Play is an
important part of the creative process. It often involves tinkering--fiddling
with things in an unskilled and experimental manner. It almost has a negative
connotation--I wouldn't want an unskilled mechanic messing around with my car.
And yet, when we consider it in the context of the maker movement, it's an
essential part of the learning process.
People need
to get their hands on something to experience firsthand how it works and learn
what can be done with it. Students learning programming on Scratch experiment with
different combinations of coding blocks that are easy to put together and take
apart. Building a robot, even a simple one with a small motor that vibrates and
makes a body "walk," involves assembling the parts in different combinations
to see what works and what doesn't.
In the same
way, I bring the maker movement into my English language classes, not always
with technology and projects, but more often by piquing students' curiosity,
and inviting them to interact with language playfully, in a hands-on way. I'll
share a few different ways I've done that.
I can't
think of anything more boring than saying, "OK, class, look at the grammar
chart." And yet most textbooks instruct teachers to start a grammar lesson
this way. Instead, I often take the chart apart and prompt the students to put
it back together.
For
example, I'll give them the sentences, but ask them to match the meaning to
each one.
- I have never been to Europe / I haven't seen Pat recently--students notice that those seem to be in the past but are connected to the present, and match the rule accordingly.
- I went to the beach last summer / I didn't see Casey in school yesterday--students see that these seem to talk about a specific time in the past, and place the correct explanation with the example.
Or, I may
give them some scrambled sentences and have them put the words in a particular
order to mean one thing in particular. This works well when choosing among
transition words like because, as a result, etc. It also works with adverbs
like just, only, and even when students have to put them in the right place, before the word
they emphasize.
When I
worked with interactive whiteboards in Boston, it was easy to take a screenshot
of the book, block out the parts I wanted students to assemble, and create
moveable pieces that students could touch and put in place. Or, I would take the main idea of the grammar chart and re-create it on the board for students to touch and interact with.
 |
| In this one, students moved an adjective into a box corresponding with each rule. They are very faint in this screenshot, but you might be able to see a box after each arrow. When clicked (or when the board was touched in that place), an example sentence would fade into view. |
 |
| Each piece here is moveable, so students can play around until they get the right order, learning how there are two ways to say the same idea. |
Now I spend
a lot of time cutting paper for students to assemble (often by taping pieces to
the board). I've heard that there are some new options on Quizlet, however,
that might make these kind of activities easier to make in digital form, and
I'm eager to try them. When working with moveable parts, Kahoot has a scramble
option that also works, but so far I have only used it for review, and not for
teaching.
What's
important is to explain to the students that it's OK to make errors--that this
is not a test, but an invitation to explore and see what works. Often students
will put one piece of language in place and then realize that it's not the best
match, and then, independent of the teacher, figure out what it means and where
it belongs. In doing so, they work together, helping each other learn, and,
what they learn tends to stay stronger in their memories when they are the ones
that have to work to figure it out. Visual and kinesthetic (involving movement)
learning play a huge role in this, and so does teamwork.
 |
| It's even more fun to put words together when you give them a funny finger! |
Magnetic poetry
Magnetic
Poetry used to be a popular addition to fridge doors and white boards. I loved
fiddling around with the words when I was bored, making different micro stories
or fun word combinations. Because the existence
is so transient--there is no permanence like when writing in pen--and you know someone is going to come along later and change the
words you put, creativity gets emboldened and wild ideas come forth. And
because you can see and mess around with many possibilities, unlike with a
blank paper, surprising word plays come about, which wouldn't likely have come
into existence with a pen and paper.
There are
many apps for Magnetic Poetry these days, and teachers have made their own
shareable versions on Google Draw. I haven't used this a lot in actual
teaching, but I think it has lots of potential, and would love to hear about
the roles it's played in a lesson.
I decided
to bring my old set of Magnetic Poetry and put it in the library during U.S.
National Poetry Month in April. It was at a table where students could spend a
few minutes or more to play around and arrange the words on a small magnetic
board however they liked. Most had never seen anything like it, and all of
those I talked to enjoyed playing with it. They left the library leaving behind
some combinations of English language that had not been there before, hopefully
feeling all the more empowered knowing they had made a mark on the world.
Blackout
Poetry
This fun
way to play with words also played a part in our commemoration of National
Poetry Month, which happened to coincide with a unit I was teaching on art and
creativity. Wanting my students to experiment with a creative process, and
knowing that not all of them enjoy painting, I showed them this video by Austin
Kleon, an artist who "steals" all his work from printed material. The
idea is to ignore the text as a whole, circle words that inspire you, play with
ways of connecting them together, and then black out the ones you don't need,
or draw something over them.
I asked the
class if they thought it looked cool, and if they'd like to try it, and they
responded with enthusiasm. I asked them what the first step in the video was,
they responded, "get inspired," and I told them to pull out their
phones and do just that. It only took a minute or two of searching before they
got a glimpse at what could be done. I provided newspapers that I brought from
the U.S. (although this is actually a perfect way to recycle extra copies of
text, and with all they heavy political content in the news these days, I might
do that going forward). I put out black markers, as well as scissors, glue, and
a variety of colored markers. Each student approached it in a different way,
and the results were fun. We ended up displaying them in the library, and
everyone walked out marveling at the fact that they had made an original
"poem" in English.
These are
just a few ways to encourage students to tinker with words and explore the
possibilities. As a teacher, I need to create a safe place for students to mess around with
language, even if they make errors in the process. And, without taking too much control, I need to guide them toward the structures
and skills they need to learn. When this happens in a playful way, it's not
only fun, but it can be a powerful part of creative learning, which is needed
to develop young people into the innovators and problem solvers this world
needs.
I'd love to
hear about how tinkering and playfulness happen in other educational settings,
or how they might have played a role in your own learning experience. Please
share your thoughts below.
#MakerMonday
posts will be taking a break during the summer holiday here in South America,
but will be back in February when the next semester starts. Meanwhile, you can
find me on Instagram or Twitter @danitissima
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