How might we use storytelling to demonstrate the power of our games to affect change?
Imagine your game as a story -- as someone going through the experiences your game suggests are truths for the people of Franklin County. Write a roughly two to three page narrative in which you use narrative techniques such as subplots, parallel plots, mood, tone and/or multiple themes to illustrate your understanding of people's needs in Franklin County via the gameplay of your Games That Matter design challenge. Your story must also demonstrate effective MUGS and reveal the depth of your empathy work and discovery research into the challenges of Franklin County.
Today we'll be continuing to look more at the reasons why empathy is so important AND read some other perspectives -- reasons why we should be careful about replacing reason and intention with empathy.
Start by reviewing Soul Pancake's empathy "parking ticket experiment" from last class.
Then watch these two videos regarding how we define and think about empathy. You'll be comparing these two and finding the common threads and interesting outliers between them.
This one, from RSA Animates, uses an excerpt from a Brene Brown presentation as its language. It provides an analogy to make sense of the difference between empathy and other feelings -- such as sympathy and pity.
And this one, from LifeHacker, explains why empathy is so important.
In groups of 1, 2 or 3, turn each of those two videos into what we call a literary 3x3: 3, 3-word, sentences that summarize each video. They don't have to be grammatically correct -- they need to be purposeful and meaningful and accurate. Maximize verbs. Minimize helping words.
For example, I might break down the parking ticket experiment video as:
Researcher tests happiness
Fake tickets issued
Empathy sympathy tested
Now, do the same for each of the videos and e-mail your literary 3x3s to both Ms. Audy and me.
This should give you a starter sense of empathy.
NEXT . . . Empathy Caution.
In groups of 1, 2 or 3, select one of the two articles pressing back against a focus on empathy. (Skim each quickly before choosing the one you most want to analyze; you'll be more successful if you've at least chosen a piece that appeals to you in some way.)
Then, work with your group to LEGO the ARTICLE. Design a LEGO model of how that article does its work. What is the case it makes? How does the author build that case? What sort of evidence? Arguments? Points? What do you notice about the author's language?
We want you to think about the writer as a designer, the audience as the user. Break it down.
Then, last step, you have to get on FlipGrid on your own and explain the thinking behind your group's LEGO design. How is that article designed? Provide evidence that you understand the article, the points the author is making AND how the article is designed.
You'll be assessed on both your reading analysis AND your speaking skills, so bring your power game to the work. This is your first reading assessment of the class.
For our first day of class, we did a deep dive right into the world of empathy -- the core principle behind a design thinking mindset.
Over the next semester, we will learn to become design thinkers. This visual is here to help you understand the difference between a design, a design process, and design thinking. It may not make a ton of sense to you here on day one -- and over the course of the semester -- heck, the first quarter -- it will.
We completed a flashlab, which is just a name for a quick, rapid fire design experience.
We'll be tackled this big ol' question: "How might we bring joy to others?" following Mary Cantwell's DEEPdt design process. We'll be using DEEPdt all semester long to practice empathy fueled, human centered problem solving.
Your creative constraints for this challenge: 1 manila folder. 4 paper clips. Tape, scissors, markers, colored pencils
DISCOVER. What brings joy/what takes joy away. EMPATHY. Interview a partner. What brings them joy? What takes their joy away? Ask for a story. EXPERIMENT. Doodle possibilities. Make. Make. Make. PRODUCE. Deliver a prototype. Get feedback. Bask in the joy. Then we watched a video featuring an empathy experiment. (We didn't quite get to the end, so we'll be diving back into the last couple of minutes during Class 2.)
There wasn't any homework to complete for Class 2 -- and there won't be homework every night in this class. You CAN expect one assessment a week -- sometimes it will be a writing piece, other times a recording, a creative product, a presentation, a number of different things.
We will get into semester expectations during Class 3. Ms. Audy and I would like us to focus on the thinking around empathy first -- and THEN dig into the plan for the semester.
Today we'll start a new routine for us: a video, reading, or listening about a current event or issue and a comprehension/critical creativity exercise to explore that understanding.
We're going to review sketchnotes quickly and then take ten minutes to sketchnote this video from the actor, Mahershala Ali, who won a Screen Actors Guild award yesterday for his performance in the film, Moonlight.
How might we capture the essence of what Ali is saying via a combination of word and image? Take pics of your sketchnotes. You'll be putting them up on your class blogs during our station work. We'll have a ten minute or so discussion of his ideas.
STATIONS.
THREE Key Stations Today.
1. Three Songs of Myself. You'll have twenty minutes to complete this work described in this FlipGrid.
2. Blog Set Up. I'll sit with this group and make sure everyone has their class blog set up and has figured out how to post content to their class blog. I'll also help folks get links to their blogs going on the blog tracker. The what? Yup. During that station.
