Not Just Playing:

1. Not Just Playing: Using Games to Promote 21st Century Skills Rebekah Davis and Alison Braxton Alamance-Burlington School System

2. What are 21st Century Skills?

3. Meet the 4Cs!

4. Creativity Problem Solving as a “Perplexed Expert” Open to ideas and innovation Questioning Original Design Use Imagery Manage Multiple Information Streams Interpret Subtleties Oral, Written and Non-Verbal • Collaboration • GAMES • Communication Work Effectively In Teams Innovate in Response to Demands Share Information Share Responsibility Make Necessary Compromises Problem Solve Make Decisions Quickly, Intuitively Think Strategically Evaluate Quality of Information Visualize: Decipher, Interpret, Detect Patterns • Critical • Thinking

5. P21 Framework By membership in the Partnership for 21st Century skills, NC’s definition of future-ready is the P21 Framework. • The P21 Framework includes Learning and Thinking Skills— • “As much as students need to learn academic content, they also need to know how to keep learning — and make effective and innovative use of what they know — throughout their lives. Learning and Thinking Skills are comprised of: • Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills • Communication Skills • Creativity and Innovation Skills • Collaboration Skills • Information and Media Literacy Skills • Contextual Learning Skills” p21.org

6. Play – Jenkins blog quote by Scott Osterweil • “When children are deep at play they engage with the fierce, intense attention that we’d like to see them apply to their schoolwork. Interestingly enough, no matter how intent and focused a child is at that play, maybe even grimly determined they may be at that game play, if you asked them afterwards, they will say that they were having fun. So, the fun of game play is not non-stop mirth but rather the fun of engaging of attention that demands a lot of you and rewards that effort. (Jenkins, 2006)

7. More standards connections • 21st Century Skills Use the chart. Most sources on 21st century skills include all four of the “Cs”. Some call one or more by other names, but 4Cs are easy to remember: Creativity, Collaboration, Communication and Critical Thinking. • Learning Targets Use your common core targets that match up with your games (districts are publishing these now, or requiring teachers to align these within schools), or find one or more that relates to the 4Cs.

8. How can I relate games to curriculum standards? • Common Core • From “Anchor Standards for Reading and Language” • Make logical inferences. • Integrate and evaluate content presented visually and quantitatively. • Build on others’ ideas. • From “Standards for Mathematical Practice” • Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. • Reason abstractly and quantitatively. • Decontextualize – abstract a situation to symbols and mentally manipulate them. • Contextualize – pause and probe for referents. • Look for and make use of structure. • Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

9. Common Core Connections College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards • CCRA.R1 • CCRA.R4 • CCRA.R8 • CCRA.W9 • CCRA.SL.1 • CCRA.SL.3 • CCRA.SL.4 • CCRA.L.1 • CCRA.L.4 • CCRA.L.5 • CCRA.L.6 Language – Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening • Lit. RL 5.4 • Lit W5.1a-d • Lit W 5.2.c • Lit W 5.2e • Lit W 5.3 • Lit W 5.8 • Lit W 5.9 • SL 5.1 a-d • SL 5.3 • SL 5.4

10. When can I use games? After benchmarks, EOGs – when I am not supposed to “teach” For a “reward”—INSTEAD of showing a video As a center –tell the kids what skill they are targeting so they can tell visitors A time “filler”—a speaker cancels, another teacher is running late and you are finished, etc. When there is no outdoor recess or no specials—and you can pull individual students who need to complete work For enrichment or regrouping time – AIG kids who are ready for more complexity can put their brains to work so you can target those with needs

11. Which games could I use? CREATIVITY Story Cubes In a Pickle Loaded Questions COLLABORATION Card games like Spades , Hearts Tangrams/Tangoes Askew COMMUNICATION Bananagrams Book Lovers Jenga In a Pickle CRITICAL THINKING Chess Pentago Checkers Blokus Askew Winomino MATHEMATICS Tactico Sumoku Math Jenga LANGUAGE Quiddler Loaded Questions Stories with Holes You’ve Been Sentenced Book Lovers Jenga ABC Dice/Boggle Scrabble Bananagrams Word Pirates

12. Resources for Games • More Games • SIM*SWEATSHOP • Askew Game • Haywiregroup

13. Time to play! We thought you might like some time to check out our game collection.

14. Please help your gifted students fly! (from a Hoagie’s story) • Imagine that giftedness is like a pair of huge, heavy, invisible wings that most people can’t see. They make one clumsy and awkward. Even flying is messy because of youth and inexperience despite the occasional show of grace.There is almost no place to practice flying during the school day. Most gifted students try to hold their wings politely to avoid knocking over others (students and teachers!). They then go home exhausted from holding the wings so tightly—and the wings will take care of themselves until the wonderful day when the child can use them, right?There isn’t anything sadder than a winged person who can’t see his own wings, but only feels a vague heavy weight and sees people around him get mysteriously knocked down. • THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR EDUCATING OURSELVES ABOUT GIFTED ISSUES IS TO BE ABLE TO HOLD A MIRROR UP TO OUR CHILDREN SO THEY CAN SEE AND UNDERSTAND THEMSELVES BETTER—STRENGTHS AND CHALLENGES BOTH.

15. Thank you for coming! Feel free to use any of our materials, just give credit where it’s due! Material that has been cited is on the list you have been given. Anything else was our creation.