Sixth Post on ESL Findings

Photo by me

After a hard day's work you may want to curl up on the couch and relax! Unfortunately for me, my dogs got to the couch before I did and took up all of the available space. It's a little hard to see but Micah, the biggest dog, is setting on the edge of the couch even though he is the biggest dog. This picture, while silly, had me thinking about opportunities our students have. If you aren't fast enough you can miss out are great opportunities. Scholarships, internships, work studies, and jobs are time sensitive. This is another reason it is important to help out L2 students develop their language skills so that they are not at a disadvantage. With that thought out of the way, let's get into this week's findings!

Photo retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/11/14881076/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-nintendo-interview

The first thing I found in my search was on the Gaming Lab at Smith College. The Gaming Lab offers over one hundred games that students can come in and play in an environment that encourages acceptance and appropriate dialogue. This is a great resource that the college has because, as a gamer, I know that playing games with strangers online can be hit and miss. While some players are very polite and friendly others are incredibly rude and will harass whoever they are playing with. Female gamers and minorities, unfortunately, are more likely to get harassed about their gender or how they sound when they speak online. So how does this Gaming Lab benefit L2 students? First all, it creates a space where gamers can come together and learn how to appropriately interact with players. It also serves as a safe environment where gamers can gather without being harassed. Most importantly, Gaming Lab is a place where everyone shares an interest: gaming. This offers a shared connection with all attendees of the Gaming Lab from the start. I run a video game club at my school and I have found that a lot of the "socially awkward" students are learning how to interact with each other better (at least during club meetings).

Photo retrieved from https://seanmunger.com/2018/03/07/retro-book-review-planet-of-the-dragons-choose-your-own-adventure/

The second thing my findings turned up this week was digital Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) books. There are a lot of wonderful options to pursue when designing a CYOA activity but the information I was looking at this week was focused on making sure the activity is appropriate. Examples of distasteful CYOA stories were a slave simulation, refugee simulation, and the Afghanistan War. The important thing to consider when creating your own classroom CYOA is what someone who lived through the topic you are writing about think of your activity. The last thing we want to do is alienate, traumatize, or offend our students & parents. I would recommend sharing your CYOA activity with a few colleagues or friends before doing it with a class to make sure it is appropriate for students.

That concludes this blog post, thanks for reading!

https://www.smith.edu/news/a-space-for-digital-storytelling/
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2018/11/06/the-dangers-of-choose-your-own-adventure-genre-for-real-painful-stories/