Leanna Prater - Can You Create A Game?: Rethinking Student Assessment

1. Leanna Prater Fayette County Public Schools Lexington, KY

2. Our Students

3. Occupational Activities of Children Playing Thinking Learning Seymour Papert Papert, S. (1980). Teaching children thinking. In R. Taylor (Ed.), The computer in school: Tutor, tool, tutee (pp. 161-176). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

4. 21stCentury Skills Needed • think critically • solve problems creatively • innovate • collaborate • communicate Computational Thinking is a skill everyone needs for life and work in the digital age

6. • • • • • • • • • A Story, characters, setting Player Goals Problems to solve Scaffolds Score Animation Rewards Ability to keeping trying Play with a friend or a team

7. • • • • • • • • • • A Story, characters, setting Player Goals Problems to solve Scaffolds Interactive Score Animation Rewards Ability to keeping trying Play with a friend or a team Narrative Writing Calculating Create or Build a Model Performance

9. Previous Work: Children as Game Designers Yasmin Kafai Idit Harel

10. Design Needed to Be…. • Replicable • Fit within time constraints • Cross –curricular • Closely tied to standards • Sustainable

11. Framework: Based on Theory Constructivism Piaget Constructionism Papert Social Constructivism Vygotsky

12. Create a Challenge Using Substitution Model Assess standard with extended response Games have narrative structure, characters, setting, plots Assess standard by asking students to calculate a math problem Games have score Characters move Games could involve a digital model that is interactive, player goal Assess standard by asking students to create a model

14. Constraints Brainstorm and Planning Testing and Debugging (real audience) Reflection

15. CAN YOU CREATE A SCRATCH GAME? Can you make a game with the following conditions? • Correctly use a geosphere and a hydrosphere. • Explain with words or pictures how the geosphere and hydrosphere interact. • Have at least one background change • Character must move within the program • Player can interact with the game. 5-ESS2-1 Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.

16. Brainstorm your game or story: • Think about the systems you will use. • Select backgrounds and sprites to match your systems. • How will players interact with your program? • What is the goal of the game?

17. Create your program on the computer. • Test it out, does it work? • Have a friend play. Did it work for them? If not, why? • Go back and fix your program and try again.

18. Think: How could you have improved your game?

20. The Process

21. Authentic Instruction • • Task – Student Centered, real-world relevant Process- Sustained investigation, multiple interpretation/outcomes Environment- Learning takes place in collaborative groups, over time Teacher - coach/facilitator Product - designed for a real audience Assessment- authentic, integrated, leads to life- long learning. • • • • Callison & Lamb, 2004; Herrington, Oliver, & Reeves, 2003; Lombardi, 2007; Maina, 2004; Renzulli, Gentry, & Reis, 2004; Means & Olson, 1994

22. 3 elementary STEM lab teachers 3 suburban elementary schools Total time with students: 50-55 minute class period 30-35 days a year

23. Diverse Student Populations School 1: Houses Deaf/Hard Hearing Cluster School 2: over 30 different nationalities, 16% ESL School 3: 67% students receive free/reduced lunch • Various Access to Technology • Teachers reported all students came with some game play experience

24. Instructional Design Biological Sciences Curriculum Study http://www.bscs.org/bscs-5e-instructional-model

25. The Work

26. Examples

27. Assessment

28. Score 0 = No Evidence 1 = some evidence 2 = strong evidence Assessment of Learning Targets NOTES Name:___________________________ Date of Target Check_______ Did the student correctly write decimals to the thousandths place? 0 1 2 Did the student correctly use the “>” symbol to compare decimals to the thousandths place? 0 1 2 Did the student correctly use the “<” symbol to compare decimals to the thousandths place? 0 1 2 Did the student correctly use the “=” symbol to compare decimals to the thousandths place? 0 1 2 Did the student correctly read the decimals in the game they created? 0 1 2 Assessment of Game Design Player could not win game by simply guessing 0 1 2 Game incorporated “>“, “<“, and “=“ symbols 0 1 2 Goals and rules of the game were clear 0 1 2 Graphics were appealing and added to the game 0 1 2 Information in the game was accurate 0 1 2 A peer successfully played the game 0 1 2

29. Project Rubric Scale: 0 = not attempted 1= attempted 2= met requirements 3= exceeds requirements Requirements Points Earned Use a control to begin the game Use a code to create a secret word Create a code to allow a player to hear each letter in your secret word or phrase Use “Ask and Answer” to make the game interactive with a player. Total Points

30. What We’re Learning

32. Leveling the Playing Field for Kids

33. Playtesting is important.

34. “Game designers mess up sometimes, and I messed up a couple of times.” “It was our idea completely. So we made it the way we wanted to.” “I did feel like a game designer in a way because you got to make lots of choices on how you wanted it to be.” “I was making something I could play.” Many kids felt like a “game designer”.

35. “Game designers make games for years.” “It is not going to get popular or heard of.” “It was an assignment, not a choice.” “Felt like regular 4thgrade.” Those who didn’t…...

36. Shared Knowledge.

37. Role of the teacher

38. Developing Computational Thinking Skills, Vocabulary and Content

39. Teacher needs for new technologies, including game based learning.

40. “I’ve never felt more valued as an educator.” Intellectual Partnerships

41. Building a Community

42. New York, NY Cambridge, MA

43. Resources Blogs.fcps.net/createagame Leanna Prater Fayette County Schools Dr. Joan Mazur University of KY