More on how I use Angry Birds in the classroom

I've written before on how I use Angry Birds in the classroom, and today I want to share another project I use with students to get them engaged in learning.

Below is a project created by Tonia (not her real name). Tonia is a very angry little girl who has a heightened sense of anxiety and an acute fear of failure. Her reading and writing skills are quite weak, and she has very little interest in allowing others to see how much she struggles, so learning for her is a repetitive exercise of either fight or flight in order to maintain her dignity. To say she is unengaged from school would be a gross understatement.

When I first met Tonia, I asked her if she wanted to try an iPad.

She quickly said no.

I've had an iPad in my classrooms for over a year now, and in that time, I've never had someone say they didn't want to try the iPad. Never.

Needless to say, I was a little shocked -- but I quickly rallied.

As I turned on the app, I asked Tonia if she had ever heard of a game called Angry Birds.

Her face lit up and she replied that her dad plays it all the time.

I breathed a sigh of relief now that the ice was broken. I had an in.

So I let her play for 10 minutes and then said How about I show you how to do a project with Angry Birds.

She recoiled and said No. I don't know how to do that. You can't make me.

I backed off.

10 minutes later I asked again. She stood, said fuck off and left the room.

The next day I tried again, and thankfully she was in a better mood. Here's the project she created:



And here's a short video showing how this project can be done on the iPad using Angry Birds, screen shots, Keynote and text boxes:



The beauty of a project like this is that the student starts with a blank page and constructs something from scratch that they can call their very own. And it can be as simple or as sophisticated as you wish to make it.

How I use Angry Birds in the classroom

I've had two iPads in my classroom for sometime now and as a class we share them. Yesterday, I continued to use the iPad with Allan (not his real name), a seven year old boy who has special needs (Read: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder).

For a few weeks now, I've had Allan playing on a number of iPad apps including a wide variety of Dr. Seuss books, logic puzzles, Pages and YouTube.

Yesterday, Allan was playing the free version of Angry Birds that I had on one of my iPads. It was fascinating to watch his initially clumsy pokes develop into very deliberate and accurate gestures. After completing all the levels on the Free version, Allan begged me to buy the full version - so I did.

It is safe to say that Allan has a limited attention span, so I was impressed to see him spend the time and effort getting better at something that he initially had very little success with.

As I watched Allan get better and better at Angry Birds, I could see him experiencing the game with a pleasantly frustrated demeanor. The game was challenging enough to keep Allan's interest but not so hard that he ever wanted to quit.

I watched him become more and more proficient at the angle of his sling shot and the trajectory of his Angry Birds.

I watched him develop a strategy where he would fling his first bird and if it did not do something productive (read: hit a piggy or knock down some structures), Allan would in one motion click menu and then restart. While it's true that I can't tell you exactly what his reasoning was for this - I saw him only ever restart the level if his first bird was unproductive. It seemed to me that he was developing a coping strategy in an attempt to set himself up for the most success.

Angry Birds was a great way for Allan to work on his perseverance, patience, focus and fine motor skills.

Watching Allan clap his hands while wearing his ear-to-ear grin after knocking down that last passively defiant piggy is something I will never forget.

For more on how Angry Birds and other video games can be used in the classroom, check out Josh Stumpenhorst's post on Angry Birds!