Make Something Happen!
Maybe it's because I am the mother of two sons (and therefore frequently the hostess to teamfuls of boys), but I have long been concerned with how schools treat boys as learners. It is clear that boys are not as successful in language classrooms as girls...just look at the enrollment in upper level classes. Look at the percentages of males and females teaching, and even more specifically, teaching in language classrooms. It's a multi-dimensional issue, and from time to time small insights occur to me.
Our department has been CI based for over 8 years now...and while our percentages are not 50/50, we are seeing higher percentages of boys in our upper level classes......and larger numbers of "successful' boys in our lower-level groups. I knew that this was happening, and last night I saw ...at least in theory...one reason why.
I had the chance to spend some time in the children's room of a public library. My friend's son, a lively, bright eight year old, was there...totally mesmerized and engaged. I've spent time with this delightful child before. He's a ball of energy, a chatterbox, a very physical kid, and I've never seen him content to sit and do anything for more than a few minutes. Last night he sat for nearly two hours, engaged and challenged at a computer terminal, determined to get to level 14 of the logic game he was playing. He was a different kid.
I know, from conversations with his mom, that the school has expressed concerns about his ability to focus. Gee, not from where I was sitting last night. I took the opportunity to spy on him a little bit to try to figure out why he was so engrossed. What you'll read here are only my observations, nothing more. But I hope that they will help me as I work to get to know my students and to provide instruction that will engage them.
1. There was an achievable, but not overly-easy challenge. Each level represented a new challenge. There was the opportunity for success AND challenge. I know from the research that I have seen and books that I have read that boys often thrive in a competitive atmosphere. His competition was the game. He was excited to take it on...and even more excited to beat each level. He celebrated each level...just long enough to sit down and take on the next one.
2. He was able to learn from each game. There were predictable patterns to learn, and to succeed with. He enjoyed figuring out the pattern, applying the pattern and mastering the pattern. Not by watching, but by acting. He had to make moves, observe the results, make more moves until he got the result that he desired.
3. There was a help function in the game. If he got stuck, and he frequently did, he could hit the help button. It would give him a hint or take him back to a point in the game where he was not lost and beyond help. There were no penalties for using the help button. NONE of the four kids that I observed used the help button indiscriminately.
3. HE GOT TO MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN. You can see from my caps that I think that this was the key to his fascination with the game. Every stage of the game was ACTION/REACTION.
Action/Reaction. While each of the pieces above was important (especially the help function), I believe that this...Action/Reaction is KEY to engaging students.
Kids who are bored will either DISengage (ie sleep, hoodie-pop, headphone don) or REengage by texting, talking or pushing our buttons (a perfect action/reaction game for some kids!).
Ever wonder why they love texting so much? Action/Reaction. Boom!
Memorizing, answering multiple choice questions on paper, etc. have little to no interaction involved.
All of life is not about making things happen. I know that. But we should be taking advantage of the natural abilities and needs of our students in order to create an atmosphere in our classrooms where students can be engaged.
I think, for some, maybe many of our students, there is a need to make something happen.
Let's make THAT happen.
with love,
Laurie
Our department has been CI based for over 8 years now...and while our percentages are not 50/50, we are seeing higher percentages of boys in our upper level classes......and larger numbers of "successful' boys in our lower-level groups. I knew that this was happening, and last night I saw ...at least in theory...one reason why.
I had the chance to spend some time in the children's room of a public library. My friend's son, a lively, bright eight year old, was there...totally mesmerized and engaged. I've spent time with this delightful child before. He's a ball of energy, a chatterbox, a very physical kid, and I've never seen him content to sit and do anything for more than a few minutes. Last night he sat for nearly two hours, engaged and challenged at a computer terminal, determined to get to level 14 of the logic game he was playing. He was a different kid.
I know, from conversations with his mom, that the school has expressed concerns about his ability to focus. Gee, not from where I was sitting last night. I took the opportunity to spy on him a little bit to try to figure out why he was so engrossed. What you'll read here are only my observations, nothing more. But I hope that they will help me as I work to get to know my students and to provide instruction that will engage them.
1. There was an achievable, but not overly-easy challenge. Each level represented a new challenge. There was the opportunity for success AND challenge. I know from the research that I have seen and books that I have read that boys often thrive in a competitive atmosphere. His competition was the game. He was excited to take it on...and even more excited to beat each level. He celebrated each level...just long enough to sit down and take on the next one.
2. He was able to learn from each game. There were predictable patterns to learn, and to succeed with. He enjoyed figuring out the pattern, applying the pattern and mastering the pattern. Not by watching, but by acting. He had to make moves, observe the results, make more moves until he got the result that he desired.
3. There was a help function in the game. If he got stuck, and he frequently did, he could hit the help button. It would give him a hint or take him back to a point in the game where he was not lost and beyond help. There were no penalties for using the help button. NONE of the four kids that I observed used the help button indiscriminately.
3. HE GOT TO MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN. You can see from my caps that I think that this was the key to his fascination with the game. Every stage of the game was ACTION/REACTION.
Action/Reaction. While each of the pieces above was important (especially the help function), I believe that this...Action/Reaction is KEY to engaging students.
Kids who are bored will either DISengage (ie sleep, hoodie-pop, headphone don) or REengage by texting, talking or pushing our buttons (a perfect action/reaction game for some kids!).
Ever wonder why they love texting so much? Action/Reaction. Boom!
Memorizing, answering multiple choice questions on paper, etc. have little to no interaction involved.
All of life is not about making things happen. I know that. But we should be taking advantage of the natural abilities and needs of our students in order to create an atmosphere in our classrooms where students can be engaged.
I think, for some, maybe many of our students, there is a need to make something happen.
Let's make THAT happen.
with love,
Laurie
Nice observations. Thank you for the inspiration.
There was an article in Discover magazine a few years back that talked about why video games are so addictive. What you say about having the perfect challenge (not to easy or too hard and steadily increasing) is definitely a part of it. I couldn't find the exact article that I read, but here's a link to a similar one if you're interested:
http://discovermagazine.com/2005/jul/brain-on-video-games/article_view?searchterm=video%20games&b_start:int=0
I think was thinking about boys in the classroom today (probably due to your post) and noticed that two of them are reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I think I might try to check these out to find out what kind of humor draws in boys.
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Great idea. It's a great book! Thanks so much for the link.
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I relate to this post even more at this stage of the year than I did in october... So how do you apply this concept in your classroom?
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