So kids like video games. Who knew? In other news, Hitler invaded Poland.
Video games are the bane of my life. While kids should be doing homework, playing outside or reading, they choose instead to play games until all hours. They talk about them at all times both in school and out. They argue while playing them and this spills over into the playground. I know why they do this, it is because modern video games are great. The Call of Duty series has been in heavy rotation on my xbox for the past few years, along with Tiger Woods Golf and the “Fight Night” boxing games. These days games are all encompassing and years of development and research has made the industry highly effective at hooking people in and promoting, for want of a better word, addiction. Minecraft does not fit into this category, as it is not a game as such and is perhaps the most crushingly boring thing I have ever seen. What the success of Minecraft shows us is that there is dearth of decent games for under 11’s. Not all parents let their children play on 16/18+ certificate games like Grand Theft Auto, although some unfortunately do.
I decided to focus on three computer games I knew contained no violence. These were Sonic the Hedgehog (the original version) which is available as a download from the xbox marketplace (as are many other classic games), FIFA 14 (borrowed from a child in the class) and Super Mario Brothers. The latter I accessed through iPads and the emulator: GBA4iOS. It is on this link and essentially turns your iPad into a gameboy. From the installed web app you can download any game ever made on the original gameboy, or the subsequent advance and colour versions.
In order to get the class used to the game we did a maths lesson based around Sonic, concentrating on multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000. Each child played a level to generate a score then the class had to take that score and do the above operations. Each child in the class got a chance to play the level and as I have 20, if every child did every calculation (which they did) then they did 20×6 operations in an hour long lesson. Computer games are far easier to use in maths because they always generate numbers to work with, but doing it this way you get far more out of the kids. Can you imagine what they would have said had I put a worksheet with 120 calculations on it? Lee Parkinson has written about using fruit ninja on this blog.
After break we started the writing process. I asked for a simple description of Sonic written in 6/7 sentences. We have been doing Alan Peat sentences so the focus was to include a Description:Detail sentence about Sonic. For my SEN/EAL kids (Level 1/low level 2), I printed off a picture of Sonic as a stimulus. This task was completed quickly, so we moved onto the whole point of the lesson, writing instructions on how to succeed at playing the game. Within this we included the main features of instructional texts which were displayed on the board. At the end of the lesson I used my iPad as an untethered visualiser to show work on the board and point out the good features.
After lunch I introduced them to Super Mario Land. As part of the talk for writing process we talked about the game and the differences between it and modern games. I displayed the vocabulary for use in their writing and the features of the text. They then wrote one, which we shared again using the same process as earlier.
The next day we repeated the process with FIFA 14, which we played in class the previous afternoon. This gave the children three worked examples of an instructional text to work from and enabled me to get some extended writing out of them. After lunch (on the last day of term, yes I know!) we put aside 45 minutes to do this. I allowed them to choose any of the three games and gave them 15 minutes to make more notes and plan an improvement on their previous work. I also provided verbal feedback during this time to this who requested it.
The results? Mixed. The lower ability children really thrived in this task and wrote at at least a level above their normal one. Without the need to find out complex technical vocabulary and write it in a context they didn’t understand, they could write without fear. This is the one thing about writing about computer games which I find the most useful. The higher ability children produced average pieces of writing. For them, I don’t think the challenge was there. Maybe in writing about more difficult things, they are forced to think more about what they are writing. It could also be that they didn’t feel the need to mention things, because they thought it was obvious.
So overall mixed results, but definitely worth trying. I will try it again and in order to head off the higher ability issues I may guide their group and really push them. For once, the lower ability children did not need basic support, so it freed me up to work with other children. It has got to be possible.
If you try this, or have done already, let me know.
twitter: @farrowmr
Writing ideas for primary children 