The game... (if you're looking for scandal, there are tons of other educational scandal type blogs out there - Perdido Street School is always an interesting read)
This week has been a weird one. Subs two days in a row, a rumored late start for seniors (so only half showed up?!?), meetings and sick kids.. ok, maybe it's just par for the course. It did shake up my schedule a bit.
My senior class talked me into letting them play taboo. What can I say, it's a fun game and it can help develop vocabulary skills or at least improve their charade skills - they are really bad at charades. Anyhoo, while they were playing, I was really shocked to see how different it was to observe these seniors playing verses my reading class of freshmen/sophomores.
I use the game on Fridays with my reading class. It's kind of a reward for doing all the work during the week. Although my reading class students like to play the game - because any game is better than reading - they really struggle with the concept of finding alternate words to describe words like "architect" and "navy". Their vocabulary is so basic, that often time they have to go through two or three cards to find a word they know the meaning of... words like "baste" are difficult for them to explain, not having a lot of experience with kitchens or food that doesn't come wrapped in paper. More than once, time has run out of a player who has only uttered one clue, spending the rest of their allotted time desperately trying to figure out what to say.
My senior students would go through a couple of cards before their time ran out. Everyone gave several clues for each word. There wasn't a lot of struggling or standing in front of the team saying "I don't know". Even more striking... none of my seniors had to have me explain the rules - they just knew, because they all had played before.
All of my seniors had played a plethora of board games with family and friends. My struggling readers, however, not only had never played taboo before... few had played any board games at all. Computer games, yes, but no sitting around with family playing a board game.
We all know that students who are raised in a reading environment read more, and that kids who eat dinner with their parents do better in school but I also wonder how much of their success is based on is just plain positive interaction with other family members. And how the generation just entering elementary schools will be affected by family members who sit around listening to their own ipod, watching their own movie and checking their cell phone/facebook page every three seconds.
This week has been a weird one. Subs two days in a row, a rumored late start for seniors (so only half showed up?!?), meetings and sick kids.. ok, maybe it's just par for the course. It did shake up my schedule a bit.
My senior class talked me into letting them play taboo. What can I say, it's a fun game and it can help develop vocabulary skills or at least improve their charade skills - they are really bad at charades. Anyhoo, while they were playing, I was really shocked to see how different it was to observe these seniors playing verses my reading class of freshmen/sophomores.
I use the game on Fridays with my reading class. It's kind of a reward for doing all the work during the week. Although my reading class students like to play the game - because any game is better than reading - they really struggle with the concept of finding alternate words to describe words like "architect" and "navy". Their vocabulary is so basic, that often time they have to go through two or three cards to find a word they know the meaning of... words like "baste" are difficult for them to explain, not having a lot of experience with kitchens or food that doesn't come wrapped in paper. More than once, time has run out of a player who has only uttered one clue, spending the rest of their allotted time desperately trying to figure out what to say.
My senior students would go through a couple of cards before their time ran out. Everyone gave several clues for each word. There wasn't a lot of struggling or standing in front of the team saying "I don't know". Even more striking... none of my seniors had to have me explain the rules - they just knew, because they all had played before.
All of my seniors had played a plethora of board games with family and friends. My struggling readers, however, not only had never played taboo before... few had played any board games at all. Computer games, yes, but no sitting around with family playing a board game.
We all know that students who are raised in a reading environment read more, and that kids who eat dinner with their parents do better in school but I also wonder how much of their success is based on is just plain positive interaction with other family members. And how the generation just entering elementary schools will be affected by family members who sit around listening to their own ipod, watching their own movie and checking their cell phone/facebook page every three seconds.
Comments
that's fantastic that you play that game with your classes. i think it's a great exercise in vocabulary, speaking and critical thinking. i tried to play the kids' version a couple times with my students, but every kid said one of the taboo words--they couldn't even understand and complete the point of the game. sigh. maybe that means they didn't play board games either at home.