What follows is not a systematic overview, but it will touch on some of my experiences and impressions:
1. Pacing: I felt that, in order to get the most out of the experience, I needed to give Microscope plenty of breathing room. I am working with students who are new to collaborative storytelling games. In addition I'm dealing with many students who are uncomfortable with their abilities in the English class and others who are anxious about the new school year. Some students had difficulty distinguishing between a "period" and and "event"; some struggled to come to grips with the fractal nature of the game play; some were challenged by the idea of a focus. The game is terrific at breaking things down into discrete steps, and by taking a deliberate, methodical approach, I had all the students humming by Thursday. I could have "crunched" the game, but rushing would have made it much less rewarding and the payoff would have diminished.
2. Scenes: I knew from experience that the scene aspect of the game would be challenging, so, instead of avoiding the challenge, I decided to make it the destination and culmination of our week of play! Initially, I took scenes off the table and had the students work with building a history using periods and events. Mid-week, I moved into the set-up and structure of scenes, and I had the students dictate scenes rather than playing them out. At the end of the classes today, student groups had nicely developed histories, and their weekend homework is to come up with an idea for a new scene which is not currently part of their histories but which could be. Next week, I will work with them on developing those ideas into a writing assignment involving a script of their scene (with descriptive setting, dialogue, use of rising action, etc.).
3. Collaboration and independence: As the week continued, I could see the students becoming more comfortable not just with the game but with themselves and their interactions in groups. It was transformational for some: I saw students who started the class as awkward, self-doubting students and who were able to take some notable steps in developing their sense of ownership and their voice as the gameplay developed.
4. Teaching narrative: The game is all about constructing narratives from building blocks. For early high school students, it is effective at giving them a visual map and a way to organize a complex narrative in a way that is accessible and not intimidating. In initially setting up the game, I used our summer reading book (Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories) as an example, and even that activity was useful for them: It showed them how they could break down a multifaceted narrative into components and how to think of the interrelationship of various strands weaving through the novel.
5. Time: I'm fortunate in that I'm teaching a new class at a private school. I have a chair who is confident in my skills and my vision, and he has given me the freedom to devote the necessary time to weave Microscope into the course. By the time all this is wrapped up, Microscope will have occupied nearly two weeks of my class time (if you include the writing assignment springing from the gameplay), and I'm sure there are many administrators or chairs at other schools who would step in to shut this type of activity down or demand that it be greatly shortened in order to speed up the delivery of more content.
The game has been fun, and it has engaged students on multiple levels. One student commented to me today that he was thrilled by the game because it was forcing him to think through the layers of the story he and his peers were developing. It was addictive for the class precisely because it was motivating some deep thinking about both the content of the histories and the structure of them.
The game culminated in a writing assignment where each student had to look at their created history and write a new scene. This allowed me to target some elements of the writing craft while they were working on a piece that they were invested in . . . because they had created the rich story surrounding the scene. It also proved a nice way to introduce scene-setting, and as I continue to introduce some role-playing activities during the year, I'm hoping to build off of that groundwork.
The chair of my department came in to observe the experiment in action, and I'll leave the final word with him:
Among other things, I like how it gives kids a chance to hone their leadership and collaboration skills. For example, the concept of a player becoming the lens gives him or her the chance to define a focus that will shape the decisions of others and the direction of the gameplay. I like how the other players need to follow the lead of the lens and to think about how their own ideas fit into the greater goal identified by the lens. That the role of the lens shifts each turn is also nice. In short, all students will get the opportunity to lead and to follow as they build a world together. I also enjoyed how the students debated decisions as they created their event cards. When one said, “We should bring in nukes,” another responded, “Nah, that tech would take too long to develop.” Here is another quick discussion I observed:
Student 1: “Where should he die?”
Student 2; “In a trench.”
Student 1: “But WHERE is the trench?”
Student 3: “Germany?”
Student 4” France?”
Student 2: “Yes, how about near the Eiffel tower.”
In other words, they appeared to be moving from general ideas to precise details nicely and to be comfortable politely challenging each other’s ideas as the group moved to resolve some critical details.
Interesting stuff!
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