Humanistic Teaching

Yada!

2010-02-28T13:44:06Z

I had a yada experience yesterday, the first I've had in a long time. Direct confrontation, vitriolic refusal, fearful contempt. It's hard to convey the nascent power and negativity contained in just one word. I'm probably a little over sensitive but yada is one word I won't countenance.

We were having a make-up lesson which we do once a month to allow students to catch up with classes they have missed. At Wise Hat English we not only give make-ups but we carry them over so sometimes we even end up giving them to students who have quit! Students who miss two classes in a month have the option of getting one make-up class or paying half the fee for the month. We are also very laid back about cancellations and don't require notice in advance. All in all we have a good response and no real attempts to take advantage.

Make-up classes invariably have students from different classes as we try to arrange them according to our students schedules while taking into account personalities and experience. Our make-up day is usually long and yesterday was no exception. I won't be writing much today!

During make-up classes we try to cover topics and activities students have missed though invariably there is some overlap because students missing from different classes and different weeks have done different things. Thus it was that I tried to introduce an activity that some students had done more in the month than others. Our theme for the month was weather and time and the activity in question was Wizard Weather. This, a variation of Snow Escape, is invariably popular but not on this occasion. Basically nobody wanted to do it and two of the group, who incidentally were all girls, began yadaing (yadering? I'm not sure which).

Whenever the word yada crops up I take it as a sign that something has gone badly wrong. It's a horrible sound and I admit that all too easily I can react badly to it, making the situation even more negative. But yada completely shatters any English atmosphere that might have built up. And of course, it should be completely unnecessary. Japanese children should be able to communicate their strong dislike without resorting to Japanese. A simple "No thank you!" or a "No way!" are much better and should be sufficient. "I don't want to..[complete sentence here]" is much more complicated and doesn't have the same impact. Finding an equivalent that has the same emotional impact is important when wanting children to stay in English. "No thank you!" wasn't really enough in this case, but a spirited and varied chant of "No way!" was enough to dissipate the negativity that had emerged, both in myself and in the girls. We agreed to skip Wizard Weather and do a shopping activity instead.

I'd be very interested to hear what gets your goat and any strategies you have for dealing with it. My strategy with yada is probably a little bit too confrontational. I jump on it. I guess I want children to see it as taboo. I'm happy to deal with and accept the grievence though I usually push the situation again to get a response in English after I have taught it on the spot. But I think a better strategy would probably be introduce a "No Way!" activity so that children would have something they could use. Anyway, hope to get some comments and I'm crawling away to rest up. Until next time.

Question Time?

2010-02-21T13:47:57Z

One topic that cropped up in the ETJ Owners list this past week was the subject of answering questions, or rather the kinds of answers we require as teachers. The big decision is whether we should insist on full answers using complete sentences or whether we allow students to use truncated replies. The benefit of full answers is that it gives students more exposure to grammatical structures and increase the chance for them to learn them. The disadvantage is that full sentences can often sound stilted and unnatural. Native speakers will happily take shortcuts and drop words during conversation so shouldn't learners know how to do likewise?

My typical approach is to divide a lesson into distinct parts. During "practise time" I get students to make complete grammatical sentences but outside this framework I focus more on flow, speed and communication. Having said this, I hit upon a simple activity for older children this week that combines both forms. It's still in the experimental stage but I'd like to share it, and hopefully get some feedback. I've yet to settle upon a name for the activity but for now will go with Reply Relay. The activity is suitable for small groups and requires question cards and some six sided dice.

Prior to starting I write the following on the board for reference:

1, 6 Short Answer
2-5 Full Answer

Each player recieves a dice. One player becomes the interviewer and takes a question card. While the interviewer is looking at the card the others each roll their dice. The rolls dictate both who will get asked the question and how to answer. The interviewer asks the question to the player rolling the highest number. If there is a tie then the interview asks all the players concerned. The players must give full answers if they have rolled 2,3,4, or 5 and one word answers if they have rolled a 1 or a 6 (1 will only count on the rare occasions where all players roll a 1). The interviewer should avoid reading the question but instead aim to get eye contact with the players being questioned.

After the interviewer has asked a predetermined number of questions one of the other players takes over the role. Ideally all players should have a go at asking questions.

Variations

Use a timer for each interviewer. Keep a record of the total number of questions answered by the group.

Rather than the highest score alone determining who answers the questions instead use tied dice rolls first and highest score second. For example, five players roll 2, 2, 3, 3 and 6. The two players rolling 3 answer the question.

For groups that can't read the teacher could ask the questions. Alternatively, the interviewer could just make up questions onn the spot or ask a particular kind of question.

Further Thoughts

I've tried out the main method described with a few groups and it seems worth pursuing. One problem with larger groups is that the dice rolls can easily get mixed up and it can be hard to know who has rolled what. Another is that some children like to spin dice rather than roll them and this wastes time. As I type this I think a solution to both problems is to use a paper cup. Players could drop their dice into a paper cup and call out the results. Alternatively, and I think this is better, they could start with the dice in a paper cup and tip the cup upside down onto the table so that the dice is trapped under the cup. Then all players could lift their cups up at the same time. This would add a little bit of tension. Anyway, I welcome some feed back on this idea. Thanks!

Kind Hearts And Pancakes

2010-02-14T12:44:17Z

It may be Valentine's Day today but truth be told I've never done much with it in or out of the classroom. A quick search of my computer reveals a solitary worksheet for adults and high school students based on the information found here. It contained a true or false quiz, a version of which can be downloaded by clicking this link. Students were invited to read each statement in turn, discuss it and make a guess before the answer was revealled. One aim was to see how long it would take them to decide that all the statements were true.

I wonder if St Valentine's Day is something done more often in schools in the US than in Britain? I don't remember the event ever being celebrated once while I was at school. It never made an appearance at home either, but Pancake Day did which I guess is why I have a soft spot for it. The same computer search draws forth nearly a dozen files, though in general when I do pancake lessons I like to make them completely practical, or perhaps I should write, physical. Very few schools I've taught at have given me access to an oven range but for pancakes a portable gas cooker actually works better. Children can get as close as you deem advisable. I usually let them get very close and of course they all get a chance to have a toss, if they want one. In my experience the older children get the more concerned they become about drops. This could be because they are concerned about wasting food but I think their reserve comes from fear of making a mistake. One thing I want to get across with pancake lessons is that the only real mistake is trying to avoid making them. One method I've found to encourage them to have a go is to designate one pancake as a a practise pancake. I tell them it doesn't matter if it goes on the floor as we can use it just for throwing practise. If by chance it does end up on the floor we can keep using it and then rinse out the pan before before making ones to eat. Anyway, I'm going to be lazy today and draw this week's entry to a close. If you want to read more than try this link to an old Now's Newsletter. It's got a little bit about NLP reframing and a little bit more about pancakes. Happy holidays!

