An English Teacher Companion

For the choice project, I have decided to do:

Chapter Choice + Student Created Notes A and B

Blog Post - What play can teach us about writing

Blog Post - Game Analysis

Create a Game

In creating a game, I am thinking about doing something that has to do with grammar and syntax. I have in the past taught one grammatical pattern per week (about 5-10 min per day) and kids have really enjoyed it and found it helpful for their writing. In thinking about a game, I don’t want the game objectives to be an external objective. I want the grammar-learning to be the focus of the game. I’m wondering, in everyone’s experience, if I should make this a digital game or “on-paper” game. Additionally, I’m also wondering if anyone has suggestions of what sources I should look at (from class) that you think would give me a better view into making the game.

As a teacher, when I think of higher order thinking skills, I think Blooms Taxonomy (remembering all the way to creating, depending on which version you look at). Elden Ring is a video game that asks the player to use these thinking skills. In short, it is a first person role player game in which you are tasked with exploring a world, leveling up, finding weapons, armor, loot, etc. and working through a series of “bosses” that vary in difficulty. To explain the higher order thinking that happens while playing, I’ll list each level of Blooms and explain what the game requires in that area

Remembering - while playing, the player must remember where they have been and looted already. It is a waste of time to go back and loot/explore an area that you’ve explored already.

Understanding - While playing, a player must estimate what it will take to beat a certain boss. The game is so “open world” that the player must figure out when they are at a skill level adequate enough to defeat a boss.

Applying - Similar to above, players must determine which weapons, shields, and power-ups to use when attempting to defeat a boss. Players also have to determine (after attempting to defeat a boss and losing) whether they will try again or continue exploring until they feel ready.

Analyzing - Players have to “mind-map.” As a player is discovering new territories in the world, they must make a plan for how they will explore. There are no indicators to show whether one is ready to explore the area or when to explore the area.

Evaluating - Players must evaluate the efficiency of weapons. If one weapon is too heavy, the swing is slow and can only be used in certain situations.

I am assuming that this post is for questions about the choice project, so I will list some questions that I have after reviewing the assignment description:

For the blog posts, there is a “reflections on growing as a graduate learner” section. In this, do you want us to reflect on what we have learned in relation to the blog post, looking toward the future or answering the “so what?” Question for our own lives?

Can you clarify what the “discourse community within English” is?

I am planning on attempting these assignment choices:

Chapter Choice + Student Created Notes A

Chapter Choice + Student Created Notes B

Blog Post - What play can teach us about writing

Blog Post - Game Analysis

As I move into thinking about our essay about graduate writing, I am struck by the similarity of my thoughts about play. In my play essay my definition of play was that “play is learning.” I described different characteristics and rhetorics of play and how they all have the potential to develop learning. I am thinking the same with graduate writing. Not exactly, though.

I might take graduate writing at the angle that it is “ever-evolving.” Again, this is really just a brainstorm. In high school and as an undergraduate one is engrossed in school and “school-ishness.” For graduate students though, at least I think, the assumption is that school is not your “top priority.” It’s up there, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not top, and because of that, much of our lives as graduate students influence the way we connect with and play with our writing.

In my experience, coming into a graduate program and re-connecting with my “school-self” is much different than undergraduate. I have new experiences and i spend most of my waking hours with teenagers trying to help them learn about themselves and the world around them. That definitely influences how I write now. It is both transfer from previous educational experiences and transfer from my growth as a teacher. I am sure that will continue to happen as I move forward in the program, and therefore it is ever-evolving. I haven’t worked out the sources I’ll use yet, but now that my brain dump is finished (or at least I’m cutting myself off), here might be an organizational structure:

Short definitions of what writing is “in general”

Move into writing as a graduate learner (every evolving)

“School-ish” mindset influences graduate writing

Experiences outside of school which take majority over school influence graduate writing

How each transfer to graduate writing

Why this means that graduate writing is always evolving

Looking toward the future? Circling back to the ambiguity of a writing definition?

If anyone watches Premier League soccer, you’ll know the man above. If you don’t, that’s Erik Ten Hag, the manager of Manchester United Football Club. I’ve added it because he looks like he’s imagining something for his team in the midst of the game, but who knows (they did end 8th this season).

Anyway, one play theory that I think connects to the WPA Outcomes Statement is that of play as imaginary. This was one of the seven rhetorics of play mentioned in Sutton-Smith’s piece. He states that this rhetoric consists of the “playful improvisation that idealizes imagination, flexibility, and creativity of the animal and human play worlds.”

Especially in narrative writing, this type of rhetoric could be applied. In creating a story, a writer is playing with his/her imagination. I’ve read accounts of many different and prolific authors who set time or word limits for themselves. Stephen King, for example, sets a 4,000 word goal for himself almost every day. As Anne Lamott says, it’s just about keeping your fingers moving. The act of imagination moves fluidly through your fingers. Some even call this state a writing flow (not a reference to Stenros. . . Or is it?).

Bernard Suits’ definition of a game: “a voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles.” He uses a personal anecdote to exemplify this idea, and my personal anecdote falls into the same category - grades.

In middle and high school, learning was simply a means to an end, that end being a letter in a box on a piece of paper that was mailed home to my parents. A letter that let me move on with hopes of getting into a decent college and secure a decent job. I didn’t get money for good grades though. My parents told me that as long as I kept my grades at a C or above I could do what I wanted after school, but I wanted to get into a good college, so I challenged myself to stay within the B/A range. And I did.

That wasn’t the game I was playing, though. My challenge was to do as little work as possible to get the grade I wanted. Again, I did. I worked in study halls, calculated what would happen if I didn’t turn this or that in (by the way, thanks a lot Canvas for making this sooo much easier for kids to calculate). I even skipped large assignments because I knew I would fall into the range I wanted.

To me, the learning was unnecessary. I would never speak German or think about photosynthesis outside of school. I was questioning the system early and am to this day. The game was voluntary, though. I challenged myself to do as little learning as possible to secure a grade. I did enjoy reading though. My favorite book was and still is “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison. I like it for plenty of reasons, but one which has always kept its seat in the back of my mind helps describe my voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles. The main character is given advice: “Play the game, but don’t believe in it - that much you owe yourself. . . Play the game, but play it your own way - part of the time at least. Play the game, but raise the ante, my boy.”