3. Roots 9. The other stations are pretty intense. This one will be a bit more mellow. Roots 9 will simply be digging into the Roots 9 terms on Quizlet (check the links in the sidebar here) and then making sure you're also reviewing Roots 6-9 for the Quiz NEXT WEEK.
SHOW YOUR WORK
Blog. Finish the Songs of Myself work and get it posted on your blog.
We'll start with a fishbowl discussion to explore our empathy and advocacy stations from last week. This will be our first formally assessed listening and speaking experience. We will formulate criteria together that I will use to assess your listening and speaking during the fishbowl.
We will be tying together the short story we read, the stations, and everything else we've done so far into this discussion.
We'll start with watching this video. Be prepared to ask questions about the format at the end of the video. I will be asking you to identify the rules and format established in the video.
Then we'll watch this fantastic video about Caine's Arcade, the mini-documentary that gave rise to Imagination Foundation.
Once you finish your Notice/Wish/Wonder graphic organizer, you can start/finish your advocacy letter. You have two choices.
Write a one page letter in which you ask a teacher, a parent/guardian, a friend, a coach or some other specific individual for help. Explain what it is you need help with, why you need that help, and how specifically that person might help you.
OR
Empathize with an individual struggling with one of the challenges we've explored in class. Adopt that person's point of view and write a letter in which that person asks for help from a teacher, parent/guardian, friend, coach or some other specific individual for help. Explain what it is they need help with, why they need that help, and how specifically that person might help them.
OR
Empathize and advocate for an individual struggling with one of the challenges we've explored in class. Ask one of their teachers, parent/guardians, friends, coaches or another specific individual to help that person. Explain what it is they need help with, why they need that help, and how specifically that person might help them.
ROOTS 2.
Reminder that there is a Roots 2 quiz over Roots 1 and 2 on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Use the quizlets linked in the sidebar to the right to help you study. Use the jenga block creations you made the other day to help you -- ask your friends to send you the pics they took if you don't have them.
Next class, we are making stuff. Next week, we are making stuff. All month of October, we are writing and discussing and reading and making stuff. What? Yes.
Thursday and Friday we experienced a series of stations designed to help us empathize to those with struggles and to learn how to advocate for ourselves and others -- how to bring help and ask for help.
This is a continuation of the work we did with Lawrence Hill's "What Are You, Anyway?" the work with growth and fixed mindset, multiple intelligences, and "Who Am I (Right Now)?"
BTW. Next week we have a Roots 2 Quiz on Wednesday and Thursday. Heads up. It's over BOTH ROOTS 1 & 2.
Here are the stations and some pics from each.
GO & GET.
BUILD A LEGO SET.
ORGANIZE THE INSPIRATION SHELVES
JENGA THE ROOTS
And one class was able to play JUST KEEP TALKING
We debriefed about what we discovered about our challenges, our successes, advocating for others and ourselves. All of this is heading toward our first big design challenge next week around need finding, understanding ourselves and more . . .
We started a empathy & self-advocacy two-day experience in English on Tuesday and Wednesday. Our goal is to build up our capacity for understanding the struggles of others, helping them find solutions, and better understanding our struggles and strategies for asking for help.
That's a lot of commas.
Here's what we've done so far . . .
We started with an anonymous Google Form and gathered up examples of struggles we know folks -- and ourselves -- experience. Here are screenshots of the results.
We conducted a Notice (Observations)/Wish (Reactions)/Wonder (Questions) with this data. Here are a couple of the results from this work.
Mrs. Grohoski then distributed index cards with a struggle on one side and a blank on the other. We made three columns on the blank side: Difficult, Easy, and Help Needed. We tried to get into the POV of someone with that struggle and list tasks that might be difficult, those that might be easy, and help that person might need.
After a minute or two to process on your own, you circulated around the room and gathered input from several folks, adding to the columns.
You then had five minutes to write/record from the point of view of a person with this struggle. Imagine what a typical school day morning is like for this person. Use 1st person point of view ('I got up this morning . . . ) to create a journal/video/audio.
We synthesized that point of view into trying to fill out a scholarship application from the point of view this same character. We did not give you much guidance in filling it out because we want you thinking about what it's like to struggle when you are unsure of an answer -- what do you do? What would this person do? How might they respond to this challenge?
Period 4B managed get into a little jenga block roots 2 activity.
Next class, we will have four new stations, we will be practicing self-advocacy and we will be getting caught up on blogging and putting evidence of learning in our Eng 9 IN folders.
Due Today.
8 Box. Who Am I (At This Moment)
Notice/Wish/Wonder over "So What Are You, Anyway?"
How might we invent solutions to the problems characters in To Kill a Mockingbird face using Little Bits and our maker cart materials?
DISCOVER.
Today we started by breaking into three groups and circulating around the room in a modified Chalk Talk. Everyone had a marker and added to the chart paper asking what sorts of problems the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird are facing. We considered Tom Robinson, Atticus, Jem, Scout and Boo.
