In the previous three posts, I journaled the preparations for this film class. Yesterday, we had our fourth class. Students were asked to do background research on the film director, Zeng, Guoxiang, the male lead, Jackson Yee, and the female lead, Zhong, Dongyu.
After the free voluntary reading, we dived into soliciting background information.
Here are what students shared.
The inquiry process took up the most part of the class. After that, we played a Blooket game which I designed ahead of time, based on the research I did on these three people. Blooket provides different game modes. We played the Tower Defense and Battle Royal. The students who play games often certainly had lots of fun, they were fully engaged the whole time. A few students who don’t perform well under pressure seemed to have a higher affective filter, although they tried to have fun during the game, they focused on winning or losing a little bit too much which took some fun away.
While I’m debating whether or not to play more Blooket games in the future, I think asking students to provide some feedback on these games can be insightful. However, from a language acquisition angle looking at these games, they provide very little comprehensible input. What they offer is a compelling community-building experience.
The paradox between building proficiency and creating a community in the classroom has always been a hard choice at times. Sometimes, we could successfully maintain both. Sometimes, it becomes a choice of one or another.
I’d love to hear your input on this!
By Haiyun