Learning Lies: Using Her Story to Develop Skeptical Students - John Fallon, English Teacher, Fairfield Country Day Schoo

1. LEARNING LIES: USING “HER STORY” TO DEVELOP SKEPTICAL STUDENTS COMBINING VIDEO GAMES AND LITERATURE JOHN FALLON @JOHNCFALLON THEALTERNATECLASSROOM.ORG

4. OH GOD THEY’RE EVERYWHERE ‣ 63% of US households have at least one person who plays video games regularly ‣ 1.7 gamers in each of these households ‣ Women age 18 or older represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (31%) than boys age 18 or younger (17%) ‣ 54% of the most frequent gamers play with others ‣ Board game sales increased by 28% in 2016. Source: Essential Facts about the Computer and Video Game Industry, 2016

5. TRUST ME? ‣ …an unreliable narrator is one who tells lies, conceals information, misjudges with respect to the narrative audience…all fictional narrators are false in that they are imitations. But some are imitations who tell the truth, some of people who lie. -Truth in Fiction, Peter Rabinowitz

6. OH GOD THEY’RE EVERYWHERE

7. 21st CENTURY SKILLS National Council of Teachers of English ‣ Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology ‣ Build intentional cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought ‣ Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes ‣ Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information ‣ Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts ‣ Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments

8. GETTING UNRELIABLE Level 1: The Obvious Unreliable Narrator

9. MEANS, MOTIVE, OPPORTUNITY TEXTUAL EVIDENCE ‣ Self-interest ‣ Inexperience ‣ Ignorance ‣ Immorality ‣ Emotion ‣ Inconsistency

10. GETTING MORE UNRELIABLE Level 2: The Mastermind Narrator

11. DIGGING DEEPER(HEH) ‣ Analyze not only what we’re told but not told ‣ What were these “thousand injuries”? And what was the “insult”? ‣ Infer not just the narrator but the audience ‣ who “knows so well the nature of [Montresor’s] soul”? ‣ Does he feel guilt? ‣ Is he truly happy with his revenge?

12. GETTING MORE UNRELIABLER Level 3: The Chimaera

13. PEELING AWAY THE LAYERS ‣ Combining knowledge of present psychology with historical context ‣ Trauma of isolation, the “rest cure”, and gendered science ‣ Reconciling insanity and the supernatural ‣ Understanding the difference between fiction, lying, and delusion ‣ Ascertaining the nature of the setting through context clues alone ‣ Is she a ghost? Is the “woman in the wall” a ghost? A delusion? Is this an asylum, a prison, a summer home? WHAT IS GOING ON YOU GUYS

14. NOPE. JUST NOPE. Level 4: The Mirror Maze

15. THERE IS NO TRUTH. ONLY PERCEPTION. ‣ (Not) Reconciling multiple points of view to the same event ‣ “The Rashomon Effect” ‣ Identifying differing motives for lying ‣ Why do four different people all admit to the same murder? ‣ How do you interpret a story that denies you clarity? ‣ “Negative capability” ‣ “…I mean Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” “This unit forced me to learn that writing is not black and white with one interpenetration being the right one.”

16. A Video Game About a Woman Talking to the Police

17. MEET HANNAH

19. Results Search terms Progress Tags and notes Saved clips

21. Date/Time

25. ENGAGEMENT

26. RESPONSES “The class as a whole was also a lot more vibrant when playing Her Story. My peers and I were able to be more enthusiastic with Her Story because we played it together and some of my fondest memories of school were when we found out new info on the case and the whole class freaked out.” “It is more exciting and more inclusive when you play it.” “I think is it pretty much just a fun and engaging way of doing a short story/activity. It in fact requires you to think more than you would with a traditional short story in my opinion.” “I think I improved my cognitive skills while doing this unit because Her Story makes you think like a detective and put all of the puzzle pieces together.”

27. CHOICE

28. “…when struggling readers were allowed to choose the topic, they performed at "independent" level (94--97% accuracy) even on texts that were 7--8 grade levels above their head.”

29. Investigative reporter Reviewer ‣ 900-1000 words ‣ 900-1000 words ‣ Must include evidence (screenshots/quotes) ‣ Commentary/Recommendation ‣ Updike’s Rule #1 ‣ Narrative hook ‣ Establish and support audience ‣ Organize a timeline/narrative ‣ Specific examples ‣ Recreate moments with sensory details ‣ Identify themes/connections ‣ Transitions ‣ Recommend to specific audience ‣ Conclusion - tie back to the beginning

30. “While working on my investigative report I was constantly at war with my self about what the true story was because there are many ways to interpret the story.” “The Her Story unit was one of the greatest assignments in my academic career. It was a blast working on my version of the story and I had fun writing up the final report with all my hints and clues.”

31. EVERYONE’S A CRITIC

32. Investigative reporter Reviewer ‣ 900-1000 words ‣ 900-1000 words ‣ Must include evidence (screenshots/quotes) ‣ Commentary/Recommendation ‣ Updike’s Rule #1 ‣ Narrative hook ‣ Establish and support audience ‣ Organize a timeline/narrative ‣ Specific examples ‣ Recreate moments with sensory details ‣ Identify themes/connections ‣ Transitions ‣ Recommend to specific audience ‣ Conclusion - tie back to the beginning

33. Arthur Gies, Reviews Editor Our basic structure is the 5-part argumentative thesis-based essay, with an avoidance of passive voice and assuming responsibility for one's own thoughts and opinions …our reviews exist to tell you what a person thought of a game, holistically. The thesis backed structure is great for that, and is a sound basis for just about any argumentative/advocative piece.

35. 21st CENTURY SKILLS National Council of Teachers of English ‣ Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology ‣ Build intentional cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought ‣ Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes ‣ Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information ‣ Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts ‣ Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments

36. “It was really cool how the dread and stress that were apart of normal exams were replaced by excitement and joy.”

37. “I used to be ashamed of my nerdy interests, but you have instilled in me a newfound self confidence that has made a tremendous difference in my life.”

38. Games are a learning style. Perhaps, THE learning style.

39. thealternateclassroom.org Join the tribe!