Playing the BOOST Game with the Whole Staff

 During our last whole staff PLD session, the 5 CoL teachers presented where we are up to - blog post here

At the end of that session, we got the whole staff to play my BOOST game, which is based on inquiry teaching and planning. Blog post here about the BOOST game and where it is on the planning site is here.

After this PLD session, I sent a Google form around to staff to get some feedback about the game.

Were the instructions clear enough?

Yes

From what I could hear, yes. I also read the instructions on the screen. We also had them on a Laptop in front of us as well.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Only when there is tie was not explained .

How did you feel about reading a scenario out in front of your group and then having to come up with a solution?

It was good having to think on the spot as most scenarios in the classroom happen on the spot as well.

Initially I felt nervous but once it was my turn, I was okay.

Interesting as we had some different and some similar ideas of how we would solve the problems.

I liked that the scenarios we could relate to.

Fine, it's very similar to the conversations that we have during the day

I was happy and the scenarios were true to class situations. The feedback encouraged collaboration.

Ok.

very useful

It challenged me to really think what I would do and some I as a teacher should do rather than giving excuses.

How did it feel to get feedback about your answer / idea from the rest of the group?

We didn't really give feedback this time as everyone had a clear strategy on how to handle the scenario.

It felt good getting feedback because what you do, someone else would do differently and you could use it for next time if the time arose.

Good

Felt great & encouraging

Yeah, fine - we were a pretty affirming bunch

Absolutely wonderful and uplifting. Much more, it showed that they were standing with me and saying, "we hear you, we are with you".

It was really good

very useful

It helped me to reflect and how I can improve . Helpful

Did you like giving feedback to others about their ideas on the scenarios?

We didn't really give feedback this time as everyone had a clear strategy on how to handle the scenario.

Yes, it reassures them that their solution is good and also the feedback was constructive

yes

Only sometimes

Yeah, it was fine.

Yes indeed , I did.

Yes

Yes

Yes definitely and a good way to exchange ideas to grow in this profession

How do you think the game could be improved?

Possibly give some scenarios that aren't as common, so we can learn how to handle them if needed (although we didn't get through too many cards, so maybe there were some in there).

More time given to verbally give instructions. Have the cards ready for players, as it what hard to figure out who needed what card from the pack. The scenarios could be a different colour from the rest, to stand out more.

Nothing at the moment

Great as is

Go cards-against-humanity style, where people have a certain number of cards to play, and the person who read the card has to match answers up with players.

Have written instruction explaining how to play the game and even add some point system to it.

?

good enough

I find it very interesting. I don’t think it needs improvement.

What was the best part about playing the game?

Hearing how other teachers would handle the different scenarios, as it gave me some ideas on how to approach similar interactions with students.

The support you give and get within the group about your scenario and solution. It gets those who usually don't speak, a chance to speak.

Listening to others solutions

sharing with other teachers and hearing what they do in the same situation.

Laughing with new people

Answering the question and giving feedback.

Sharing of ideas and listening to what others have to say

Learning about different opinions

Collaboration between the members .

Here are some of the staff playing the game

Planning Support - Card Game

 I have blogged about my planning support work with my 4 teacher trainee mentees before

Planning Support

Planning Support - Help Videos

Since then, I have started talking to them about Teaching as Inquiry and about how it should be an ongoing thing. I spoke about this to the whole staff during our last CoL presentation.

Staff PLD - CoL Presentation 2

Since then, my 4 mentees have been working extremely hard as they have a pile of deadlines coming up for university. This got me thinking about doing something fun when the deadline is over so I have tried to design a card game based on thinking about your planning.

I have put all of the resources for the game and the instructions on the planning site that I have made for them - link here

I am hoping that we get something out of this activity, being honest with what we think about planning and have a bit of fun while doing this.

The Game Cards

This presentation is set up to print 4 cards on A4 paper, back to back, so you have the card info on one side and the game logo and coloured background on the other side.

The Instructions

Manaiakalani Class OnAir Lesson 4 - Describing Card Game

Link to Manaiakalani Class OnAir to see the whole team.

Direct Instruction

The students are working in pairs and are playing a card game. This involves them DESCRIBING the product that is on the card to their partner.

When we were all together, we played a game with a pack of emoji cards to warm us up. The instructions for the rest of the lesson was to sit in pairs and use the help cards to describe to each other what is pictured on the cards.