Teaching To The Test

2010-02-07T13:34:49Z

I've mentioned on more than one occasion that I don't like tests. But have I ever mentioned that Wise Hat English is a test centre for Junior Eiken? Some five students took the tests yesterday. Ugh! It's a kind of dilemma for me which I resolve by having as little to do with them as practicable. Notice that I didn't write "as possible". I'd prefer if we had nothing to do with any kind of test but some children want to do them and some parents like them as well.

Of course, it would be possible to remain noble and idealistic but I feel it better to be more flexible. I've been in the situation where parents have put their children whom I was teaching in for tests without telling me. Better to be in the know than kept in the dark. So we do talk to children and parents about tests and offer advice, and we even help out with practise.

I think that if a child is going to take a test it should be because the child wants to and can be confident about the result. Ideally, with enough ability and confidence it can be more a benchmark than a test, in fact, if it is really easy. it can even become a kind of celebration.

I know that lots of teachers say one should never teach to the test . I came across a song on YouTube recently that underscores this point. But my feeling is that if there is a test then it is better to know as much about it as possible. At the very least it is important to practise so that one knows the structure and an avoid throwing marks away by not knowing what to do. But I think it is important to go further and look for ways to chisel as many marks as possible. What's it that accountants for the rich do? Is it tax evasion or tax avoidance? Anything's legitimate if you can get away with it. Isn't it?

I guess it's because I generally despise tests that I believe in teaching to them. Part of it comes from my own experience at secondary school. I was in a group who were put in for some O levels (as the basic National exams were called then) a year early. So that meant that the next year I suddenly found myself with around 18 free periods at school. The school just wanted the prestige of having learners take exams early, they hadn't thought through a policy. So they decided I had too much free time and forced me into dong an additional O level to cut it down. Then there's the story my father used to tell me of when he was teaching French and was faced with a similar situation. A group of boys passed French certificate early so he ended up having to teach them French literature. None of them had the slightest interest so he dictated model answers for just over half the time and played games the rest of the time. All of them passed including four who had failed regular French. Probably very few of them retained anything beyond the test but they were all happy to have the extra piece of paper. After all that's the point of tests, right?. I feel I've mentioned this story before.

Anyway, I'll stop short today by mentioning a titbit that Cedric Noto mentioned at least week's Hiroshima ETJ meeting. He told us that in the interview for Eiken Step Three interviewees could get "free points" by making eye contact with the examiners. I thought that was a great way of putting it so this week I mentioned this to my first grade junior high school students. It definitely encouraged them to practise looking at each other during dialogue practise. Free points! Free points!

The Keyword Game

2010-01-31T14:29:31Z

Today I learnt a new game, well almost. I guess it would be more accurate to say that I learnt a new name. I attended the ETJ Hiroshima January presentation on Elementary School English, jointly presented by Cedric Noto, Carl Zeman and Carla Wilson . Teachers living within easy reach of Hiroshima missed a treat. I hope the presentation gets a proper write up. Carl took on team teaching, Carla focused on activities to get the children communicating and Cedric tackled how to make the best of Eigo Note. It was the first time I had seen it and from a cursory glance appears that the Keyword game is a staple. Interestingly, Cedric and Carl had differing opinions about it. Cedric found it engaging. Carl found it violent. I guess the answer depends upon the level of competition experienced.

The version Cedric taught was simple. Players split into pairs and place a small object such as an eraser within easy reach. The teacher announces a target word, perhaps also showing a flashcard and then begins to list words within the same vocabulary category. When the teacher announces the target word that is the signal to snatch the object. The player snatching the object is the winner and the slower player is the loser. Not that Cedric was suggesting focusing on this. But that, I'm sure is how children, especially competitive ones, perceive it.

Though the name was unfamilar, the basic game was not. I used a different version of it when I first started teaching children. In the version I knew there were several objects but less than the number of players who formed groups. The player who missed out on getting an object lost a life and the game would continue until one player was out. I think we used to spell some word which might have been "slow" or "butterfingers" (though that strikes me as too long) or "stupid" (I hope I wasn't crass enough to use that, but I can't swear to it). I just can't remember, but I do remember noticing that children liked the game but that with class one child was just physically too slow and always lost. That made me uncomfortable and was one of the rurning points that got me to seriously question using competitive games at all.

Anyway, rather than write more about that or the game I'd like instead to focus on some alternatives. The basic excitement of the game springs from not knowing when the key will be triggered and the physical movement involved in snatching the target object. Accordingly any replacement should probably be just as physical, though I can't help but mention one mad idea that isn't. In fact I'll start out with it:

NOISE DETECTOR: Ideally the teacher would have a big cardboard cut-out with a dial and pointer that could be turned from the back. When the keyword is spoken the whole class tries to shout out in unison, repeating the word. The Noise dectector gives feed back on their performance. Class points could even be scored for getting the needle into the red. For teacher's wanting more physicality the students could be encouraged to clap, stomp or jump.

RING THE BELL: Basically the same idea except that instead of using a fake noise dectector the teacher could use a picture of a fairground test your strength game, or even just draw one on the board. The teacher could strike a real bell when the students are vocal enough or with no bell available just say "dong!". This could be combined with quickly raising and lowering some kind of marker (perhaps a round magnet) on top of the picture, again with the idea of giving feedback.

In case you are wondering why have the same game in two forms, I want to emphasise that presention and storyline are important elements for success. Sometimes a game can fail with one presention and succeed with another. It's all about capturing attention and stimulating the imagination. Oh, a memory has returned. I think the game I used to play was called "Grab it".

TIGER CLAW: A blatent attempt to tie in the current Chinese zodiac sign. Every player has an object and balances it on the back of one hand. When the teacher says the keyword that is a signal to toss the object up and catch it claw style (palm facing the floor) with the same hand.

CUP TOSS: Players work in pairs with a paper cup each and one object. One player starts with the object in their cup. The keyword is the signal to toss it to their partner by jerking the cup so the object flies out.

CO-OPERATIVE DROP: Players work in pairs, each pair has one paper cup and one object. The keyword is the signal to lift the object into the cup. Each player may only use one finger so the players need to work together to lift the object. This method could even be used to teach the names for different fingers. "Ok, for this round use ring fingers" etc

This last idea is based upon something I have done with kindergarten aged students. Rather than doing slam/karuta we sometimes do "finger touch". We all use one finger and make a kind of wheel with each finger being a spoke. The idea is then to move to the flashcard named without breaking contact. With even younger children where mothers are present mother and child can work in pairs.

