LATIN CLUE
Clue is a traditional board game that challenges players to solve a murder mystery by using deductive reasoning and process of elimination to determine the murderer, the murder weapon, and the location of the murder. Players receive cards representing the possibilities in the murder scenario (suspect, weapon, crime scene). Cards representing the actual murder scenario will be removed from the deck and placed in a separate envelop at the beginning of the game (to be revealed at the end of the game). Players roll the dice to advance into the rooms within the Clue mansion, where they will suggest a weapon, suspect, and crime scene. When challenged by a “suggestion,” players must privately show cards to the player who made the suggestion. Latin Clue keeps these traditional elements, but shifts to team collaboration and adds in content questions.
Traditional Clue vs. Latin Clue
Learning Goals
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- The game is designed for middle school Latin mid-term or final exam review. Encountering the weapons, historic locations, and characters in a historic setting reinforces previous learning, while quiz bowl questions review Latin language and Roman history content. For another option, students could be asked to research and propose the list of weapons, historic locations, and characters (which would allow them to have more review).
- The game requires problem-solving skills, situated in a historic setting
- Traveling from one ancient location to another provides a great backdrop for reviewing Roman history. In addition, adding the quiz-bowl type questions (Latin language or Roman history) adds to this creative and fun review (a sort of productive play).
- Working in a team provides peer coaching/scaffolding by distributing the performance requirement throughout the group.
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- Criteria for successful instruction
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- Authentic settings and roles for players
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- Instructional Methods
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- When giving a wrong answer, the team loses a turn, but continues play, while receiving corrective feedback (the correct answer). The consequences are appropriate; the penalty is embedded in the game play (like missing an exam question, but finishing the test).
- The game has interesting challenges that have been optimized to reflect the learner’s coursework.
- Cooperative play provides practical collaboration among learners
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- The Vision of the Game
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- Learning goals: learners will review previously presented information; they will work together as a team to answer questions pertaining to Latin language and Roman history (collaboration provides embedded scaffolding)
- The game will allow students to be temporarily immersed in Roman culture, bringing the “dead language” to life, in a natural and authentic way
- Feedback
- Natural consequences: missing an answer will delay their progress through the game
- Explanations:when a question is missed, all of the teams will hear the correct answer from the teacher, so that everyone benefits from the feedback
- Debriefing: learners will debrief, together at the end of the game
- Immediate Feedback: Learners benefit from feedback by both the teacher and their teammates.
- The competitive spirit of the game will motivate learners extrinsically. Intrinsic motivation will come as a result of increased enjoyment of Roman culture and team collaboration.
- The Game Space
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- See details in table, describing rules of game, players, game pieces, technology (whiteboard, computer projection)
- The narrative of the game, the “work” that must be done by the players requires learners to embrace the study of Latin language and Roman History in order to succeed in the game
- Design decisions mean to create an excitement and acceptance of a subject which often overwhelms some students and bores others; Latin comes alive when the stakes are raised by the game
- The Instructional Space
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- Teams allow students to collaborate over difficult material, working at the edge of their ZPD (Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development)
- Students get “Just-in-Time Instruction” during the game which can help them to identify and eliminate weaknesses in the subject matter (this is for a test, after all!)
- The teacher will be the “coach in the classroom,” providing additional learner scaffolding
References
Reigeluth, C. M., Beatty, B. J., & Myers, R. D. (2017). Instructional-Design Theories and Models (Vol. IV). New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Pratt, A. E. (1996). Clue: Classic Detective Game. Beverly, MA.: Parker Brothers.
So, what do you think?