Lesson Topic :- Describing Products to Each Other
Year Group :-  Year 11
Learning Outcome	To be able to describe a product / object to each other verbally.
Success Criteria Using SOLO	Uni structural Multi structural Relational Extended abstract Students can identify the products on the cards. Students can describe the products on the cards in simple “bullet point” sentences. Students can describe what the products look like, what they are made of and why. They can explain how the products on the cards are used. Students can reflect on the descriptions of the products on the cards and ask questions that will help them clarify what they know.
Links with the New Zealand Curriculum	NCEA Level 1 - Curriculum Level 6 Outcome development and evaluation Critically analyse their own and others’ outcomes to inform the development of ideas for feasible outcomes. Undertake ongoing experimentation and functional modelling, taking account of stakeholder feedback and trialling in the physical and social environments. Use the information gained to select, justify, and develop a final outcome. Evaluate this outcome’s fitness for purpose against the brief and justify the evaluation, using feedback from stakeholders.
Key Competencies	Thinking - looking at the picture of the product / object and deciding the best way to describe it to their partner.  Using language, symbols, and texts - verbally describing to each other using design terminology.  Managing self - staying focussed on the task as it is not just themselves they are affecting if they don’t.  Participating and contributing - joining in the activity to make sure the team works together.  Relating to others - working in a pair and listening to each other.
Prior knowledge	We have started talking about design work as a whole class and doing describing exercises all together.
Lesson Sequence	Session Outline The class will be working in pairs where they will be playing a card game. They will take turns to describe the object that is shown on the cards, using the prompt questions if they need to. Student Activity Teacher Activity The class will sit together to listen to the teacher give a brief outline of the task.  The students have the help questions to guide them if they want to use them.  They will be reminded to think in a similar way to how we have been doing the whole class descriptions. Explain the rules of the game to the class.  Work in pairs.  One student to pick a card and describe what the picture is to the other student.  The question card can be used if the description is lacking detail.  As many guesses can be done as needed.  General overseeing of the sequence of the lesson.  Making sure the iPads are set up to record as many conversations as possible.  Uploading the videos of the discussions from the iPads to the class community. Students sit in pairs to do this activity.  Lay out the cards face down between them and take turns to choose one.  One student to describe the product / object that is pictured on the card while the other student tries to guess what it is.  If they guess the card is theirs. The discussions / descriptions will be recorded and shared in the class Google Plus Community for everyone to watch each other’s.
Resources	Sets of cards with images on them ( enough sets for 1 between 2 ) Link to drive folder - these have been printed out to use in the lesson. Emoji card game - for the warm up.
Next Steps	Next Lesson We will continue to do whole class describing of products / things at the start of each lesson. Further in this project Describing skills will be used both in their research of existing chair designs and of their own design work.
Reflection and Analysis
	What went well. Lesson Content :- doing the warm up at the start was good as it got the students interested and they were all joining in. Lesson Pacing :- I allowed them to take as much time as they wanted for the game, and this ended up being about 15 minutes which was good. They stayed on task for the whole activity so this amount of time was just right. Lesson Delivery :- Although the start of the lesson had the students around the front table for a while, it was a more interactive session as we did the warm up card game all together. I managed to keep my session instructions super short this time so the students could then get on with the activity in pairs. This enabled me to get round the class as they were working and work with the pairs rather than spend too much time with the whole class. Student Understanding :- They worked well together and helped each other. This helped their understanding and taking turns helped with this too. They seemed to get more comfortable with the describing as the game went on. Student Outcomes :- I was pleased with the amount of fun they had while doing this activity. What still needs work. Lesson Content :- I photocopied / printed the images onto paper so we had to hide the game cards under a sheet of paper so the students could not see what they were as they were a little see through. Card would have been better as you would not have been able to see what they were from the back. Student Outcomes :- Only 6 students were there today due to various trips out today so the rest of the class missed this. Other Comments. It became apparent as they were working that they realised that when they explained how the object was used, it made it a lot clearer what the object was. One team especially was avoiding explaining how the thing could be used as it gave their opponent more chance to guess what it was. I hope they remember this as they are describing their own designs. Explaining how their design is used or how parts of it work will really help with the understanding of what their design is.

This is some of the ongoing lesson during the describe game.

I have included the full 15 minutes of the game for each team here. I decided to do this as their conversations for the whole time were focussed on the task and they were working hard at the describing that they had to do. These videos also show that they were having fun while doing the activity. Please scrub through to see different sections throughout the videos.

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3
This is the card game we were playing in the warm up

Literacy Plan - "What Am I?" Game

As part of my short term plan (blog post here), till the end of term, my target group of Year 11 students are going to be looking at describing products and objects, as a whole class, in pairs and individually. This will be in the form of talking and writing.
I want my students to get comfortable with describing what they see as they are not at the moment. This will build the foundation for moving into the higher areas of SOLO Taxonomy of explaining and analysing and this will allow them access to merit and excellence achievement at NCEA.
After the long Easter weekend, the plan is for the whole class to sit together at the start of each lesson and do description activities all together for 5-10 minutes. This will be in the from of talking about products shown on the screen with me doing the typing about what the class are saying. I did this for a Manaiakalani Class OnAir lesson last year and it worked out really well, so I want to do more of it this year.  Blog post here.
I then want the students to get into pairs and play the "What Am I?" game.
I have made cards with images of products / things on them. There is also a question card for each pair. One student pulls a card at random from the pile and looks at the picture on it without showing their partner. Their partner has to ask the questions on the question card and try and guess what the object is from their team member's answers. I am considering making the questions points related, so they get more points for quicker correct guesses. This will hopefully then put the emphasis on detailed answers from their partner who is doing the describing.
This session will be recorded for Class OnAir so I will be able to analyse how this went.
Link to resources.