CEC FIPP Activity Report
Name Ruth Roach
Date August 31, 2010
Department English
FIPP Partner Chris Richardson
Class title & section # English B, Section 9635
Name of Activity/Strategy Graduation Game
Category: (Please select only one.) (Reminder: You will submit one report from each of
the categories.)
Classroom Activity
Classroom Environment
Classroom Expectations
Feedback & Evaluation
Homework & Out-of-Classroom Learning Experiences
Briefly describe the activity/strategy, providing enough detail so that a colleague can
replicate the activity/strategy.
1. Introduction In the spirit of increasing student success and retention rates in the
Basic Skills English B class, and particularly creating a fluid classroom
environment and use of classroom space through more student movement and
increased collaboration and groupwork, I incorporated the Graduation Game
into the end of the first day class session as the third of what I termed
"Welcome Assignments" on a syllabus tracker with check-boxes and class
assignments tracker sheet provided.
2. Set-up & Supplies For the activity, I brought supplies that had the equivalent
level of difficulty to the demonstration with a ring toss done at my FIPP
workshop: a small silver bucket and small brightly colored wooden cubes that I
had bought previously for a class activity before FIPP. Also, I tore a sheet of
paper to provide markers of three feet, six feet, nine feet, up to 24 feet.
3. Directions Students were given the same rules as my colleagues and I received
in the FIPP workshop: they were pursuing 30 credits, whoever got there first
"won," and they could throw from any line, with no limitations on the number of
times they could throw from the same line--and all students were to consider
what the metaphor of the game was. I kept score on the chalkboard for our
three volunteer throwers, writing down the number of the distance of their
throwing line and circling the number when their throw was a successful
"bucket" --to borrow basketball slang and combine it with a pun on the fact they
were tossing into a literal, though small, bucket. Because it was the last activity
of our day and time was short, I reduced the goal from 30 credits to 15 credits.
What worked well? There were positive results or appropriate meaning gained from the
exercise. In their journal entries, students expressed their realizations. One student
wrote: "At first I thought the graduation game was weird. As the game went on I realized
it was a meaning to the game. A few students were told to make a shape [go] into a
small bucket. There were various ranges you had to throw from. The bucket was looked
at as a goal. Taken [sic] baby steps can actually help more than taking things head on.
A student won the game geting[sic] the quick easy points first. You have to crawl before
you can walk." Another stated, "It reminded me on how you keep trying no matter how
many times you fail." Another reflected: "The metaphor that the teacher was showing
us, is how we should accomplish our goals. People can try to obtain a big achivement
[sic] but before they must gradually build there [sic] way towards that goal. The closer
everyone gets to fulfill what they want, then every obsticle [sic] will become easier." The
last point was an original observation, indeed, referring to the increased ease with which
the person at the three feet range made the last of those buckets compared to the
earlier attempts at this supposedly "easy" range.
What would you change? While the students' comments were quite positive, perhaps the
student volunteers needed to be "debriefed." I didn't even think about this until I didn't
see one volunteer again in class after this exercise. He surprised me and gained my
attention because he called from Chris Richardson's office and introduced himself as
the one who had done the graduation game throwing; his call made me aware that he
was an athlete to have called from Chris' office since Chris is a faculty member in the
Althetics Department. Though he never said it, I later considered that possibly the
student felt ashamed before his peers for not winning, that his defeat undermined his
athleticism, that he felt self conscious about his performance. I could have potentially
eased all of this by heartily thanking the volunteer throwers for teaching all of us about
the process of learning and education by their noble efforts in this exercise, and by
literally leading a class applause for the volunteers themselves. I hope that students did
not discourage or criticize the participants outside of my hearing, so leading "cheering"
at their attempts might set the right tone throughout the activity, averting possible
negative self consciousness. Maybe reading aloud these journal entries also would
mitigate any possible self consciousness, as the participants would discover that their
peers were not critical of their "failures" at all, but quite mature in their reflections about
general life lessons and educational lessons, and self-aware.
Would you use the activity/strategy again? Why or why not? I would definitely use this
assignment again to powerfully and compellingly illustrate the very meaning they gained
from the exercise--precisely what I and others who use this exercise hope they will
learn--how to attain major goals in appropriate increments. To the point of classroom
environment, it had the intended effects on classroom environment. First, it improved
camaraderie, for another student commented as I had hoped, though in tentative
English since it was the first day of class, "and there people always chearing you on
wanting you to make it." Second, students also commented on their surveys of the day's
activities, that they particularly enjoyed being "active," reflecting on the "expert groups"
or jigsaw activity. Therefore, I know that this activity, too, succeeded in making the
classroom space seem more fluid and open for movement, rather than rigid, which was
my specific goal with this exercise for improving the classroom environment.
Please describe any student learning and/or changes that you observed after the
implementation of the activity/strategy. Students seemed enlightened, based on their
journal entries, about the best approach to succeed, and enlightened by the collatoral
learning about supportive classrooms, groupwork, teamwork cheering others.