I want to stress that I haven't tried any of the keyword game varients listed above. If you do try any of them out, please let me know how it goes. The problem I have with the keyword game is that at its core it is based upon scarcity. Do we really want to model the notion that snatching up goods is a legitimate action? Yes, it is only a game, and it is supposed to be in fun, but the root behaviour is based on is ugly, naked aggression. We can do better.

Quitting

2010-01-24T14:57:31Z

Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.

George Carlin

Last week I mentioned that if I did make resolutions then one I would adopt would be to help children quit English. Since I got a couple of comments questioning this idea, this time around I'd like to expand a little on my reasoning.

Quitting is generally seen as negative, copping out, chucking it in, throwing in the towel. As the famous American football coach, Vincent Lombardi, remarked, "Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit." But I think this assumes your heart was set upon what you are giving up. For children learning English this is often is not the case.

Looking back on my childhood the only thing I ever took lessons in was playing the piano. I must have had lessons for four or five years, though I honestly don't remember. I know I loathed practising and hardly did any. I also remember having to do transposition exercises. I had a grubby little blank score book all smudgy with pencil stains and eraser marks. Given that my mother hardly ever threw anything away it's probably around, somewhere. Looking back, I realise that I can't remember my piano teacher's face, just her fingers that were stubby, lumpy things deformed by arthritis. Perhaps one reason I didn't practise was because I didn't want my fingers to end up like hers. I guess I was one of those thankless, pitiful and inadequate students whose only purpose could have been to generate income for the teacher.

Do you have any students like that? If you do, isn't the honest thing to do to tell them to shape up or ship off? Possibly, though the language to be used depends upon the student. What I mean to say is, if we can't get the student to make some effort then surely we should tell the student that they are wasting their time, and ours?

It's not that I don't like music. I love making it. But I didn't and don't get much from formal lessons. I think I only took lessons for so so long because my brother and sister were taking them and to please my mother. Bluntly, these are terrible reasons for doing anything.

I think there are times when the honest thing to do is to help a child to realise that quitting is the honest option. Doing something because our parents want us to is almost always a poor reason. Sure parents have more experience than their children but that doesn't mean they know what is best for a child. Parents can have their own scripts, as Philip Larkin put it in his short poem This Be The Verse :

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

I don't mean to suggest that my parent's pushed me to have piano lessons or that all Japanese children taking English lessons are forced to do so. Far from it. In fact that's the problem, the situation is so seldom clear-cut. I remember long ago a kindergarten child I had whose only interest in English was playing a Freddi Fish computer game we had on the school computer. The only English word she ever said was "fiiishu". We should have told her mother after a month that she was wasting her money. It took us around six. Nowadays, I'm prepared to speak up even after a trial lesson. In one case, I've even had two brothers have trial lessons twice, a year apart. I refused the mother both times. The boys aren't remotely interested in English, and why should they be?

I really question the idea that quitting is a form of weakness. It takes real strength to look into one's heart and know one's own mind and be able to confront to one's parents. When I write about helping children to quit I mean supporting them in understanding their feeling towards English and also towards English lessons. In some cases a change of scene or situation is best. My own experiences playing chess is a case in point. I learnt to play when I was four. My first visit to the school chess club in secondary school I beat the teacher looking after the club (he wasn't that strong). But the school used a ladder system where one could only play people depending upon your ranking and theirs. It made chess boring and pedantic. I dropped out. But everything changed when we got a temporary teacher who by chance had been a county champion. He got three of us so interested that one Summer evening we walked alone over a mile to a pub because we heard there was a chess club there. It was the first time I had ever been in a pub without my dad. We were several years under-age but we were able to join the club. Chess became a big part of my life for many years. It once even got me a job teaching English, but that's another story.

What I hope I'm conveying is that life in finite and too short to spend time doing things that we don't have a passion for. It's also long enough that we can find, loose and find passion for things more than once. But when we do things to please others we seldom learn things very deeply and if we are not careful we can make ourselves miserable. Misery is the enemy of passion. This kind of unhappiness is sapping and soul-destroying. Much better to quit than to continue. In any situation where such feelings are creeping in quitting is essentially a form of medicine. As one old Chinese saying goes, "Of all the stratagems, to know when to quit is the best". Quitting English isn't the same thing a giving up on life. It can be a way of creating space for something new. Fill up our days with what we find mundane and we erode passion. If we can, we should teach children to do better than that.

New Year Resolutions

2010-01-17T14:17:30Z

Did you make any New Year resolutions for this year? If you did, are they still alive, or have they already started to push up daisies in the wayside? I gave up making them long ago, although I often think about them as each New Year rolls around. One thing I do do off and on with my adult students is get them to make weekly or monthly resolutions. There's a page at Wise Hat about it. Basically it's just a way to get students to think about how they could be doing more English at home.

The problem I have with resolutions is that I like to change my mind. For a while now I've been thinking about changing how I approach this blog. When I started it, something just over ten months ago, I decided I was going to make an entry every week, no matter what. Apart from some holidays I more or less did that. I must say that I had hoped for some more feedback. Right now I'm thinking of relating my entries to the amount of feedback I get. I'm wondering about just going for mini entries and only writing long pieces when I get some comments. Life is only so long.

Life is only so long. If I were to make some resolutions for the year then what would they be? Here's my list in no particular order:

Make sure students have real choice in every class.
Get students to make resolutions to improve their English.
Focus on developing passion rather than teaching.
Fade into the background in class.
Forget about results.
Create a range of materials children will want to use at home.
Complete a DIY phonics course.
Get children to know why they are doing English
Help children who are less than ambivalent about English to quit.

What would your list be?

Partied Out

2009-12-20T10:58:15Z

I'm definitely not a party animal. I was quite happy to avoid them when I was young. No big 18th and 21st party bashes for me. Quiet get togethers with families and friends were much more my thing. But it seems that for an English school parties are a must. If any readers out there run small English schools and don't have parties and big events I'd be very interested to hear how you do it, or perhaps I should write, how you don't.

Since stating a school something over four years ago my wife I have experimented with different party formats. We tried the everybody and his dog get it over in one go approach using a local culture centre and the individual class party approach. I'd take the former over the latter (which is a good way to make one week seem like one month) but prefer neither. The style we've settled on is to hold five to six mini parties over one weekend. This allows us to keep the party at home which makes for much easier planning without becoming mind numbingly repetitive.

