Let's Crunch and Munch
Today I decided to play some easy game to just pass time. As I browsed through the games my
friends play, I found Mind Jolt games to repeat with many friends. When I tried them, I found that they are a group of games that many of them depend more on eliminating groups of similar items. At first I couldn’t think of any benefit of the game I started with, Christmas Crunch, but after a couple of levels, I started to see some literacy and teaching related issues.
The first screen of the game before it actually starts is about clear instructions to the game. Before I saw that screen, I didn’t expect to have instructions since it’s a simple game and almost everybody knows how to click on similar color Christmas ornaments to crunch them. I was wrong. There were instructions to explain to novice players how to play the game and score higher. I couldn’t help thinking how many teachers falsely assume that students, particularly at advanced levels, know it all. We sometimes assume that because we give them a simple task to do, we don’t have to provide instructions. Not only do instructions guide students in doing their activities but they also create a common ground among all students. They create a sense of equality.
I find this game to be so simple that it can be used with little children to teach them how to make decisions on a variety of things. For example, as I play the game, I have to decide which ornaments I’d better crunch to create other large clusters of ornaments, which consequently leads to higher scores. This entails sacrificing small clusters of two or three ornaments for the sake of bigger gains in large clusters. Mmmm..rings many bells! Critical thinking?? Maybe!
Yes! It’s critical thinking at a very simple and novice level. Which gain a child would be more interested in: small or large? The answer is of course large. Then a child should think before clicking on a cluster to see where this click is taking him/her. This decision making process can be extended by the teacher to many issues: watch TV or do homework? Read a book or hang out with friends? Proofread a piece of writing or save the time for a video game? Such decisions boost students’ critical literacy at young age, a literacy we always complain its absence in our students, particularly in the writing classes.
So, let’s crunch Christmas ornaments and make decisions on to read articles for the next class, cook yummy dinner, or just play lazy and watch TV. I’ve made mine: cook a yummy dinner :-))
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