In her case study, “Around the World,” Nancy DeFrates-Densch describes Ms. Owen’s attempt at motivating her third grade class with the use of games. The game that is described involves the students moving around the classroom or “around the world.” One student begins by standing by the desk of another and those two students have the chance to answer the question asked by Ms. Owen. The student who gets the question right first moves to the next desk and so on. This game is “played at least once per week [and most recently] using multiplication problems” (DeFrates-Densch, 2008). This time, Ryan is chosen to start the game and quickly moves around the room with each right answer. As the game goes on, the other students in the class begin to get annoyed and bored. Some students draw and others complain that “Ryan always wins [because] he’s just too fast” (DeFrates-Densch, 2008).
However, Ryan loves this game. He is obviously a student who has memorized the multiplication table and is happy to be able to show it off. He is proud of himself for doing well and knows that Ms. Owen is also. While the rest of the class “collectively groans” when Mrs. Owen “announces it’s time to play,” Ryan is excited to show off his skills and win the game again (DeFrates-Densch, 2008). The other students in the class don’t feel like they have a chance and “don’t know why [they] even bother” (DeFrates-Densch, 2008). They also may feel like Ms. Owen favors Ryan because they always play the game that he is good at.
As far as motivation goes, Ryan seems to be extrinsically motivated to learn the multiplication problems because he wants to reward of winning the game. However, the other students aren’t very motivated to learn them at all, sin...
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...real-life problems [or] their lives outside of school” (Meece & Daniels, 2008). To do this, she could read word problems containing multiplication instead of just calling out numbers. This would show the students that they will come across these problems outside of school and, the difference in the format, could give the other student’s a chance at winning. Overall, I think the most important thing is to get the whole class involved and help the students who give wrong answers to understand their mistakes and fix them. The best way to do this might actually be the use of a completely different game.
References
DeFrates-Densch, N. (2008). Case studies in child and adolescent development for teachers.
NewYork, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Meece, J. L., & Daniels, D. H. (2008). Child and adolescent development for educators. New
York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
The author mentions a few more games, and they are: Giant, Elves, and Wizards, Kickball, Musical Chairs, Relay Races, and Steal the Bacon. All of these activities have a potential for embarrassment, ignore success, and focus on failures. I am positively surprised that the author talks about the problems certain games and activities may create, because very often teachers who are used to the games, simply cannot see the potential harm and danger, or they may just think that the games are fun (especially those teachers who used to win when they were students themselves). I think, it is PE educators’ responsibility to reflect on their teaching, create well-conceived lesson plans which eliminate the risk of being ridiculed and humiliated. With intelligent decisions and lesson plans, PE teachers will create equal opportunities for learning and participating in the game, as well as they will provide an
Meece L, D. D. (2008). Child and Adolescent Development for Educators. New York: Mc-Graw-Hill Companies.
Human Development. Ed. Deborah Carr. Vol. 1: Childhood and Adolescence. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2009. 50-55. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
After playing outside with his cousins and siblings, Tyler came inside to play “Guesstures.” This game was a little difficult because he had to act out the word to his team. Then his team had to guess before time ran out. He found it hard to move on to the next card when his team could not guess what he was doing. Tyler demonstrated great gains in cooperation, competition without tantrums, winning, and losing.
Mead when individuals(kids) engage in games they start to see the roles of themselves and roles of others,
McDevitt, T. M., & Ormrod, J. E. (2010). Child development and education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.
Maholmes, V., Lomonaco, G. C., (2010), “Applied research in child and adolescent development: a practical guide”, Taylor & Francis.
All in all, this game encourages kids to think quickly and answer literacy questions, while building their vocabulary
The use of computer based games as learning tools in the classroom has steadily increased over the past several years and is a trend that David Martz, sales VP of education software company Muzzy Lane, believes will continue in the future. Among the games developed by Muzzy Lane is Making History, in which the player leads a European nation in the years preceding World War II (Electronic Education Report 2). Playing a game such as this one allows the learner to immerse himself or herself in the period they are learning about rather than...
You see, my class and I needed a game to play. After all, I was a physical education instructor.
"Middle School Group Games | Great Group Games." Middle School Group Games | Great Group Games. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. .
He then blames adults for the boring way in which they present the real world to the kids. He claims that this is the primary reason for their escape to the game-world. Adults “train” kids to view learning as boring. “We often forget that the purpose of education, first and foremost, is to make the life world more engaging, to make it more magical”, he clarifies. “Inferiority complex” is the point by which he concludes his argument. He believes that adults reject anything new, including technology, because it underscores their limited understanding of the modern world, which leads to losing their authority. “To present the world to our children in this game-like way, we’d have to let go of our adult egos”, he
McDevitt, T., & Ormrod, J. E. (2010). Child development and education (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Doherty, J and Hughes, M (2009) Child Development: Theory and Practice 0-11, Essex: Pearson Education Ltd
If we can harness/utilize the energy, motivation and sheer potential of their game-play and direct it toward learning, we can give students the tools to become winners in real game of life.