Though I generally believe in making lesson plans after the lesson is over I like to have parties planned down to the smallest detail possible. In the past I've even done a party by creating a soundtrack and timing events to the position of the BGM. I'd like to be able to write that this is because I consider running a party to be similar to conducting a symphony, but really I suspect it has much more to do with my peace of mind and how best to get through the experience. It's not that I can't enjoy parties but more the fear that the whole thing will either go flat or go mad or both.

I still remember one of the first children's parties in Japan that I helped with. The main teacher organising the party warned us of the "sugar rush" children would have once the fizzy drinks they'd consumed kicked in. It was noticeable though it didn't really uplift the party. One of the main events was pass the parcel and it seemed the main objective to the game was to absorb as much time as possible. The parcel had so much sticky tape on it an army of wolverines couldn't have got it open. The children kept at it but I remember thinking at the time that there must be something more fun. I also made a mental note never to offer children drinks with sugary bubbles.

Having said this it can sometimes be difficult to predict what will work and what won't. One of the difficulties with holding parties in a trailer home is that there isn't much room to move around. Most of the games we do are therefore stationary. This year we tried using The Twelve Days of Christmas. The idea was to have the children jump up and wave a card for each day. We tried it once or twice during lessons and it worked well. During the classes the children were enthusiastic. At most of the parties the results weren't very inspiring. I can think of two reasons. One is because some parents were present. But the more likely reason, in my mind, is that the cards were two big. During the class we had A5 sized cards but at the parties we had B4 sized ones. The idea was to get a couple of children raising the cards together but in practise this didn't work. Practise would have been required. If I use the idea again I think I will go for miniature cut-outs on chopsticks. It would be more work to prepare but would look a lot better and if each child had more than one kind of cut-out be a genuine challenge. As it was, some children got into raising the big cards high but for too many it was too much like going through the motions.

Anyway, for the record here is a quick run-down of what we did. We always start by raising our glasses (cups usually) to the camera and going cheers. This is followed by a quick photo session with me moving round the room going cheers with individual groups. Parents like to have photos. After that we did either did a group spelling game or a vocabulary naming came depending upon upon the size and English proficiency of the individual party. After that savoury snacks followed by The Twelve Days Of Christmas activity and then a "How many" video activity. You can try it for yourself if you click here. The original idea was for them to have cake while watching the video but in practise assembling the cakes took longer than expected (this year was doughnut Christmas trees). In most parties the cake came after the video so we did DIY Santa while they ate the cake. This involves me showing items from a large bag and the children clapping for those that they want. Some groups were conservative and went for a traditional look. Others were more adventurous. Either way all the children know that it's me. At least I used to think they did. But this year a 3-4 year old sister of one student decided I was Santa before I even got into the costume. And she still thought I was Santa after I had changed back at the end of the party.

The Santa Chris section of the party involves children going into a small grotto in the upstairs loft of the trailer. As I mentioned last week this year we had a door and they gained entry by fetching items of food up a chimney in miniature basket on the end of a rope. At Christmas we always have it so that the children are on camera and I am hidden so the costume change retains some surprise. The video feeds to the big TV downstairs so that parents have something to watch. The chimney and basket provide something for those waiting their turn to do.

After all the children have met Santa upstairs and received a goody bag I come downstairs and we do the present exchange. Since the children have bought presents for each other we get them to present them to each other if giver and receiver are in the same party, otherwise I do the giving. Then it's the goodbye song, final photo opportunity and out the door. Our parties are supposed to last no more than 80 minutes.

Parties for Junior and High school students and for adults are a bit different. For the opening game we used Around The World. This is a simple track of circles around the Earth, A Father Christmas figure starts at the top of the World and moves around it. One compete circuit indicates success. To move the figure students take turns making sentences using a Christmas word drawn at random. For each word in the sentence Father Christmas can go forward one space but after each turn he is sent backwards by the score of one dice (two dice for strong players). The dice represents a bad headwind. After that we ran with a Mrs Witch video quiz. To try the quiz for yourself, follow this link.

Anyway, the parties are almost done for third year and so am I. I'll be taking a break until the new year. Have a happy one...

Christmas Reverie

2009-12-13T00:20:33Z

If we can get past the raging parties and frantic shopping Christmas can often be a time for nostalgia and reflection. Was the carol "Silent Night" first played on guitar because the church organ had broken down or was it originally arranged that way? Either way it was far removed from the hustle and bustle that pursues us at this time of year.

When I think about my first Christmas in Japan I remember that what still haunts me is the incessant sound of Christmas musik. The k is deliberate. It stands for kill. Everywhere I went it seemed there was no escape from Frosty The Snowman and Suzy Snowflake. I was near to near to going crazy. It was partly as a defence and partly as a joke that I began making Black Christmas tapes for my sister. She had been in Japan for a year and returned to England before I arrived. The tapes combined Christmas music counterpointed with anything I deemed appropriate - from horror themes like that from Psycho to bits from Bill Laswell and the Last Poets. Over the years I began running out of material and began creating my own. My sister was forgiving. I think there's even a video of her somewhere dancing with her children to Bring Me Santa Rap which I made for a very early homework tape (I used to make ten minutes tapes for children every week. Now they get sporadic DVD's without homework). The rap was also used to remind children of the dialogue of a very simple game. Players would sit in a circle and one of them would don a Santa hat. Santa would ask the player on "his" left to get an item of food. The food was at the end of the room. When the player returned with the item Santa would pretend to eat it and then put it in a bag before passing the hat and bag to the newly returned player who would become the next Santa. If Santa asked for something that had gone or was not available the player would shout back, "No [item]" and Santa would ask for something else. The aim was to gather as many items as possible within a time limit. Rather than using a timer a lively piece of Christmas works better.

This is one of my early non-competitive games that I am still happy to use. The only downside is that it could do with more interaction for the players sitting in the circle waiting a turn. One idea that's just come to me as I type this is for players to keep passing the bag and then the new Santa could be the player holding the bag when the food item was brought back. Players could then practise different dialogue while passing the bag: "Here you are", "Take this", "Is this yours ?" etc. Alternatively, the current Santa could "drill" the others in the circle by making sentences for them to repeat, "We have a banana!", "We don't have a pear!" etc.

Another Christmas game that works fairly well is Tree Decorating. It can be done with either a real tree and real ornaments or a paper tree stuck to a magnetic board and magnetic ornaments (cardboard cut outs with a magnetic strip stuck on the back). The teacher (or a player) takes charge of the decorations and the other players line up. The teacher asks the first player what they want and the player names a decoration. The teacher gives the item to the second in line saying, "He/She wants a [item name]" (for young ones you can say "[Name] wants this/these"). The item is then passed down the line with players repeating the phrase. The first player runs to the back of the line to receive the item and then goes to place it on the tree. The whole line moves up one and the process is repeated. This game was an early attempt to help children distinguish between "Give me" and "I want".