Then we chose design teams. People can work by themselves, with a partner or with two partners for this design challenge.
EMPATHY.
Once teams were chosen, we selected the characters for whom we want to invent problem solving solutions.
We used a new tool called the Innovator's Compass to help us wrangle with our challenge. It was created by a rad designer and educator, Ela Ben-Ur, and you can hear her explain it in this video.
We used it on the makerboard to create an example for Scout, since no one in class chose to design for her.
Here's the results of that work.
After completing Innovator's Compass' for each of our characters in our design teams, we ran the design sprint 8 Box protocol. That's where you try to come up with 8 ideas in just four minutes.
I didn't take many pictures at this point because I was trying to help folks out. But here's some rough video I captured.
Tonight's homework follows and it should help you set up for some great experimenting and producing on Wednesday and Friday.
SHOW YOUR THINKING.
8 Box. Put 4 minutes on the clock.
Come up with 8 ideas for invention possibilities that could solve your character's problem.
Time yourself and take a video using your laptop camera or any other device. Submit your video to me on Google Drive in your Eng 9 IN folder.
Take a picture of your 8 Box. Submit that to your folder as well.
Due. Wednesday 5.11.16
Empathy Map.
Use the Empathy Map template to map out what your character is saying and doing and how that relates to what they are thinking and feeling. We've done this all year going back to Of Mice & Men. Same idea. New character. New challenge.
Submit your map to your IN Folder.
Due. Wednesday 5.11.16
Innovator's Compass.
Please take pics of your compass and put them in your IN folder.
Empathy phase abounded with composite users and user mapping.
We created composite users on Wednesday and Thursday and the put them onto a spray chart to better define our core and fringe users.
This was certainly one of our biggest A-HA's above . . . we thought of other contexts where the users who MOST NEED a product those LEAST LIKELY to use it, and those with LEAST NEED are MOST LIKELY to use it.
And this is the tension we are facing with our Poetry as Design installation.
PIE. This captures the project well. Poem. Interpretation. Experience.
That is what you are designing. Three products.
Perhaps we should make three point one four products.
On Monday, we should be getting first of our empathy conversation work.
I like that we are using the term empathy conversation.
The intention behind that choice makes me happy. Talk. Not mine.
We also need to find our users. Figure out where best to install our experiences so that we are reaching the users where they are. Map 'em. See 'em.
Most of you folks will be conducting empathy interviews this week. Before you go about doing so, take a look at these videos. A lot of helpful information in here. You needn't watch all of them. Jump around. See which seem to have what you find most helpful.
NOTE: The second one does a great job of explaining empathy vs sympathy.
We started with Kahoot and Mr. Mason, guiding us through a review of Roots 1 - 3 before Thursday's quiz, as well as the Whole New Mind senses.
Then we turn to some serious content with . . .
SPEAK.
We will do an activity to help us better understand Melinda, as well as Andy Evans, with regards to the development in last night's reading of Speak. We'll put up some pictures today of our work.
Our goal? To build our capacity for empathy with Melinda and better understand why she has been doing what she's been doing throughout Speak. And also to better understand the mindset of someone like Andy Evans so that we can work to change it in the people around us.
HOMEWORK.
Read: Speak. Due: FRIDAY! END OF BOOK!
Complete: STEAL Characterization Graphic Organizer for Speak. Note: No options on this one. Due: Friday. Oct 31
Study: Roots Quiz 3 (Roots 1 to 3) Complete: Roots Product 3 Due: Thursday, Oct 30th.
Yesterday we wrote about our first experiences of walking through the door of Mt. Blue Campus as students. We then mapped the trends of emotions people felt as we try to build some empathy for one another. This is going to be important as we move into our design challenges next week around Speak.
ROOTS.
Roots Quiz 2 (over lists 1 & 2) is right out the gate today. Roots Product 2 is due as well.
SPEAK.
Today we'll read a little chunk of last night's reading in class. And then we'll do an activity around the First 10 Lies They Tell You in High School.
That will lead to introduction of your graphic organizer choices for Speak.
You need to complete a graphic for each ranking period in the novel. The novel is divided into four ranking periods . . . thus . . .
The reading schedule and graphic organizer schedule is available to you in the Google Drive Humanities OUT folder. And it's linked here.
You'll have a few minutes to get started on your first organizer and then we'll do a little more read-a-loud of Speak.
HOMEWORK. Blog: 3+ Posts Req'd: Create a 3 song playlist for Mt. Blue Campus that plays as we walk from class to class. Explain each of your choices. Due: Friday, Oct 17th Read:Speak pg 20-26 Due: Friday, Oct 17th (tomorrow) Complete: Speak Graphic Organizer 1 Choose: Either Three 4 Thinking OR Notice/Wish/Wonder Due: Monday, Oct 20
