s family and/or friends in your narrative.

B)        Read your classmates’ stories.  Write in your journal how you felt after reading them.  Do you have any ideas for ways to help the homeless?

 

EXPLANATION OF METHODOLOGY

A) The lyrics to the songs can all be found online at http://www.lyrics.com/ or any other lyrics website.

·         “Rosemary” is about an abandoned child in bare feet and a tattered dress.  The singer tells her not to lose her faith in Christ.

·         “Nobody’s Home” is about a teenager living on the streets. The singer’s advice is “Open your eyes and look outside, find the reasons why you've been rejected, and now you can't find what you left behind. Be strong, be strong now.”

·         “Little Miss S.” is about a teenage drug addict who sleeps with a lot of different boys who don’t care about her.  The singer says “You got a lot of livin' to do without life” which means that she’s trying to make decisions too quickly without waiting for wisdom and experience to guide her.

A)      This task can lead to some interesting discussions.  Sniffing glue, for instance, is a terrible thing to do, but perhaps for a homeless child, it ranks as one of the best parts of the day.  The interesting part is deciding which values are universal and which only apply if one is well-fed and otherwise safe and cared for.

B)       This step is important in order to plan out the structure of the narrative.

C)       The length of the narrative can be set by the teacher.  Writing in the first person helps to make the story more poignant.  Impose any additional requirements of grammar and vocabulary you wish, but in this case, the main aim is to stir the emotions of the reader.

D)      Students will find each others’ stories more or less impacting, so the aim in writing (step D) is to make the story as emotionally powerful as possible.  Humor is also an emotion and may serve to make the more tragic points of the story stand out.  The students can therefore document how each story made them feel in their journal.

Final note: bind the stories together as a book and "sell" them to the next level down to illustrate.  The money goes to Nepal or Un Techo Para Mi Pais in Ecuador

Ancient Egypt museum game

How to turn boring powerpoints for a university course on Ancient Egypt into a learning experience:

Send the students the powerpoints and have each group create a museum of pictures, journal exerpts and "newspaper articles". 

BUT each exhibit has x number of errors: can the visitors spot them? (the "visitors" are, of course, classmates or other classes)

Quest of a slave woman

 A game for two players using the texts from http://spartacus-educational.com/USAslavery.htm as non-player characters.