Looking back to my first Christmas party in Japan I realise that the games I used were all competitive. I was teaching adults at that time but even so it now strikes me as odd. Surely the idea of a competitive Christmas should be an oxymoron? One thing I did do though was move away from giving winning teams prizes. It was decided that rather than have lots of cheap nasty prizes that the budget allowed it was better to have a handful of more attractive items. The solution was to give people raffle tickets in the form of numbered chocolates. At the end of the evening we had a prize draw. The more candies a participant had the greater the chance of winning a prize. But since everyone got at least one chocolate everyone had a chance as long as they didn't eat their ticket. The chocolates also allowed us to use a Pavlovian technique of boosting atmosphere. I could move round the room mingling and call out the occasional "Merry...". The first person to respond with "Christmas!" could earn a chocolate. One image that still remains strong for me many years later is from my second Christmas party in Japan that was based on the theme of Dick Whittington. Part of the entertainment was a version of the story. At the beginning of the party we gave everyone a pair of rat ears. Instead of chocolates we had numbered cheese balls and we arranged so that when we rang a bell the first person onto our mock stage got one. At first people were a little slow on the uptake but then suddenly people got it and one time we rang the bell we had about fifteen people jump up on the stage all at once their eyes full of expectation and their hands out for cheese!

It's been a number of years since I've done a large party for either adults or children. Regardless of the size I still prefer starting with a theme and arranging games and activities around it. Having said this, we don't really have a theme this year. We are reversing the usual idea of having Santa coming down the chimney. Instead, since we are in a trailer home we are sending objects up the chimney. Children will take turns visiting a grotto (a decorated area of our loft) to be interviewed by "Father Chris-mas". To gain entrance they will need to get an item of food sent up a cardboard chimney using a pulley. Thus a variation on the old game described above. "Father Chris-mas" will be myself dressed up according to selections made by the children during the party. This kind of DIY Santa is the only way I am willing to have a Father Christmas (I'm from England) at all. It avoids any kind of trickery and is just plain funnier. I usually try to encourage the children to avoid choosing a beard (because of the discomfort from heat) and go for oversized bowties or glasses. I often end up with all three, but I feel it's worth it. We arrange the grotto so that the children are on camera and I am hidden until I make a final entrance and dish out the presents that the children have bought for each other. Santa the charlatan?

it was Angela Ota at Angel English who introduced me to the idea of a personal present exchange. Rather than have a random pass the parcels type affair Angela gets her students to fill out age appropriate questionnaires. Students draw these from a hat and buy a present for the person whose paper they get. It's a little tricky to organise with children and you need to collect presents in advance of the real party to make time for those who accidentally leave presents at home, but it is much closer to the real spirit of Christmas.

During the First World War in 1914 there was a Christmas Truce and British and German troops sang Christmas Carols to each other and even exchanged gifts. The next year the French got involved. The High Command on both sides were fearful. Artillery bombardments were ordered for Christmas eve so that there could be no silent night . On no account could peace be allowed to prevail. Fast forward to today and not so much has changed. I wonder if there is a link between the use of competitive games in school and the general acquiescence we seem to have towards fighting wars when our leaders decide it should be so. I wouldn't be surprised.

Feedback Fallacies

2009-12-06T12:20:45Z

One of the presuppositions of NLP is that when communicating, the response received indicates the message that was sent. Meaning that the meaning of the communication is in the response that comes back. So, for example, if you try to help a child and the child gets angry then that is a good sign that the child feels you were talking down to them, or treating them like a child when they wanted to be treated as an independent human being.

I receive very few messages about the stuff I write here so I guess that means I'm not hitting the mark, or perhaps not hitting the mark enough. It could also mean that I'm writing in a vacuum and very few people are actually reading this at all. I could do with finding out some statistics about the this site and my pages in particular. But I guess I'm guilty of too much pontification and not enough pork. This week will be no different! Christmas is coming. The goose may be getting fat but it's also getting frantic and frayed at the edges. Too much to do and too little time to do it in.

Any way, if you feel that recently this blog has been substance light then have a look here. The link will direct you to a report I wrote on my recent excursion to Osaka as one of the two guest speakers for the 2009 Kansai ETJ expo. Apart from the report there are several complete activities and games that can be downloaded. There are even some written rules!

Burt actually, this week I wanted to pen a few words about the Kansai guest speaker presentation given by Kim Horne. This was a powerful, energetic wonderful presentation packed with information that somehow left me feeling apprehensive and queasy.

Kim spoke on Brain Rules and Power Teaching in the Classroom. She presented three rules and gave attendees some tools to activate the rules. The three rules are:

Exercise boosts brain power

Repeat to remember, remember to repeat

The brain craves excitement

I agree with these rules, especially the first and the third and I hope to examine them in more detail at a later date but right now I want to focus upon one of the tools that Kim presented which was a scoring system.

The system was simple enough. It consisted of a table with two rows. One with a smiley face and one with an unsmiley one (at least that's how I remember it. Neither my memory nor my eyesight are what they were even a few months ago. So if you are reading this and saw it differently please let me know.

The idea is simple. At the end of each activity the teacher rates the overall performance, participation, and sheer energy of the class during the activity and either gives them a smiley point or an unsmiley one. The class are then supposed to respond accordingly. This might be a mighty cheer or dramatic sighs of desperation or even two catchphrase linked to a particular theme. In the presentation Kim showed us two for a pirate theme.

The aim of the points is to give the children - kindergarten and elementary ages being the recipients - feedback. The idea is to encourage them to think about what they did well and conversely what they could do better if they miss a smiley point. However, even during the presentation I felt perturbed. I could hear a sinister little whisper at the back of my mind, "test!"

This may partly have been because I was feeling severely tested by the TPR Kim was throwing at us. I think TPR is a powerful tool and I'm always wondering how to incorporate more of it in my own classes but it seemed Kim had a gesture for everything and there was too much for me to take in.

I actually like words, and for me gestures can easily get in the way! One thing I raised with Kim after the presentation was that I like to mix and match when it comes to gestures. Some things, for example prepositions I think it is useful to have shared gestures but for others, especially anything to do with expressing their own feelings I think it is better for children to come up with their own gestures. Of course this means having a classroom culture that encourages gestures, otherwise children will likely come up with nothing. So from this point of view spending time getting children to learn gestures that help with metacognition is time well spent, as long as the children don't feel overwhelmed.

