Tag: learning

Using games across content areas

Posted on by Chad M. Sanchez

When I first took off with this idea it was back in mid 2021. As the ideas started to pour out, I had to write them down and make connections to each content area. Now, I haven’t played a lot of video games, nor do I have a streaming channel or am rich from playing, but I do have many years of experience playing so making connections from games to education was pretty exciting.

I want to keep this post short, but write more later diving into each game I think could be useful for the classroom. As I took this show on the road at several conferences, I have had audience members ask if this could be implemented for elementary, and if I have some type of lesson outline to follow. As I did each conference, these questions kept getting asked and so the short answer is YES. I know of many games that can be used in elementary, and I have a lesson cycle outline that would benefit the student and teachers but that will be for another post.

I have taught English Language Arts most of my teaching career and got to work right away looking for games that could fill the curriculum of ELA, and to understate this, there are a lot. ELA comprises of story telling elements, point of view, character development, plot, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, narratives, information, language choice, and so much more. (some of this doubles yes, but you get the idea.) So if you take any narrative-driven game, that will work for the first genre or so of ELA curriculum. I recommend games like God of War (this is my absolute favorite series), Ghost of Tsushima, Legend of Zelda, Goldeneye, Kingdom Hearts, The Last of Us and so many more to push ELA units. From there, I would go beyond and see authors and websites who have created informational texts, video analysis, video game walkthroughs, podcasts, game wiki pages, and opinion pieces to teach the content I want to get across and have the students doing the research.

For Social Studies, a lot of games out there have a historical element to them. I loved games like the Uncharted series (modern day Indiana Jones), Assassin’s Creed series, The Last of Us, Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West, Red Dead Redemption, Far Cry series, and so much more! These games are based on political and social elements, some have fictional stories based in historical times and the setting is based on the game developers research.

Math and science were a bit tricky, and the list of games are a bit narrow, but one big game that can cause controversy comes to mind and that is Grand Theft Auto. I know what you are thinking, how can kids learn from a game that allows people to kill and hurt for fun? The truth is, you can, you just have to look past it and learn how to leverage it for your students. In GTA you can do so much more than kill and hurt. There are parts of the game GTA V where you can go to a casino and learn how to gamble in a safe environment that doesn’t require any loss of money or addiction. You can just sit and learn how to properly play the casino games. Across the video game, users can purchase houses, businesses, and other consumer products like cars and they have to manage these properties and products. There are opportunities in the game and online mode where users can drive at certain speeds and go at top speeds to jump off cliffs and bridges. I believe this could be leveraged for math and science lessons to understand mass, force, angles, geometry and so much more.

Other games that came to mind for math and science are sports games that kids love to play so much like NBA 2K and NFL Madden. Students can learn about player stats in a game, series, career and compare and contrast with other players. These games are so advanced now that the player can create their own version of themself and live a life by selecting brands, products, houses etc. There is so much more than just playing!

I may have gone a bit over board with this post and it wasn’t as short as I intended. But, the truth is there are a number of games students play that can be leveraged for their learning, this is just a short list and a small insight as to how they can be used. Continue following this page for more educational content and more into how games can be used in the classroom to engage and enrich our students.

Why video games can help bridge the learning gap

Posted on by Chad M. Sanchez

I recall sitting in an online Professional Development session and thinking, “man, this lady is passionate about literacy, has written two books about it, and wants to improve the learning of others by seemingly doing something so simple.” Isn’t everything literacy? I thought it had to be more difficult than it sounds. Math literacy? Science literacy? Social Studies? Surely only literacy belongs in English, but it wasn’t. Students need literacy abilities to read and understand that content. It definitely felt like a lightning-in-the-bottle type of idea and she was capitalizing off of it. I wondered if I could find some million dollar idea that could help shake up education and soon the ideas started to flow.

I have loved video games since I was young and believed that I could be transported to another world and immersed in it for hours. I remember playing Kingdom Hearts Thanksgiving day for about 6 hours straight, continuing the beloved story of Sora going on an adventure with Goofy and Donald to save their worlds. In Golden Eye for the Nintendo 64, I took on the role of James Bond and read the dossier documents about the upcoming mission objectives. Playing Banjo and Kazooie, I had to read each line of dialogue to understand the next clue I had to figure out, bringing me one step closer to finding the evil witch who took my sister.

The point is I was learning while I was playing. Seeing these worlds created for me to explore, discover, fail, succeed and win are all crucial steps to learning, but why couldn’t something like this be used to help me and others learn in the classroom? All of this started coming to me after the meeting and I started thinking about games that I have played lately were I really divulged and learned.

My wife had shown me an article titled “Video Games Don’t Have To Be Educational To Spark Learning” by Katy Kline and thought “Yes! This is it!” This person who had a good understanding of classroom knowledge and how to learn, was able to learn about geography from playing a video game and be successful when tested on it. I always turn back to this article when I need a refresher or to show others who are confused by this idea, learning can happen from playing video games.

