Techin our Multicultural Games Unit

Kerry Dyke, our fellow Middle School teacher has been implementing a great unit on Multicultural games for a number of years here at International School Bangkok. I am pretty fired up to build on this unit and take it into the 21st century.

Here's my project sketch for our intercultural games unit:

Students currently partake in a very short unit which requires them to research and present a game from their culture. The unit begins by the teacher demonstrating some games from a variety of cultures to inspire the students to find games from their own culture. Students research a game from their own culture for homework, then are assigned to teach this game to their peers. They are also required to hand in a one page overview of their teaching plan and overview of the game.

The problem with the unit is that it currently gets 'squeezed' within other units. It needs to be more substantial, especially given that developing intercultural understanding is one of the key areas of the ISB vision. This project creates authentic learning experiences for children from a wide range of cultures, directly developing intercultural understanding. By 'Techin' this project it should give it more worth by expanding it's length, creating better opportunities for children to collaborate together online, and by forming a platform in which students from ISB can work with students in other schools.

Students will be peered up with someone from either their own culture or another culture. In peers they will research a physically active game unique to their or another culture. They will work on a wiki together to create a page which explains the game, includes pictures and the basic rules of the game and explains the games unique features relevant to their culture. They will also plan a short teaching lesson which they will be expected to deliver to their peers. The class will be divided in half for each teaching session to make the teaching itself less daunting.

Students will then deliver this lesson to their peers. The lesson will be recorded on digital video. Students will be expected to work with the recorded video to create a 2-3 minute video which assists explaining the game and shows them teaching. This will be uploaded to You Tube and embedded into their wiki page. The final part of the assessment will require the students to go onto each others sites, watch the videos and complete a small peer assessment task which will be managed through Googledocs. It would also be nice for students to offer feedback (via threads) on the wiki.

The ultimate goal will be to actually do this with students from another school in another country. In the first year of implementation it will be completed with students from ISB to work through 'teething' problems. In the second year the plan will be to join peers together from one school with another so they work in groups of four planning their wiki page and mini lesson together on the wiki. Once planned the peers will deliver the instruction in their own school then each post a video to their wiki. They will then be involved in providing feedback to each other online and completing the peer assessment through googledocs.

The most relevant links to the NETS are as follows:

2. Communication and Collaboration

Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:

a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments
and media.
c. develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures.

3. Research and Information Fluency

Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students:

b. locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources andmedia.

5. Digital Citizenship

Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students:

b. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.

6. Technology Operations and Concepts

Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. Students:

a. understand and use technology systems.

Pretty exciting aye??!!

If you are reading this from another school and want to join my PE class in this adventure please respond to this post. Please also have a look at the unit plan which I am developing.