You are an escaped slave.  You have a bounty hunter trying to find you.    Roll the dice with the bounty hunter; if you get the same number, he will catch you and drag you back to the plantation where you will be punished.  If this happens twice, the second time you will be executed.  If you roll different numbers, pick up the next card and continue.	You are a bounty hunter.  You are chasing an escaped slave.    Roll the dice with the slave; if you get the same number, you can catch her and drag her back to the plantation where she will be punished.   If this happens twice, the second time she will be executed.   If you roll different numbers, pick up the next card and continue.
You have two goals: Your first goal is to find out what happened to your four children who were sold from you about 10 years ago.  You need to find them before the bounty hunter does.   Your second goal is to take notes for an autobiography you want to write to expose the injustice and cruelty of the slave system.  Start by describing your life as a house slave.  Post it.   Note: Be aware that the bounty hunter might read what you write: it’s important to tell the truth but you might want to change some details to throw him off.   Also, you do not have time to write very much, maximum 100 words per note.	You have two goals: Your first goal is to capture the slave, but ideally you also want to capture her children whom you know were sold away at auction about 10 years ago.  You need to find them before the slave does.   Your second goal is to keep notes of what you find out for the investors who are supporting you.  Start by explaining the laws that allow you to catch runaway slaves.  Post it.   Note: Be aware that the slave might read what you write: it’s important to tell the truth but you might want to change some details to throw her off.   Also, you do not have time to write very much, maximum 100 words per note.
You think one of your daughters may have died as a field slave. Ask Mary Prince OR Henry Box Brown how your daughter may have died.  Take notes and post them.   Roll the dice and if you are not captured you may continue to search for your other three children.	You think one of her daughters may have died as a field slave. Ask Moses Grandy OR Elizabeth Keckley how she might have died.  Take notes and post them.   Roll the dice and if you do not capture the slave you may continue to search for her other three children.
You’ve heard of the Underground Railroad.  You aren’t quite sure what it is, but you have information that one of your sons may have escaped north that way.   Ask Harriet Tubman OR Sojourner Truth what she knows about the Underground Railroad.  Take notes and post them.     Roll the dice and if you are not captured you may continue to search for your other two children.	You’ve heard of the Underground Railroad.  You aren’t quite sure what it is, but you have information that one of the slave’s sons may have escaped north that way.   Ask Harriet Tubman OR Sojourner Truth what she knows about the Underground Railroad.  Take notes and post them.     Roll the dice and if you do not capture the slave you may continue to search for her other two children.
Some slaves revolted.  You think one of your sons may have participated in one.    Ask Nat Turner about his rebellion.  Take notes and post them.   Roll the dice and if you are not captured you may continue to search for your last child.	Some slaves revolted.  You think one of her sons may have participated in one.   Ask John Brown about his rebellion.  Take notes and post them.   Roll the dice and if you do not capture the slave you may continue to search for her last child.
You know that your youngest daughter has been working with both abolitionists and feminists.   Ask Angelina Grimke OR  Harriet Beecher Stowe about the suffrage movement.  Take notes and post them.   Roll the dice and if you are not captured you may continue and check your answers.	You know that your youngest daughter has been working with both abolitionists and feminists.   Ask Henry David Thoreau OR Lucretia Mott their opinion of slavery.  Take notes and post them.   Roll the dice and if you do not capture the slave you may continue and check your answers.
Your first daughter probably died from a whipping. The second child, your son, probably escaped along with hundreds of others along the Underground Railway to the North and to freedom. Your third son was probably executed after participating in a rebellion. Your youngest daughter is probably alive and working for pay in the household of one of the suffragettes.   You have lost two children, but your two living children are safe and cannot be captured by the bounty hunter.   Roll the dice one last time.  If you escape you may go free.	Her first daughter probably died from a whipping. The second child, her son, probably escaped along with hundreds of others along the Underground Railway to the North and to freedom. Her third son was probably executed after participating in a rebellion. Her youngest daughter is probably alive and working for pay in the household of one of the suffragettes.   You cannot capture any of the slave’s children and your investors have pulled out.  Roll the dice one last time.  If you do not capture her, leave her alone and pursue someone else.

 

Snap: researchers vs dull normals

Where do researchers get their questions?
Educational researchers have it easy: we've all been more or less educated.  So we played "age snap": snap with numbers from 6-17.  If you both turn over the same card, you talk about your school experiences at that age.

Results:

• There seemed to be a lot of trauma in the shift between primary and high school.
• When you're in primary school, the teacher is everything; when you're in high school it's all about your peers.
• A bad teacher can ruin a subject forever.
• "Hands-on" is hands-down better than lectures.

What research questions do these findings inspire?

Media: the counter-narrative

The narrative: "News: everything you need to know".
The counter narrative: "...and everything you don't".

We started with the Seinfeld episode "The Outing" in which a journalist publishes an article saying that the comedian is gay, which of course flips his life upside down.

We then read texts describing how people get hounded by the media, so we played "phototag": take as many candid photos of your classmates as possible while trying not to get photographed yourself.  These were posted on our private FB group which allowed students to comment on the photos using the grammar and vocabulary.  This was quite successful and they wrote some pretty cool sentences.

The next activity was theoretically good, but for some reason, it didn't seem to work quite as I hoped: they had to interview each other with the following caveats:

• Interviewer's aim: to find out as much personal information as possible about their partner
• Interviewee's aim: to reveal as little personal information as possible and only talk about their academic career.