Now I am not talking about those games that are based on educational skills and concepts, those are more for early learning and those work. However, they lose their thrill after a certain age and from their is when we start to lose students. Many kids I have had the chance to teach love video games and they talk about them a lot. These are the kids I see struggle to understand concepts in the classroom and make those connections to the learning. I struggled to get them to work until I use Grand Theft Auto V with a student. I know what you are thinking, GTA V can’t help students learn! No way! But the answer is, it can. If you get your hands on it and can see past the guns, girls and killing, the GTA series is a unique experience.

You are one of three characters, Michael, Trevor, and Franklin and each character has a unique backstory. You have to progress through the story, complete different missions and make choices that affect story outcomes. Is this not plot that we teach students every year? Character development? Conflict/Resolution? As you play the game even more, you see that there are different geographical regions like hills, slums, suburbs, airports, city, countryside and more. As a player in the game you can purchase property and even learn and gamble safely, that’s math and social studies mixed in with some science. If a game can cover different content areas, can it be used and leveraged in the classroom? The answer is yes! Why not?

One of the main questions i have had asked during my presentations of leveraging video games in the classroom is “will students be playing games in class?” and at first I really wanted them to, I thought it would be great for kids to show what they are doing but ultimately that would be too much trouble for all those involved. Consoles cost money, stuff may go missing, kids may play too long or others would get distracted while kids played during a station rotation or something. The pros do not outweigh the cons. So instead, I focused on a learning protocol that would allow the student to play at home during their free time, and then show what they know in multiple capacities in the classroom during a unit. This could be super impactful to help close achievement gaps, bordeom or classroom productivity.

Gone are the days where kids would sit and listen to what the teacher was teaching. Now, it’s all about the student learning outcomes as opposed to learning and demonstrating what the teacher is showing. We need to adjust to the times and we are trying to provide students with 21st century skills. Video games could be the bridge that helps close the gap and helps us get back those students we may have feared we lost. I would call myself an average gamer, but the games I do play today, I am immersed in. I fall in love with what I am playing. I make a lot of connections and have even shared personal emotions, past and present. Even when I am done with the games storyline, I go beyond and want to learn more about the development and background of the game. I watch videos on reviews of the game and how they are impacting gaming and society. There is so much to unpack with each unique game, this post will just touch the surface of gaming.

This post is not to confuse gaming with esports or gamification, but could be included in that realm. Instead, it focuses on what kids already have at home, most students have some sort of console based game, and use what they do in their free time in their educational setting and to take their passion for gaming and connect that to their learning because it will show them that learning happens everywhere. I hope you continue to join me on this journey as I uncover more games that can be used and that you in turn see how they can benefit our learners. Ultimately what I want is to change education for the better, and to let them learn the best way they can.

Final Reflection in 5303

Posted on by Chad M. Sanchez

analysis blackboard board bubble
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

This course seemed to have gone by faster than 5302 for some reason. I think it’s because 5302 was the first class and integrating back into the classroom took a lot of time. This course was completely different from that first course and put all of the responsibility on ourselves because there wasn’t an assignment due every week. Instead, we needed to have different ideas of learning represented in blog posts, plan and share our eportfolio’s, and give feedback while receiving it as well. While different, the learning experience still had the same outline of giving ourselves ownership of our product in an authentic experience.

I enjoyed each week because it required us to actually think and share ideas of who truly owns the eportfolio. We also had some deep discussions as to why we should use eportfolio’s and their importance not only in the Digital Learning and Leading program, but after as well. I’ve found though the discussions that the eportfolio is truly our own because we are the ones who is putting our voice into each blog post, each learning experience, and each reflection that we share on here, to me there is no holding back. If we are trying to get better, than it is important to share the experience and reflect on the feedback. Also, the idea that having an eportfolio is important to have because it shows others what we truly learned and can be used during future interviews for other jobs, or even something we can display to all or use for personal reflection.

Our next lesson focused on sharing and evaluating each others eportfolio’s while having others evaluate our own, this came as a scare, but it helps to build that confidence and show that there is no “super student.” We are all in this learning experience together and being able to put aside our fears to make each other better is valuable. It was great seeing the work and creativity in other’s eportfolio’s while giving them feedback they can use to make their product that much better. It also allowed us to communicate outside of the normal classroom setting.

This week brought on a lot of challenges that I didn’t think I would be able to complete. I had fallen behind on paperwork, I felt as if my students were disliking my class and behaving differently, I was to complete in my first dri-triathlon Saturday and was nervous, and grades were due. All of this would have frustrated me before this program, but focusing, and practicing my growth mindset allowed me to think in a different way to accomplish these obstacles. To help in the classroom I used a few PLN’s to help me generate new ideas for student learning. For the paperwork, I had to better manage my time to make sure I completed them.

I feel that I’m growing with every new experience and being able to share those ideas is even more crucial because other’s who are in my same shoes can see that they are not alone. It feels amazing to be able to share these ideas and reflections with others and to know that we in the DLL program are that much closer to accomplishing a goal we didn’t think possible.