PROBLEM
Some students in school struggle with keeping things organized, which a lot of times, also affect on the neatness of their work as well as finding their belongings. These things could include classroom materials, homework, classwork, papers, clothing, snack wrappers, etc.
Organization habits starts to develop at the very young age. The surrounding environment and expectation plays a big effect. Organizations persons are more likely to end up with more poor academic performances, getting jobs, having a steady martial status and relationship, etc.
“Statistics have shown that organized student are more successful, have higher self-esteem, and are ultimately happier. (Doherty, L. 2011)”
Students do not all come to school knowing how to be organized, thus some skills needs to be taught and trained from the teacher.
The target audience of this game are elementary students who struggle with keeping their things organized and responsible.
This game is particularly targeting at Kindergarden to 3rd grade students for teachers.
For classroom teachers, playing this game at the beginning of the school year along with establishing other classroom routines is strongly recommended. A few more times throughout the school is suggested as review and emphasising the importance of keeping things organized.
This game could also be played anywhere that needs a organization skill trained to elementary children.
Picture Source: http://www.homeschoolacademy.com/
TARGET
OUROBOROS
Support the Front Line was designed to accomplish particular serious goals relatd to bringing awareness and teach the importance of being organized. There are essential elements of the games' design which can be captured and artculated via teh Ouoboros Magic Circle of Serious Game Design (Heeter, 2013.)
This game uses a lot of player-player interactions as students will be having discussions during the game to help them become better at the game. It is also where students learn from playing the game and to share their organization strategies. The whole goal of getting things organized on the table as they are playing assembly line workers is the altimat goal for players. This part of the rule drives the game and motivate students to work together and realize the importance of keeping things organized in the first place.
In the game, players use materials from the classroom can quickly draw connection to their everyday life in school and/or at home.
SOURCES
Organization skills starts to develop at the very young age (Gallagher, Abikof, Spira, 2014). Different online articles suggests that poor organization skills can a wide variety of factors including brain development, learning disorders, unorganized family, unorganized teachers, etc (Grime, 2010). Babies start to organize information they receive at the daily basis, and it expands onto routines, languages, and just about everything we do. Applied organizations into organization belongings comes at a toddler age. Family is one of the biggest factor in organization skills and strategies. Family member are the role model and kids spend the most time at home. If they have the opportunity to practice doing so at home, they are likely to apply those skills when they are on their own without their parents. This is where teachers in school become important. For those who don't have much chance to learn how to be organized at home, school can be the few organized routine and space for them. As much as a teacher can do for them, it could have a bit affect on students.
Research has shown that people who are organized are often successful in life, accomplish more, have more free time to enjoy, higher self-estem, more relazed and less stressed (Neff, 2011).
Problem Research - Organization
Solution Research - Organization Tips for Kids
Gallagher, R., Abikof. H., Spira, E. 2014. Organizational Skills Training for Children with ADHD: An EmpiricallySupoort Treatment. The Guilford Press. London.
Grime, S. 2010. Organized Students = Successful Students. ASCA Scholcounselor. Retrieved from: https://www.schoolcounselor.org/magazine/blogs/may-june-2010/organized-students-successful-students
Lyness, D. 2014. Help Your Child Get Organized. KidsHealth. Retrieved from: http://kidshealth.org/en/parents/child-organized.html#kha_41
Marrero, L. 2015. 9 Smart Ways to Make Kids More Organized. Good Housekeeping. Hearst Communications, Inc. Retrived from: http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/organizing/tips/g340/organizing-tips-for-kids/?
Neff. T. 2011. Does Being Organized Make You More Successful? UNITS Retrieved from: https://unitspa.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/does-being-organized-make-you-more-successful/
Many articles suggested that repetitiveness, giving everything a "home", identifying similarities in things, constant reminders, given enough time, consisent organization expectations, positive support and reinforcement, practices, plan, post steps, etc (Grime, 2010). There are may tips to help children keep things organized. One of the most important factor is giving children the time and space to practice doing so. Parents and teachers spending time to teach and talk about organizaion strategies can give them lots of chances to practice are the key (Marrero, 2015). Then, setting the expectations and consistancy along with reinforcement are essential (Lyness, 2014). Some articles also suggest emphasizing the value and benefits of keeping things organized to children can also be an important intrinsic motivator.
Keeping things organized can also be applicable to doing homework and other things from teeth brushing to book reports. Getting organized, to staying focused, and getting things done are also some suggested important steps (Lyness, 2014).
References
Support the Front Line seeks to bring children's realization of the importance of organization. Through fun, conversaton among peers, competition, and practices, children should realize the how keeping things organized can make future work less stressful, more accessble, and more effecient. This game provide a peer to peer conversation about sharing strategies of organizing team work as well as sorting materials.
This game allows students to share and practice organization strategies, especially for those who do not have an organized family.
Through this game, some students will learn and practice organization strategies they do not get to at home. By improving everyday organization skills, students should start to develop or know how to organize in other areasl, thus eventually lead to more responsible and sucessful students.
This game should bring teachers more responsible students, a neater classrom, and develope positive learning environment in classrooms.
THE VALUES
In Support the Front Line, students play as assembly line workers who are tring to get what was ordered from the authority on the "line," in the case, the table, quickly and neatly. It could be tough and frustrated to ask some children to get things organized; Support the Front Line brings awareness, realization, and chances for students to enjoy, share, and learn how doable organization can be as well as strategies. Peer pressure or influences can often be strong to kids.
Here are some components of the game that makes the game fun and enjoyable.
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Competitive
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Team Work
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Sharing Ideas
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Challeging
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Using Classroom Materials
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Applicable Skills to Everyday Life
Many kids actually enjoy organizing things when they set aside time to just organized. This is definately fun fo kids especially toward the beginning of the school year, and a few times throughout.
THE FUN
THEORIES
Social Cognitive Theory
Learning by observing the behavior of others and the consequences of that behavior.
Similar the the Theory of Planned Behavior, Social Cognitive Theory suggest that players will change behavior by observing others and the consequences. I expanded the "consequence" part of the theory into rewards. In this game, students win game points by having their materials on the table effeciently and neatly. Along with discussions and sharing strategies, students will start conversation and learning strategies from those who won points without teacher guiding. People learn from copying and minupulating. This is where the theory comes in to play in the game.
Intrinsic Motivation
Playing or learning because the content or game is inherently interesting to the player/learner.
The take away affect after playing the game is that students will become more aware and know that organizing things are doable. The game was designed to improve students' personal space to become more organized. This take away and influence was inspired by the theory of Intrinsic Motivation. From the enjoyment and experience, students should be able to feel more comfortable or less troublesome to organize their personal spaces because they know the benefits and because they had fun.
Theory of Planned Behavior
Behavior is determined intenions formed by behavioral attitudes, social norms, and perceptions of control.
The biggest approach of Support the Front Line is to using peer influence as well as the competition to maintain students' interest and enjoyment. According to the theory of Planned Behavior, when surrounding peers are involved and excitied about playing a organizing game, one is likely to be immerse in the social norm and attitudes. In classrooms, this is a essentil part of the norm of a classroom. The teacher models the attitude and norm, which then affect students from one to the other.
Theories: Shaw, P., Heeter, C.2015. TC 831: Theories of Games and Interaction for Design. MSU
Reference:
Doherty, L. 2011.Teach Your Kids a Valuable Life Skill: Organization. Dublin Patch. Retrieved from: http://patch.com/california/dublin/teach-your-kids-a-valuable-life-skill-organization