The students didn't seem to get the game though and cheerfully told each other all about their girlfreinds/boyfriends and pets.  Maybe my instructions wree wrong.

Now they have to write a summary of the interview along with 2 invented "facts" and post it.  They then have to go onlinbe and correct what was written about them.

Why homework? A research question

I hated homework as a kid.
Most people did.  But it's just one of those things you have to do.
Or is it?

The difference between a researcher and a normal person is that the researcher delves deeper into the question.
Why are kids given homework? 

It may have been because my teachers wanted to make our lives hard, but that doesn't really lead us anywhere.  So let's assume they had better reasons.  That could be a good question: survey teachers and interview them to find out why they gave us homework.

Maybe they thought that practice would help us and more practice would help more.  Well, you could do an experiment to find out simply by comparing two groups where one gets homework and the other doesn't and see how they do on tests.

But maybe the question goes deeper.  Maybe the question should be about what kind of homework helps kids learn.  This could be an interesting action research project.

Or maybe we could ask what kind of home environment helps kids learn.  This might be answered by a series of case studies where we visit kids homes to see exactly where, when, with whom and how they study at home.

Research isn't just about quoting sources correctly; it's about seeing a gap in our understanding, or a problem that needs solving and then finding the best way to being the search for answers. 

The Spoon River Anthology

Lesson plan:
1. Post several of the poems (more than the number of students; ideally related poems)  up on the walls around the room.  Have students read all of them and put an X on one they like (so no two students take the same one).  They need to answer on paper the following questions:

• What is my character's story?
• How does he/she feel about what happened?
• What do other characters say about my character?

2.  Each student chooses a picture of a person they think looks like their character as well as pictures of 4-5 items that character might own that they think are special or important in some way.

3.  They take turns to tell the rest of the group about their character, showing and explaining the pictures they chose.  The listeners need to write on small slips of paper what they think the speaker's character's greatest pain is.  they give these papers to the speaker.

4.  Each person takes the papers they received, choose the ones they like best and insert them into a red balloon.  They blow up the balloon with the slips inside.  They go outside and contemplate the pain their character feels.  When they are ready, they pop the balloon and release the pain.

5.  Journal:

• In character: How did you feel after popping the balloon?
• As yourself: Most unhappiness comes from the clash between how you expect life to be and how it actually turns out.  Why exactly is your character unhappy?  

Narrative vs story

I've been reading up on the concept of stories in games because I think they're incompatible and many seem to agree. Narrative, however is something different: if a story is a sequence of events, then a narrative is a concept. So for example, the story of Star Wars revolves around the rebel alliance battling Darth Vader and trying to destroy the Death Star, but the narrative is basically David and Goliath (which translates well to a video game but the story itself doesn't because it's linear, hence no player agency).

This seems important to me because you can go with an expected narrative or against it. For instance, when Disney makes a movie or game about pirates, they expect the viewer or the gamer to already understand the pirate narrative. In English classes (all language classes) the narrative is usally about living using the language, like going to the bank or reading a newspaper, except that few of my students will ever really need to live in English except online. That's why many of them dislike English and think it a waste of time.

In my lessons, the affective impact is created by going against the expected narrative (I hope!). So for example, last term we talked about McDonalds and the narrative they sell is "happy time for kids". The narrative we looked at had to do with obesity, environmental destruction and cruelty to animals. This term we're looking at invasion of privacy by the media which is the opposite of the expected narrative of the news telling you what you need to know. So we watched a Seinfeld episode where a journalist "outed" him, and we're playing a series of games I've designed involving trying to find out information about each other while trying to withhold information about oneself.

My argument is that it's this tension between what the students thought they knew with what they're finding out that makes for affective impact, and thus a more intrinsically motivating course. This ties in nicely with my "Globosapiens" motif.