One of the downsides of the ETJ expo presentations is that they are only 45 minutes long. Invariably presenters need to rush at breakneck speed. A little bit more time would allow a little bit more reflection. as it was I personally couldn't keep pace with the number of gestures and chants Kim was showering us with. Now I think showering children with meaningful English is a very useful way of getting them to acquire English rather than learn (study) it. The younger the child the more useful showering is, but the older the more one has to be careful with overload. Overload turns a shower into a flashflood which can wash away confidence and motivation in an instant.

So for me, the number of gestures were too much, especially with the scoreboard on the board. I felt there was too much pressure for me to get it right rather than enjoy the process for its own sake. Probably, people who are more comfortable with gestures wouldn't have felt this way, but now a week later I am sensing it just as clearly. Rather than feedback I felt the scoreboard was grading our performance. It was clear that it was meant to be a tool for enlightenment rather than one for ranking and control but I felt it belonged to the teacher rather than to the class. It is as if the teacher is some mighty Roman Emperor at the circus deciding whether to allow the defeated gladiator to live or to die. In my mind it would make more sense if the students could assess each activity themselves, but something a little bit more sophisticated than a thumbs up or thumbs down approach would be required.

I think there is a vast difference between feedback and ranking, even if the ranking is applied to the class as a whole. I think the best way to give feedback is to simply make observations, to describe in detail what one has seen. There's an interesting YouTube video that makes a similar point about the dangers of praising children. Of course, one of the difficulties of detailed description is how to do it and remain in English and be understandable. Otherwise one's feedback becomes a test of understanding which then defeats the very purpose of giving the kind of feedback I am suggesting in the first place. When and how to use mother tongue is a whole other mess of worms. But for now I'll conclude by saying that finding tools that allow children (or adults too for that matter) to notice things about what and how they are learning is very important. If you know of any please let me know. A score board may be better than nothing but I am very doubtful. There must be something better, out there, somewhere.

CALP vs BICS part three

2009-11-29T13:55:18Z

One of my adult students went to see 2012 this week. I've no idea why. From the TV trailers I've had the misfortune to come across, it appears to be little more than an epidemic of CGI. My student told me that the plot involves the super rich trying to save themselves from impending cataclysm by building arks in the Himalayas. Tickets from one billion euros apiece. The story is supposed to be based upon the Mayan prophecies but is probably further away from them than a goose with a club foot is from reaching Mars.

What's this got to do with cognitive academic language proficiency and basic interpersonal communicative skills? Nothing much except that I question the usefulness (and by implication the legitimacy) of a lot of academic work, especially a lot of the stuff done in regular school. It seems to be more about social conditioning (accept a hierarchical society and obeying superiors) rather than learning. I also have sympathy with the argument that much high level academic work is designed as a distraction from real issues. As the conclusion to the Adrian Mitchell poem I mentioned last week goes:

Finally I was given the Chair of Comparative Ambiguity
At Armpit University, Java.
It didn't keep me busy,
But it kept me quiet.
It seemed like poetry had been safely tucked up for the
night.

For me school seems to be about tucking up certain kinds of thinking by requiring certain kinds of skills. I don't mean to suggest that there is some kind of conspiracy as in 2012. Most teachers work very hard and have genuine interest in their students, not just as students but as people. But genuine interest doesn't preclude the possibility of the conditioning I am jabbering about.

When I heard the basic storyline of 2012 the thing that immediately struck me was not the outrageousness of having one billion Euro tickets to buy a seat on a lifeboat but more the notion that a political and economic system that allows such fast differences in wealth and power can in anyway be legitimate. Even Plato with his gold, silver and bronze citizens questioned any society in which the richest had more than four times the wealth of the poorest. What's the difference today?

Is it possible that issues about class, wealth and power could be raised in the classroom in a meaningful way? The tighter the curriculum the less the possibility. But even if such issues were raised what practical difference would it make when the day to day experience of school, the very structure itself, belies the possibility of alternatives.

So when I was confronted with the little girl who couldn't win I kept looking for activities she could win at. This missed the real problem, which was the structure of my lessons themselves. I used games but they were all competitive. Once I began introducing co-operative activities the lesson structure began changing. The lessons became more enjoyable for all. The little girl was no longer excluded by her lack of ability.

Last week I advocated teaching and I questioned teaching. One can square both by examining the conditions under which teaching takes place. I think as a bare minimum our students should have the choice as to whether to be taught or not. But even if this is the case we still need to look at the structure of the situation and also at what we are teaching.

Last week I mentioned that the unpleasant boy had been trained to play chess aggressively and without respect. Winning was everything but as it happened he had more book knowledge than experience and understanding of the game. I clawed my way back into the game and won it. Afterwards we examined the game and as we went through the moves he kept complaining that I should have resigned. Eventually I lost patience with him and simply said, "But I won." Later, however, as I was wandering around the conference hall I saw him with a man. The man might have been his trainer or maybe his father. Either way, the man was doing everything but physically hit the boy. Such was his anger. Suddenly I realised that the reason the boy had been so unpleasant was fear. He feared what would happen if he lost. I'd like to be able to write that I strode over to the man and gave him an experience that would cause him to reflect and change his outlook and perhaps behaviour. But I didn't. I didn't even try. I guess I'm trying now.

CALP vs BICS part two

2009-11-22T13:30:45Z

Last week I attempted to split two stories and in doing so avoided talking about my theme BICS and CALPS. So this time I'm going to get right to it. Though they sound like haircare products BICS and CALP are supposedly, or perhaps I should write inherently, two different forms of language. BICS being basic interpersonal communicative skills and CALP cognitive academic language proficiency. Just as the definition of the acronym NLP left Andrew Wright with a sour taste in his mouth, so go these two with me. Sometimes I wonder how much of academic language is really required? But then the question that immediately springs to mind is, required to do what? Is the purpose of academic language to increase understanding and advance knowledge or is it self serving? Is the purpose perhaps bound up with social hierarchy and control? Or perhaps it is all about confusing and hiding meaning? Lines from Adrian Mitchell's The Oxford Hysteria of English Poetry spring to mind:

Under the Normans the language began to clear,
Became a pleasure to write in,
Yes, write in, by now everyone was starting
To write down poems.

Well, it saved memorizing and improvizing
And the peasants couldn't get hold of it.

