Digital Play

Last week I told you about Inanimate Alice.  This week I’d like to tell you about how I’ve used IA in my classes.

Can you give me an example of a specific activity you do with IA?

Sure. So a clearly defined task, teacher monitoring and evaluation are paramount. With this in mind I divide the class into pairs. I feel that three at a single computer is too many. Many schools do not have a terminal for each student however. When students are sharing, I insist that they swap the person controlling the mouse every 5 minutes. Less dominant students will say they don’t mind and cede the mouse to their fellows. They do mind. They want a go on Alice really – and it’s the teacher’s job to see that they get it. So, each pair watches an episode of Alice. The existing episodes of Alice are of unequal length, so I tend to work with either China and Italy together (which are shorter) or Russia and the UK.. The episode each pair watch is specified on their worksheet, which I’m not including in this article because it really is better if each teacher thinks through the exact micro-mechanics of the activity for themselves and produces their own handout accordingly, which will be best suited to their own specific context.

Full instructions are provided on the worksheets to supplement my initial explanation of the task. Students will often ask the teacher rather than refer to their worksheets but some students will read the instructions so I always say it’s worth putting them on. As they watch their episode, each pair write down 10 difficult vocabulary items appearing in the story and afterwards write the definitions of these words on the same worksheet (I allow them to use an online dictionary but the moment I see their own Facebook accounts opened, that’s it, the stack of paper based volumes I have as standby comes into play).

This is the first task. When each group have their vocabulary lists and definitions checked by the teacher they proceed to the second task which is to watch their respective episode again, this time writing down 10 comprehension questions about the episode. For example, those watching China might write: How old is Alice? What colour is the painting that her mum does? What’s the name of that machine she plays with? They also write the answers but this time on a separate sheet. The ‘worksheet’ for this one consists of a paragraph of instructions and the numbers 1-10 in the margin.

Again, each group have their questions checked and receive a group grade. This gives the teacher chance to clear up any ambiguities in their questions. Each member of the pair needs to have their name on each sheet – no name no mark – and the questions need to be written in two different styles of handwriting to show there has been equal participation.

After this each pair swap questions with another pair who have viewed a different episode. This involves having everyone finish as close together as possible and occasionally a quick photocopy of one set of questions may be necessary if there is an odd number of groups and thus more people doing one episode than another. Students then work through the new story, answering their colleagues’ questions using the vocabulary lists produced by the other pair to help them, so each pair is simultaneously teaching and testing, and being taught and tested by the other. Finally the answered questions are returned to their creators for correction and are handed in to the teacher for final marks collection. A lot of work for the teacher? In actual fact, the more individual marks a teacher takes in, the less work they have to do come the end of term evaluation.

Sounds good – how well does it work?

It works beautifully and I like the fact that students play these 4 roles of lexical investigators, analytical question makers, task achievers and solution finders. You can see that there’s a lot of structure here, but this is the type of structure that is needed and appreciated by front line teachers if we are to envisage using materials like Alice alongside regular materials and methodologies. It’s very difficult for any online programme to provide all of this structure by itself, so this is where teachers come in and why their role in an Inanimate Alice class is essential. As you can see, I’m a big fan of what I call ‘micro-mechanics’ – the nitty gritty of task design – and I think it’s on this that a class lives or dies.

Is there anything else I can do to try to make sure things go well?

Whenever we’re dealing with the CALL room, I would advise going in there before the class, turning on all the computers and making sure you have done everything you are going to ask the students to do. That way you will find out if all the terminals are working okay and if everything is loading up fine. It will also prime you for any procedural ‘hitches’ students might encounter. The second thing to do, if you have time, is actually load up each episode on each terminal, so students are ready to go. If not, write up where they go and which episode to watch very clearly on the board – so that they have instructions there and on the handout.

So where’s the play?

Recently I’ve been deconstructing my classroom activities and asking this very question, prompted by the realization that my students often find or introduce a game element into activities that was not what I had imagined they would find fun about it when I planned the things. At recent teaching conferences I’ve been bringing up my little play symbols (made with the help of the aqua ball font at www.flamingtext.com) to help make the point more visual.

Another very useful thing to do during planning is to go through the episodes you are going to work with and script them, actually writing down all the language they contain yourself. This will give you a good idea of what level the language is and help you predict any difficulties your students will have lexically.

My point is that if there isn’t an element of play, students will invent one. They need it to survive. If their ‘play agendas’ can run in parallel to the teacher’s lesson aims then great, they’ll normally be happy with that. But if there’s no other way, their own need for play will come at the teacher’s expense.

In Inanimate Alice, the play starts with clicking. I maintain that IA isn’t something you should show your students – ever. It’s something they should do. Watching somebody else click their way through Alice’s screens in definitely not play. Alice doesn’t work as a class movie. That’s why, as I mentioned above, I make sure that everyone is regularly clicking. The most successful play element of the episodes themselves has to be the doll catching game in the Russia episode. Here, on regular screens, students have to find a hidden doll then catch it as it falls from the top pf the screen, using a little Brad character on a skateboard at the bottom. I always specify that they can play this episode with the game option on. There are also the flower photographing, clothes grabbing and derelict building maze activities in the other episodes but with the dolls, Chris J. has really captured a retro computer game feel which takes me back to the days of the Spectrum 48k or the Commodore 64.

These are elements of play intrinsic to the episodes themselves. Then there is play that the guiding activity gives the opportunity for. Students making up their own questions can allow them the chance to try to catch out and confuse their classmates. If you have few students, then dividing them up and sending them off to work at different computer terminals in different physical locations, different rooms, can provide that element of ‘adventure’. There are also elements of play that involve the students’ imaginations in a positive way. A number of teachers, reporting on the Facebook page, have recently had their students write their own episodes of Alice, or to fill in the blank time periods of Alice’s life in between episodes and this can take a number of formats such as written work, PowerPoint presentations and class video clips of roleplays with students acting out Alice, Brad, Ming (her mum) and John (her dad).

And then of course, there are the elements of play that you will never see coming but that you can observe if you watch carefully. What is it about an activity that seems to animate your students most? Some of these play elements may horrify you; others might provide the inspiration for future activities. Many, many thanks to Kyle and Graham for giving me space here and all the very best to all DP’s readers!

Chris is based at the British Council Barcelona. He teaches young learners, adults and business classes and gives as many conference sessions as he can on top of his regular contract hours. When he isn’t doing something teaching-related he’s probably training for marathons, walking up hills or shooting billiards. His own site: www.regandlellow.com has powerPoint stories for very young learners, including Reg and Lellow themselves and also Humphrey Bogin. Please take a look!