Many of the boys in my C block English class are obsessed with the smartphone game "Clash of Clans." From what I've learned, it's a resource-based, teamwork game where a user builds their own community to sustain resources that are awarded in the game. The user must also fortify their community with structures and different types of "warriors" to protect from other Clans attacking them and "stealing" resources. A user may join a Clan and organize attacks on other Clans to obtain resources, awards within the game. Awards can unlock certain features in the game which impact what resources are available to you, and so on and so on.
This is 9th grade, so it can be hard to get students to buy-in to what teachers are selling when those things compete directly with romantic and social interests, sports teams, cell phones and cell phone games. I am often feeling like I lose their concentration in class, maybe more so than any class I have taught before. However, at times they can be very focused. One third of them are Honors students, and even the loudest of the rest is very smart, maybe the smartest in class.
A couple of weeks ago, it was suggested that we turn our class into a "Class of Clans" (a nice use of wordplay by the student who suggested it!) to somehow join the ethos of the game with our in-class dynamic. They know that they can be frustrating, and are somewhat apologetic, but they also know that there isn't much that I can do to change them. I need to understand that they just can't control themselves for too long. First semester 9th graders are basically middle school students. And middle school students are basically older elementary school students.
I saw potential in a "Class of Clans," especially for organizing group work scenarios. But the more I thought about the culture of the class, the more I saw the opportunity to make it much larger. I could use an incentive scheme like the one in the game to hold their concentration for longer. This incentive network would be something more tangible than the one that Frontier/public schools offer (i.e. a grading system where an A is a reward for achievement and a college acceptance is the reward for a lot of As). I've always tried to teach in a way that my students do not become self-conscious of their learning. If a student becomes to focused on getting As, they become less focused on actual self-discovery. For a lot of students, the majority, learning does not mean getting As, therefore it can be really difficult to buy-in to "learning."
A lot of students, the majority, play the game anyway: What's the least amount of work I need to do to get a grade that is good enough that no one will be on my case? Which teachers will give maximum reward for minimal effort? How many ways can I avoid true self-discovery, which feels uncomfortable and unnecessary? How long can I avoid defining my own personal standards?
The class had voted on Clan names and each student was randomly sorted in to a Clan. There are 4 Clans of 6 students: Crowtow, Starbucks, Sea Bass, and Purple Tunafish. Today in class we had a 10 minute Clan meeting where they could review last night's reading and prepare for a quiz. The quizzes were administered in a way that they could be completed collaboratively, as a Clan. Then each Clan developed their own quiz questions (to be reviewed by me for their legitimacy) to be used to "attack" members from other Clans. If the "attacks" were answered correctly they would earn 1 point ("trophy") for their Clan. But if it was not answered correctly, the "attacking" Clan would earn a point ("trophy"). Out of fairness, no Clan member could be "attacked" twice in a row.
From a process standpoint, they have never been more focused on the minutiae of the text we are reading. They all talked about big ideas and small details in their meetings to review for the quiz. After the collaborative quiz, when they constructed their own questions, I had to work with each Clan a little bit to help them understand what a fair question is. The majority took it as an opportunity to develop something like "What is the third word in the second paragraph on page 89?" The idea behind that would be to pick up an easy trophy by asking an impossible question. This is cheating. When I stopped the activity to explain to them that the questions must be fair, but they can be difficult, the quality of the question development rose.
During the "attacking" only a few of the questions were answered correctly. That could be expected. The questions were hard. At first, I was nervous about individuals being put on the spot to answer questions, but after a couple of rounds it seemed ok. There was a lot of glory to be had for answering a question right.
I see potential in playing this method out. Some Clans have already voluntarily started designing a crest. Using Google Classroom, I can administer quizzes through Google Forms and compile statistics from the responses sheet to show which Clans are performing best and worst. This may motivate students to study/read/do homework, or just push themselves in general to learn more in my class. Over time, I see this impacting the Gradebook in a significantly positive way, while they are, hopefully, forgetting that the Gradebook exists at all. Lower achieving students have an automatic support system. (Each Clan has at least 1 Honors student and I think one Clan has 3). It gives me control over the culture by threatening demerits for talking or whatever rule I want to enforce, but it also gives them more control over the class.
One of my current teaching methods is to allow some aspects of my class to be decided by coin flip. Now, I can allow Clans who have reached a certain level of awards to make a choice for the whole class. (Clans can earn "gems" by having a certain number of trophies. Previously, I would have flipped a coin to decide due dates, point values of assignments, even the order that we read main texts. Now, a Clan can choose to use a "gem" that they have earned to make the decision for the whole class, if they want to.)
As the teacher, it is not fair for me to expect that my students, or any high school student, understand the big picture of their lives. They are so incredibly privileged to have so many people in their community supporting their education. And for this, some may never come to be outwardly appreciative. What I do think a fair expectation of a teacher is, is for the teacher to strive to teach skills so when students become adults, and they do need to understand the big picture of their lives, they can understand more.
For this class, I will divide and conquer.