Is modern academic language similar in function to the medieval guild? Though perhaps guilds were socially more useful. Anyway, when I come across this kind of choking language two thoughts spring to my mind. One is George Orwell's essay Politics and the English Language. I first read it when I was 13 and I still reread it from time to time. The other is to get my breath back by putting the language into words that make sense to me. So let's see - basic interpersonal communicative skills - that could be conversation, cognitive academic language proficiency, that could be, pedantry, no, no, studying.

Is there a difference between the language required for daily conversation and that for academic performance? Surely, that goes without saying? But to be fair to Professor Cummins, who came up with the acronyms I've been dissing, what he wanted to warn about was not assuming that just because students are socially fluent that means they will be academically fluent. The skills required are different, with academia being more demanding. Well, yes.

All this is more the concern of those working with students learning English as a second language rather than those learning it as a foreign language. I work mainly with Japanese children and many have enough trouble retaining basic language never mind academic learning. But perhaps that's because I focus too much upon teaching them to learn language rather than enabling them to acquire it. I guess what I mean is that the most humanistic way to teach is not to teach at all. I think that If we can engage children in English so that they have an emotional attachment to English then they will be able to acquire English without needing to learn it. For example, music is a popular tool for language teachers because of its impact. If we want children to learn the days of the week using a chant or a song will be more effective than a dry parroting of the words. But the question still remains, why would children want to learn the days of the week in a foreign language?

One immediate answer, is why wouldn't they? Children seem to have an almost infinite, inexhaustible curiosity. That is, if they haven't been over-schooled. I seem to remember learning Frere Jacques in French long before I ever knew of Brother John in English. Having said this, I never knew what the French meant, it was the sound and melody alone that was attractive. So, at least for children, acquiring words of a foreign language doesn't necessarily mean acquiring meaning. Does this mean that teaching meaning is necessary after all?

I seem to be weaving more threads with this entry than I can handle. Combined with last week what have we got? A little girl failed by competitive games; a little boy trained to win by all means (I didn't mention the training last week. I just slipped it in now); a teaching technique (split stories); advice to avoid teaching; advice to keep teaching; language learning, language acquisition; emotional attachment; meaning and understanding. I'm getting a headache! I need some time to pull this altogether. Where did I put my hat? Is there a rabbit in it?

CALP vs BICS

2009-11-15T11:19:58Z

Once upon a time, recently in fact, the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language Young Learners And Teenagers Special Interest Group had a field discussion about storytelling led by Andrew Wright. The discussion was deep and diverse but what a mouthful that opening sentence was! Are there certain kinds of words, certain strings and phrases that have no business in a story - are unstorylike, unstoryable, I mean unusable in stories - or does it all just depend upon the skill of the teller, the audience and the relationship between them?

One of the threads that developed was about NLP. Andrew was angered by the term and pointed out that the words it stood for Neuro Linguistic Programming were designed to be just as intimidating. He suggested that NLP was little more than dressed up common sense. This drew forth a response from me that I am going to use in full:

Hi Andrew,

While I agree with you about the name, I think NLP is a bit more than collected common sense, it's more processed, refined, distilled. Having been on an NLP course I wouldn't say that tying a knot in one's hanky is REALLY anchoring or fitting in with others is ACTUALLY mirroring. At the very least mirroring would involve copying a person's posture, breathing, language, tone etc. A lot of stuff on the web about NLP is horrible so it takes perseverance to find clear useful information. By chance I came across a page describing Anchoring the other day that I bookmarked. Here's the link:

http://www.whitedovebooks.co.uk/nlp/anchoring.htm

One thing NLP is ABOUT is learning techniques to control and CHANGE one's mental state. It's about the senses. It's about thinking. A lot of us prefer thinking in pictures. Some of us prefer sound, Some of us use feelings, some of use words. Most of us can do them all but we have a preferred method. What this means is that if we want to get an idea across we need to present it in different ways. This is similar to Gardener's multiple intelligences idea.

NLP is based on suppositions. For example, the idea that if one person can do something then anyone can do the same thing. It's just a matter of finding out exactly how the something was done. Another is...

Eek.. this is getting long! If anyone wants me to write more about NLP please let me know. For now I'll finish by mentioning a technique I learnt on that NLP course which is split stories. I often use split stories when I present. The idea is to start with a story and break at some point. This usually gets people curious and attentive. Splitting a story can make it more powerful and also help people to reflect upon what they have just learned and experienced. In The Arabian Nights tales Scheherazade uses split stories to save her life and reform a king.

Best wishes,

Chris (Hunt)
www.wisehat.com

Andrew then asked me about split stories and I started on a reply but day-to-day work took me away from finishing it. Now, with cold trying to take camp in my body I'm taking the liberty of finishing it and using it here:

Hi Andrew,

I doubt splitting stories is unique to NLP and didn't mean to suggest that it was. To show you what I mean here is one I use when I was presenting about using games to teach English. I used "The Cancer Of Competition"as my title but one time I was asked to change it on the grounds that it was negative. Though it's less the case nowadays, often when teachers think of games, they think of competitive ones without even realising that there are alternatives. My presentation was about the alternatives, non-competitive games and co-operative games. My opening story usually went something like this:

"Hello, I like games and I like stories. Here's a true one. I learnt to play chess at the age of 4. I once got asked if I'd ever considered turning professional and sometimes I wonder what could have happened if I'd ever had a proper teacher when I was young. Anyway, I've been making games longer than I can remember. I used to save up my pocket-money, such as it was, and think about which game in the shop window I'd buy once I'd saved enough. Sometimes I'd try to figure out the rules of a game from looking at the pieces and I'd try making my own version. After a while I noticed that the games I made myself were often more interesting than the ones I bought. Anyway, when I started teaching English I immediately thought of using games. The games I used were competitive because I didn't know of any other kind. They worked OK until one day I had a class with a little girl in it who just never won anything. Whatever kind of game I tried be it language game, or physical game or both she always lost. The other children never complained at her or ridiculed her but I still felt sorry for her. Sometimes I'd try giving her a helping hand but she hated that kind of cheating. I wanted to do something. I started thinking about what I was observing and then I got hold of "No Contest" by Alfie Kohn and that was a revelation.

