Just Dance

This week our task was to create a games based context using a game that we were all familar for a class of p6 children. We had a choose a game and pick out the different learning areas that could be covered from the features and themes of the game this could include literacy, maths, expressive arts and social studies. Games based contexts also link to the principles of the Curriculum for Excellence such as challenge and enjoyment, relevance and breadth and depth.


We chose to base our context around the game Just Dance for the Wii. We thought this would be a good choice as most of us had played the game before and felt it was a game which would encourage collaboration as more than one child could play the game at once and also had a keep fit element to it. 
We chose to do two activites with the children. Our first activity was allowing them to play the game. They divided themselves into 2 groups of four and while one group were playing the game the other group would be doing the 2nd activity. The 2nd activity was to design a poster to advertise their dance crew using the game as inspiration. We gave the children a list of criterias that should be included in their posters for example name of crew, venue, cost of tickets, logo, bright and eye-catching.

Evaluation


The whole class was divided into three equal groups and spent time at each context. The majority of the children had games consoles at home and had played a wide variety of games including Just dance. It was very interesting to observe how each group responded to to the game and poster activity. I felt that the majority of children engaged with the game and really seemed to enjoy playing it. Before we began I was a little apprehensive in our choice of game thinking it may appeal more to the girls than the boys. However I was surprised how engaged and enthusiastic the boys were towards playing the game. There were a couple of boys that did not want to participate in the game but they were able to complete the poster activity and watch their peers play the game. In future I would perhaps ensure when choosing a game it would suit both girls and boys equally which would be made easier as if I were doing this with my own class I would know the children and be able to make a choice based on what I thought they would all enjoy. At the of the session we asked the children what they had enjoyed about the game or what they would change if we did it again and they said; that the all enjoyed playing the game  but that next time there could be two consoles so that they could all play the game at the same time. There could of been a choice of games and that they wished that they had had longer to play.

In relation to the second activity I felt that not all the children were fully engaged and some were distracted by the other group playing the game. Many of the children struggled to think of names for their dance crew and so in future I would perhaps have a sheet of example names that they could use. Another issue was time by the time we had explained the activities to the children each group only had 15 minutes to do each activity. This was not so much a problem with the game but it was when designing the poster. Just as the children were getting into the activity it was time to stop. The children were able to take the poster back to school with them and finish it at a later date. This made realise the importance of ensuring you plan enough time for activities to be completed. The feedback we got from the children was that they had enjoyed the poster activity but next time we could perhaps have an activity where they have to make up their own dance routine and perform it to the rest of the class.


Overall this was a great experience and I feel our context worked well. Although there are a few areas I would change next time based on what I observed and the feedback from the children I feel that they got alot out of the context. This experience has also made me think of the behaviour management and organisation side of creating a game based context. For this context there were five of us and only 8 pupils but in a class there would only be one of me and up to 33 pupils. This is something I would definatly need to think about when planning a context like this to ensure every child gets an equal turn of playing the game, ensure that the children not playing the game are not distracted from their work and ensure the behaviour of the class are appropriate.


At the end the children were asked what games they would like to see used in school and some of their suggestions were Piggy Panic, Need for Speed and Fifa. (Need to ensure they are both age and stage appropriate)