Today was the first day of school with the whole class. I had a fun time dropping hints about the game for the grade 6 students... talked about it in small chunks with the 7s and 8s; had them explain it a little; told them about who would have received points if we had started. Stuff like that! By the time I got into the details near the end of the day, they were very interested. The 7s and 8s seem really on board to play it again. This is the first time I've ever announced that we are repeating an activity and had no complaints! I know there will be a student or two that don't especially care about the game, but none are disappointed that it's back. That alone is pretty cool.
I'm trying something new this year. In previous years, I've divided the class into groups based solely on where they are sitting at the start of the year. I've used those groups on rare occasions when we have played games in class. This year, I had them form their own groups, called them guilds, and gave them a table "base" to start off the year with. I did this at the end of the day, after ice breaker activities and after the new grade 6 students were less intimidated. The groups are mostly balances between the three grades, bit having only 5 grade 8s made it hard. I had to choose between having the groups fully balanced or splitting up friends. I chose to allow the friends to stay together because I know my grade 8 girls have difficulty in making new friends, but I don't think that would be my usual approach. With the guilds, they will be able to exchange for prizes as a guild and earn points for speaking French as a guild. This will make it a lot easier to get the good group prizes, as there were always one or two students who would spoil the chances for the entire class. The students who are most often caught speaking English have group themselves together in their guild, so I think it will be a stronger motivator for them to see the other guilds succeeding as a team and want to encourage each other to do the same. They are competitive and gamers, so hopefully this will encourage them more.
I'm trying something new this year. In previous years, I've divided the class into groups based solely on where they are sitting at the start of the year. I've used those groups on rare occasions when we have played games in class. This year, I had them form their own groups, called them guilds, and gave them a table "base" to start off the year with. I did this at the end of the day, after ice breaker activities and after the new grade 6 students were less intimidated. The groups are mostly balances between the three grades, bit having only 5 grade 8s made it hard. I had to choose between having the groups fully balanced or splitting up friends. I chose to allow the friends to stay together because I know my grade 8 girls have difficulty in making new friends, but I don't think that would be my usual approach. With the guilds, they will be able to exchange for prizes as a guild and earn points for speaking French as a guild. This will make it a lot easier to get the good group prizes, as there were always one or two students who would spoil the chances for the entire class. The students who are most often caught speaking English have group themselves together in their guild, so I think it will be a stronger motivator for them to see the other guilds succeeding as a team and want to encourage each other to do the same. They are competitive and gamers, so hopefully this will encourage them more.
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