Alfie Kohn defined competition as MEGA. I'll write it on the board. I promise it's the only bit of jargon I'll use today. MEGA stands for mutually exclusive goal attainment which has several implications. It means that if I win you lose. It also means that if I can make you lose I win. Not very friendly! Anyway, I told you I used to play chess? One time while at college I was in a chess tournament and in the first round I had to play a young boy. He was about 10 years old. After a few moves I came up with an idea, a new move I had never seen before. I decided to try it. This boy looked at the board for a while and then sacrificed his Queen. He forced check mate in just eleven moves. My new move led to a forced lost and the boy had found it! That's my shortest loss ever, but he was a nice boy and we had a friendly talk after the game. A bit later on, maybe round 4, I played another boy the same age. He was totally different. He lounged at the board. He sneered. He banged out his moves aggressively. I tried to be nice and offered to buy him a drink. He ordered cola and somehow managed to sip it contemptuously. He had some book knowledge and he caught me in an opening trap. Before long my position was totally lost. I could easily have resigned but there are times when you just don't want to give up, when you just want to win. So now here's a questionnaire all about games that I'd like you to fill out...

I hope that shows the idea. Start a story that has relevance to the topic at hand and at some point, hopefully when the audience is drawn in break the story and go onto something else. This way when you return to the story later it has more resonance. The story is a hook to draw learners to look at something important to the teacher. It's more than a bookend and it's more than a sandwich. It helps the learners. The story helps shape and deepen the more formal learning experience. What do you think? Does this make any sense?

Best wishes, Chris

What about BICS vs CALP? That will have to wait until next time. It's not another story but rather emeshed in this one. If you can't wait and why should you, you can read about it here and here. What's that? You couldn't care less about the acronyms. They give you indigestion? You want to hear about the little girl and the horrible boy? In my story they need you to know about BICS and CALP.

The Lion Game

2009-11-08T11:17:37Z

The Lion Game is/was one of my early attempts at making a non-competitive game. I'm not going to recreate it here. You can follow the link if you would like to know how it works. It features an idea that is interesting but flawed. The idea of the Lion Game was to help a baby explorer escape from four coloured lions. It featured two special dice. The idea was to ask a question or set some simple task. If the students got the right answer they got the "good dice" which favoured the explorer. If they got answer wrong or failed to do the task they got the "bad dice" which favoured the lions. As I write this I'm finding it hard not to wince.

The game is in effect nothing more than a glorified test - a test with gamy bits tacked on. Anyone who has read more than a little of the stuff I've written will know that I abhor testing. I think language acquisition requires an open, playful, curious, energetic frame of mind. This is far, far removed from notions of right and wrong. The more we start focusing on getting a result, getting the answer right, the more we are making learning mechanical. The more we are making it hard work.

The Lion Game tries to avoid competition by putting all the players on the same side. But the way it did so was artificial. When I used it, some children, usually boys, would want the lions to catch the baby. They could even end up deliberately getting questions wrong so as to get the lion dice. This could be mitigated by allowing players who got an answer correct to choose the dice. The teacher could then give the unwanted dice to the players if the y made a mistake. This restored the game balance but did nothing to remove the focus from the idea of getting the right answer.

I think the idea of getting the right answer is fairly common with Language games. If language is the focus of the game then it can be unavoidable. Consider a simple race track made out of flashcards. Players roll a dice and advance a marker (or markers if they are competing against each other) to a new space. Failure to identify the flashcard or create an acceptable sentence using it sends the marker back to where it came. It can be argued that the desire to win the game will spur players to greater efforts. I'm not convinced. It may for some players. Though for others getting it wrong may lead to an erosion of confidence. But perhaps my greater concern is that it reinforces what I think is a negative unhealthy way of thinking. It engenders a lack of compassion. Or this notion of right and wrong and mistakes and errors is unjoyful. I'm struggling with words here.

I do think there is a difference between punishing or penalising mistakes and requiring correct answers. For example, with the race track game one could require a player to name a number of cards matching the dice roll. The player would advance as far as the dice roll indicated or until the player couldn't name a card. This would turn the focus a little bit more upon what the player knew rather than picking at the mistake or lack of knowledge. It still doesn't do much for the spirit.

I'm sure I'll be struggling to express what I'm getting at again but what I really wanted to focus on with this post was the idea of using different dice. Somewhere in the back of my mind is a game using several dice where an important part of the game strategy is deciding which dice to use depending upon the game situation. There's a nice little article about unusual dice here. The games I make often rely on special dice to make them work. Making them can be a nuisance. One way of avoiding the trouble can be to use a table and assign results to the number rolled. Results can be presented in words or as pictures. If the words or pictures are on cards then the table can be altered as the game goes on. This idea has just popped into my head. I feel a new game coming on.

Clear The Table

2009-11-01T12:04:20Z

The Internet is a fickle place. I just found out today that Yahoo have closed Geocities. That shows how little notice I've been taking as Yahoo announced the decision back on April 29th. What I do know is that some of my early work was housed on at least one GeoCities site. If I'd been paying attention I could have rescued it. I have been able to find some pages using the Internet Archive. Here's one I've found: Clear The Table

As it happens I also found a version of the original text I wrote buried in an old folder on my computer last accessed in 2001. Here's the text as I first wrote it:

This is a game for small groups. First, assign the letters of the alphabet, some to each player. One way is to give each player a master flashcard. For example, a player with 'CAT' would have the letters C, A, and T. It's not strictly necessary to assign all the letters of the alphabet. Also it doesn't matter if some players have the same letters. I have some little plastic stands so that a player's own card and the cards used in play don't get confused. Each player keeps their master card standing upright using a stand. Bulldog clips can be used for this purpose. To play the game put some flashcards on the table. The object of the game is to clear the table. One player begins by asking for a card from the table. The one who finds the card gives it to the player. Play moves clockwise around the group. The catch is that a player may only ask for a card which contains at least one of his or her letters. So the player looking after C, A, and T could ask for 'bacon' or 'tiger' or 'hamster' but not for, say, 'dog' or 'monkey'. Can the group take all the cards from the table without making any mistakes and without forcing a player to miss a turn? If the group can't clear the table - how many cards can they get? For extra pressure put a time limit on them. The less letters each player has the more difficult the game is. Obviously the kind of flashcards used will also alter the degree of challenge. The easiest kind are the ones which have the word and picture on the same side. More difficult are the cards which have pictures on one side and words on the other. With the picture card face up and the word face down the players will need to remember the spelling.

I've never played this game.

Even now, knocking-on ten years later I've hardly used this game. I'm not sure why. I know at one time I was working it into a whole theme involving stopping a monarch butterfly from eating genetically modified corn. I even went as far as creating a sound loop to use a timer. I think the idea of the game was that the butterfly moved every time one player couldn't go. Perhaps there was some mechanism for adding cards back to the table but I have no record. Not only is the internet fickle but so is the digital world in general. I don't know how much data I've lost to hard drive failures over the years. If you can't hold a copy in your hand is your data really real? What was it that Shelley wrote? Arh, yes:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Or as Kurt Vonnegut put it, "So it goes"