The authors I'm citing are Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern, Henry Jenkins, and Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman (The Game Design reader: a Rules of Play Anthology, 2005) as well as Jesper Juul and a few others. They don't write as teachers, only as game designers, but I still think these ideas are valid since I'm claiming to create a "game-like" learning environment.

Collective Intelligence

Have you ever heard of Microsoft Encarta?

Neither had I.  Here's why.

Daniel Pink, in his book Drive: The Surprising Truth about Motivation, tells the story of two ideas for encyclopedias: Microsoft Encarta was going to pay a group of professionals to write the most up-to-date encyclopedia; Wikipedia was just a bunch of un-organised volunteers contributing whatever they could. 

It turns out that Wikipedia was just more fun to do: you contribute what you know and gain respect.

What if we could teach GRAMMAR in this way?

It's long been known that a group of people can be more than the sum of its parts.  A thousand people will solve a puzzle better than one person working alone.  Jane McGonigal proved this in her landmark case study of ilovebees.com, a search-and-anaylse puzzle involving thousands of Halo fans from all over the world.  At one point, this massive bunch of virtual strangers had co-ordinated their findings so well that when a mystery phone rang somewhere in Seattle, one of them was there to answer it. 

What if we designed grammar as a mystery search-and-analyse puzzle that the whole class has to answer?

I tried this.  Here was my lesson for the past unreal conditional:
Students each recieved one of the following articles in their mail box or FB message.  They had to answer the reading question because it provided a clue to the "mystery grammar point".

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/05/angelina-jolie-jon-stewart-stolie_n_6275440.html What does “Stolie” mean in this article?

https://www.yahoo.com/music/bp/steven-tyler-why-joined-quit-american-idol-233049983.html “pink slipped” means “fired” (despedido).  Was Steven Tyler fired?
http://bigread.mojo4music.com/2014/01/slash/ (look for the section called “The first time you got arrested was at Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard?” which is way down) What did his mother save him from?
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/03/eric-clapton-was-to-meet-up-with-jimi-hendrix-on-the-night-hendrix-died-he-was-also-with-stevie-ray-vaughan-when-he-died/ How did Jimi Hendrix die?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyfriend_(Justin_Bieber_song) in the section called “background and artwork”, does it say the song was reviewed before it was released or released before it was reviewed?
http://m.dailykos.com/stories/575256 The “nice old man running for president” made what possible?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2014/12/11/what-if-obama-had-been-honest/ does the writer think Obama told the truth?

Then as a class, they had to work out the name, structure and use of the "mystery grammar point".
It took them 90 minutes.  The hardest part was understanding that the past unreal conditional is used to describe relief or regret over a past event.

I tried it again with a bigger group, but this time with the passive voice.  Because of the size of the group, I divided them into four and made it a race.  Here are the articles with the questions:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2962543/Hilary-Duff-files-divorce-estranged-husband-Mike-Comrie-seen-hitting-women.html Why did Hilary Duff want to divorce her husband?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2991335/David-Luiz-seen-Chelsea-optimistic-defender-laugh-Stamford-Bridge.html  Who did Chelsea see as being a bad defender?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2997983/Prisoner-asked-warders-Bible-given-porn-magazines-instead-help-sleep.html What did the prisoner want?  What did he get?

http://ca.complex.com/music/2015/03/wiz-khalifa-jimmy-fallon-appearance-taylor-swift what was the question?

http://www.biography.com/#!/people/prince-william-9542068#synopsis what is the Prince’s full name?  How did he feel about his parents’ divorce?http://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/15/entertainment/nicholas-brendon-new-arrest-feat/ Why did the police arrest Brendon?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_John_Lennon How did John Lennon die?
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/malcolm-x-assassinated Why did Malcolm X go to prison?

This time the fastest group got it in under an hour.  The hardest part was to understand that the passive voice is not the same as the active because the focus of the sentence changes.

Results: Normally students seem to undertand how the structure is used, but not why.  I saw a major improvement in this with most students able to use the structure appropriately more quickly.