2. Why Computer Games in the Classroom? To extend ethos of play as a learning tool established in early schooling To ‘tap in’ to the dominant media in the experience of students aged 6+ To give an alternative authentic context for writing To use 21 st Century resources in our classrooms - “Good teachers use Good resources ”
11. Guitar Hero as a stimulus for biographical writing in P6 Parent Perceptions
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13. Year 4 – Endless Ocean Identify words/ phrases/ figurative language that adds to imagery. Choose and combine words, images and other features for particular effects Poetry Recounts To plan, draft and write a newspaper article that contains both factual and opinion-based content.
14. … . and Maths too… Collect data and put it in a table to help explore an idea and find out more about it Depth Location Bicolor Parrotfish Blue Tang Long Nose Butterflyfish Tear Drop Empror Anglefish 38 ft Coral forest 3 25 5 3 2 38 ft Lagoon 13 9 3 0 0 82ft Rock Bluff 0 3 16 0 2 32ft green garden 0 5 5 0 9 60 ft wild channel 0 0 0 3 0 TOTAL 16 42 29 6 13
15. Nintendogs as a Stimulus for Non-chronological Report Writing in P2
26. Future Plans! Early Years – Phonics, Audio Stories with iTouch Y6/7 Transfer Unit Inanimate Alice Learning Support/Numeracy Brain Training with Nintendo DS
27. References Samorost - http://amanita-design.net/samorost-1/ Moshi Monsters – www.moshimonsters.com Derek Robertson - http://ltsblogs.org.uk/consolarium/ Tim Rylands - http://www.timrylands.com/blog/ Kim Pericles - http://kpericles.edublogs.org/ Kellett Blog – http://www.kellettschool.blogspot.com Slideshare - http://www.slideshare.net/clived/games-at-kellett Using a d.s in the classroom http://www.ideastoinspire.co.uk/nintendodsdsi.htm What the children are using: http://www.miniclip.com/games/en/ www.electrocity.co.nz www.storybird.com Photos: Ewan McIntosh, Kim Pericles, Clive Dawes,
28. Contacts Katie Hitchcox – khitchcox@kellettschool.com Evelyn Bookless – ebookless@kellettschool.com Class blog: http://p2-9.blogspot.com/ @evbook Emma Adams – eadams@kellettschool.com @assistantpinhk
Hinweis der Redaktion
We are 3 guinea pigs here today – nervous but excited and very willing to integrate new technology into the classroom and take on board new ideas, one of which is to use games as a stimulus tool for other work in the curriculum – namely Writing. In Year One particularly, we are developing learning through play as a continuation from the Reception Year of school which is wholly play-based learning. Any new ideas to do this have been welcomed by the Year One team and using games as a stimulus for not just writing, but maths also, seemed a good resource. We are well aware of the technology children have access to at home – esp in Hong Kong. When we discussed 21 st century learning and teaching we had to ask ourselves, are we 21 st century learners? If you don’t have children and don’t have access to all the new games and technology that children do, it can be hard to keep up (luckily we have members of staff – Katrina with 3 young boys all hugely into gaming, and our ICT subject leader whose 4 yr old son is intent on becoming a computer games’ designer to lean on for updates!). Good teachers use good resources – our outcomes for the units you are about to see us discuss, have remained the same – a quality piece of creative writing.
As I mentioned before, we follow the English NC and so creative writing is to us, an important skill that we feel the children should have. When assessing the children, we have found that achievement in Writing is a target area that we are consistently trying to improve. As such, we revise and update our planning to ensure that our resources are up to date and provide children with the crucial stimulus to motivate and ensure they are enjoying learning. Slowly we are integrating gaming technology into teaching units across the school…. with willing participants.
Being a full time class teacher it can be hard to keep up with all the resources that are now available. The internet has allowed us to see what other educators are using – and to see what has been trialled successfully already that we can attempt to implement. So, with the help and expertise of our ICT subject leader, we were directed toward a few of these successful educators, some of whom I am sure you are already familiar with. Derek Robertson: pioneered work on using the D.S and “hand held learning”, working with teachers to explore the impact of games based learning in the classroom. Tim Rylands: former Primary School Teacher, now advisor, whose motto is: ICT to inspire … developed the use of MYST as a resource to be used in schools … and a lot more (blog is a good way to see what’s new and being used) Kim P – Assistant Principal in Australia, inspired to use games and game making in her teaching (notable used Samarost in her teaching, linking it to Blooms Taxonom) Ollie Bray - National Adviser for Learning and Technology Futures at Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) - the government-funded agency in Scotland responsible for curriculum design and innovation. Won the Microsoft Innovative Teacher Award – most notably for work using guitar hero in the classroom. Now leaves me to hand over to Katie and Katrina who will share with you the impact of using such technologies in their classrooms.
After the introduction of Rollarcoaster Tycoon in P5 (which I’ll talk about in more detail later) I sat down with Clive Dawes (our ICT subject leader) and he introduced me to the mysteries and intricacies of the first Samorost game. http://amanita-design.net/samorost-1/ Inspired by the work of Kim Pericles I integrated the use of Samorost into my Literacy planning; a two week module looking at story settings within a fantasy genre. Play: an Introduction to Samorost Students were introduced to the game and encouraged to work in small groups to solve the problems and help the main character to save his planet. Interestingly, whilst many of the adults (including myself) involved in this project had found the problem-solving aspects quite difficult (impossible, actually!!), the students worked well together and had clearly plenty of digitally native experience in this type of activity. Although the seven levels of the game were challenging, by the end of the first Literacy session most of the groups were nearing completion. Play: What is Samorost?
After spending time with the game, students then discussed aspects of narrative writing, taking notes on each scene before looking at creating powerful openings to their stories. To enhance their understanding of narrative, setting and character, the class then moved to the Drama Studio where they used a variety of techniques to help them understand the situation and feelings of the characters. Play: Drama Many of the pupils felt this was very helpful when they were working on their writing. Alongside the specific tasks within Literacy there was an ongoing writing task requiring pupils to write a story based upon the game. The students focused on the different scenes from the game, using figurative language to describe each setting. Play: Writing
Examples of the children’s writing. (make specific reference to language used that you think came from the game)
Planning was updated and amended throughout the whole process and actually the 2 week unit extended to a 3 rd week – which enabled them to write extensively (an entire story) Evaluation: Children loved the process for a number of reasons: They kept referring to the facts that they were playing computer games in Literacy – when in actual fact although many of the children continued to play the game at home they had only played it once in class. Enjoyed revisiting the settings to describe. Write an entire story Drama – getting into the character of Samorost Thinking skills
For two years we have worked on a module using the simulation game Rollercoaster Tycoon as a basis for Literacy work at year 5, tackling aspects of persuasive language and research. The point with this type of activity is that the computer game is merely the stimulus for pupils, similar to a text, an image, or even a visit. Similarly to P6, the game was only played in the initial part of the unit as a stimulus. As well as being used for a unit of writing, this year we incorporated some Maths work as well …….
(could they have produced this work without the game?) In the game, the more children who visit the park, the more money they make and so the more rides they can build…. I think that this inspired the children to be persuasive in their writing.
![Using Video Games as a Spur for Creative Writing…. and lots more! ,[object Object],[object Object]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/handheldlearning-101008081706-phpapp01/85/Hand-Held-learning-1-320.jpg)
