Since the beginning of the year, I thought about teaching a unit on the Quebec Winter Carnival, and wanted to wrap up the unit with a mini-carnival for the students. I even ordered expired effigies from the Carnaval website as small prizes. However, the logistics of hosting a carnival for each of my 9 classes, with limited time and resources, was daunting.
Originally, my mind was envisioning things like spending hours creating carnival games myself, enlisting parent volunteers for help, buying bulks upon bulks of materials to make crafts, and rushing each class through the carnival in their 40 to 60 minute block of French time. With limited time and resources, these ideas did not seem feasible or effective.
After speaking with @SandraTice and hearing about how she asked students to create their own games for an Olympic-themed game day, I was inspired. What if students were the ones creating the games, instead of me? What if I gave students reusable materials (and they returned them in original condition) instead of having to buy a set of materials for each class? What if I gave students criteria to create their games, such as teamwork, reviews French, creativity, and engagement? Ah, it was all coming together!
During the carnival, students were divided into groups and each group was given a bag with different reusable materials in it. They had to use the materials they were given to create a carnival game that involved using French in one way or another. Students had as much fun creating the games as they did playing others' games (if not more!).
My takeaway points from this carnival-planning process:
Originally, my mind was envisioning things like spending hours creating carnival games myself, enlisting parent volunteers for help, buying bulks upon bulks of materials to make crafts, and rushing each class through the carnival in their 40 to 60 minute block of French time. With limited time and resources, these ideas did not seem feasible or effective.
After speaking with @SandraTice and hearing about how she asked students to create their own games for an Olympic-themed game day, I was inspired. What if students were the ones creating the games, instead of me? What if I gave students reusable materials (and they returned them in original condition) instead of having to buy a set of materials for each class? What if I gave students criteria to create their games, such as teamwork, reviews French, creativity, and engagement? Ah, it was all coming together!
During the carnival, students were divided into groups and each group was given a bag with different reusable materials in it. They had to use the materials they were given to create a carnival game that involved using French in one way or another. Students had as much fun creating the games as they did playing others' games (if not more!).
My takeaway points from this carnival-planning process:
- Good ideas come through collaboration (Steven Johnson's TED Talk- Where Good Ideas Come From)
- I need to setup learning from my students as creators, not just consumers
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