Humanistic Teaching

An approach to learning English

Once back in the days when I was living in England I had a friend who liked designing games. He was particularly interested in elegant game designs and avoiding unnecessary complications. He eventually got a job with a large international games company that shall remain nameless as I have no wish to advertise them (well they once did threaten to sue me). Long before he got the job my friend redesigned the mechanics of one the company's flagship games. He reduced pages of tables down to a single page and could get a result with a couple of dice rolls doing away with a whole slew of rolls. He sent them a letter outlining his idea. He got a letter back. While his idea was elegant he had missed a crucial point. The buckets of dice rolls indeed did little for the actual game, and indeed made it more time-consuming to play, but they were popular. They meant that the game sold better. More dice meant more money. Elegance wasn't everything.

This story is worth remembering when designing language games for children as well. Buckets of dice are generally very popular with children. The more the merrier. Why roll one dice when you can roll several? The obvious answer is that it takes longer and is more messy. But if increasing the number of dice used increases focus and effort then the trade-off is worth it. So, here are a few thoughts about using buckets of dice. There are lots of different kinds of dice but for now I'll focus on six-sided ones.

First of all, I think it is important to use the same kind of dice. It avoids potential squabbles about colours and sizes. I like plain, wooden ones around 2cm square. I've seen packets of six in the 100 yen shop.

Next, some game mechanic is required for earning dice. I usually use writing games. We often use miniature flash cards divided by difficulty level. It's important that the challenge for each child can be set individually so that balance can be maintained. We use a timer and divide games into one minute rounds, with one dice earned for every card written correctly.

Of course, once the children have got the dice they need some way to use them. Rather than total the dice score (though I do use games that do this) a good, quick game mechanic is to treat each dice separately. For example, every throw that matches or exceeds a target number scores one game point or enables a marker to move one space along a track.

Though the dice may be analysed individually I think it is important that they all get thrown together. Avoid any tendency for rolling dice individually or horror of horrors, spinning them. Make it a rule of the game that they get thrown together. I like to use a large shallow basket for dice throws. We generally allow players to take turns throwing their dice into the basket. This allows players rolling later to try and knock "bad" dice and turn them into "good" ones.  But it also means that good dice can become bad ones. When all the players have thrown the results can be assessed. The basket can then be put to one side until the next game round is completed. I hope it goes without saying that I'm talking about a non-competitive game.

By way of example, I've uploaded a  Pizza Delivery game board. It's a bit rough but it has served me well with small groups. Apart from the dice you will need two markers, one for a delivery van and the other a petrol gauge. The idea of the game is to deliver a pizza to a party before the pizza van runs out of gas. For this game I usually use between 12 to 16 dice. After each round any dice that the players haven't "won" in that round are rolled and the petrol gauge adjusted accordingly. I also like to use "an unlucky number rule" which means that before each player rolls their dice they declare one number that is "unlucky". For example, at the beginning of the game the target number to roll is four or better. One player may decide that four is also an unlucky number. So if that player rolled three fours the pizza van would move three spaces but the petrol gauge would drop by three. As I mentioned, I use writing tasks for collecting dice but anything is possible. Making sentences or even reciting words from a song or story come to mind. The task to get the dice shouldn't take too long or the game will become bitty. I hope the instructions are clear. If not, please let me know.

« Fan Fantasy | Main | Negotiated Syllabi »

• I had a dream...
• Turning Fifty
• Yada!

• Turning Fifty
    - Alex Case
    - Todd Pratum
  
• New Year Resolutions
    - Robert Sieveking
    - Chris (Hunt)
    - Steven Williams
    - Chris (Hunt)
    - Steven Williams
    - Robert Sieveking
  
• The Keyword Game
    - Brett Iimura
    - Renae
    - Steven Williams
    - Chris (Hunt)
  
• Yada!
    - michelle
    - stash
    - Chris (Hunt)
  
• Quitting
    - Jon Otto
    - Chris (Hunt)
  
• Improvisation
    - Dr. Michael Cubbin
  
• Violence
    - Jon Otto
    - Chris (Hunt)
    - Jon Otto
  
• Ambivalence
    - Ben Shearon
  
• Negotiated Syllabi
    - Harry
    - Phil
  
• Mitigating Quietness
    - Alison Miyake
  

• Festivals (1)
• Murmurs (9)
• Quick Activities (10)
• Untried Ideas (5)
• Worksheets (2)