1 / 30

The Power of Play: How libraries can use board game collections to engage newcomers

Learn how libraries can use board game collections to engage newcomers, foster language skills, and build friendships. This article explores the academic and public library contexts, as well as practical tips and strategies for selecting games.

stephenson
Download Presentation

The Power of Play: How libraries can use board game collections to engage newcomers

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Power of Play: How libraries can use board game collections to engage newcomers

  2. Agenda: easy as 1,2,3... • Academic Context • Public Library Context • Activity

  3. Hello! Michelle GoodridgeLiaison Librarian, Game Design and Development @ Wilfrid Laurier University Responsible for curating gaming collection at Laurier Library Works with community to develop game-based library programs Written a book chapter on using boardgames to help English language learners develop both language skills and friendships Founding member of gaminginlibraries@listserve.wlu.ca Lee Puddephatt Community Librarian @ Halton Hills Public Library Responsible for implementing community-led programming for residents of the Town of Halton Hills Works with community partners to provide diverse cultural experiences and resources that welcome and connect newcomers and build community Current member of boardgamegeek.com, meetup.com Gaming Groups, Halton Equity and Diversity Roundtable (HEDR)

  4. 1. Academic context

  5. Public university with approx. 15,000 students at the main campus (waterloo) and approx. 3,000 students at the satellite campus (brantford) City of brantford has approx. 134,000 people and is located in southwestern ontario Laurier has the lazaridis school of business and attracts applicants from around the world - it also has an office in chongqing, China Laurier brantford has the “Laurier English and Academic Foundation” (LEaf) program to help students who don’t meet laurier’s english language requirements

  6. United States of America figures* • approx. 1.1 million international students enrolled in 2017 • top countries of origin; China (32.5%), India (17.3%), South Korea (5.4%), Saudi Arabia (4.9%), and Canada (2.5%) • literature suggests low rate of international students transitioning into U.S. jobs

  7. International Student Experience • Number of ESL international students seeking to attend English speaking schools is on the rise in Canada (on a slight decline in the United States of America) • Many English-speaking schools have introduced pre-sessional programs to help students with low IELTS scores • •Many experience language and culture shock along with post-secondary transitioning • 56% of ESL international students in Canada have no Canadian friends (Canadian Bureau for International Education, 2014) • 40% of ESL international students in America have no American friends (Elisabeth Gareis, 2012) • •International students from English speaking countries do not have as much trouble forming domestic friendships (Elisabeth Garesis, 2012)

  8. International and domestic Friendships • Benefits of friendships include stronger language skills, lower levels of stress, and increased academic performance (W. Searle, & C. Ward, 1990; B.F. Rohrlich & J.N. Martin, 1991; Ward and Masgoret, 2017; Gareis, 2012) • Elisabeth Garesis identified three main factors influencing intercultural friendship: • cultural similarity, communication competence, and personality/identity

  9. Using games for language learning

  10. Laurier’s Program • Game Night is a weekly drop-in program on Wednesday nights from 5:30-7pm • Partnership between Laurier Library, Laurier International, Conestoga College, and Brantford YMCA (Education and International Services) • Program targeting international post-secondary students (through Laurier), domestic students (through Laurier), and newcomer teens/young adults from the community (through YMCA) • Domestic students and staff/volunteers act as game experts • Goals: 1) bring together members of our community (internal and external); 2) encourage the development of friendships; 3) help with development of ESL skills; 4) promote other services provided by the library, Laurier International, Conestoga College, and the YMCA

  11. Tips for picking a good game • Not repetitive or a game of simple chance (Garris, Ahlers, and Driskell, 2002) that creates “pleasurable tension” (Penny Ur, 1988) • Games need “purpose beyond play” (Collier, 1998) • Few or no cultural references • Team based games work well • Look to what games are popular where the students are from • Don’t just buy children’s games – it can be insulting

  12. 2. Public Library context Imagination, Innovation, Opportunity…

  13. The Town of Halton Hills is part of the Regional Municipality of Halton, located in the northwestern end of the GTA • Almalgamated Georgetown and Acton, together with much of the former Esquesing Township, and a small portion of the Town of Oakville in 1974 • Population of 61,161 (2016 Census) • Rural area with limited transportation • Small newcomer population

  14. Newcomers: Halton Region

  15. Newcomers: Services • Settlement Information Specialist • Translation • Commissioner of Oath • Community Connections • Job Seekers • Newcomer Day • English Conversation Circle

  16. Images courtesy: Hafuboti by Rebecca McCorkindale, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

  17. Community-led approach • Identify barriers: • Small population • Transportation • Isolation • Hours • Embarrassment • Consistency • Language • assessments • Staff time and experience

  18. stakeholders • Partners: • Vision georgetown • Newcomers: • Safe space • management: • Relate to strategic plan

  19. Newcomers: Languages

  20. Instruction Translations • Translate from english into first language, then use dictionary to translate back into english • Game Manufacturers: Mattel; Hasbro; etc. • Boardgamegeek.com • Reddit.com (be careful!) • Watch youtube videos

  21. Next steps... • Integrating board games into every english conversation class • Forming a “newcomers games group” for families • Networking to find refugee families and newcomers living in halton hills • Coordinating with other libraries • Community-led approach to identify culturally significant games from other countries • mancala!!!

  22. 3. Activity

  23. Evaluating games Explore the games in front of you and using your newfound knowledge, determine if these are good choices for newcomer programming or not?

  24. Failures and flops vs winning choices (ACADemic) Failures ... • Apples to Apples • Monopoly • Coup Mixed Feelings... • Sushi Go! Winning Choices... • Exploding Kittens • Funglish • Word Slam • Bananagrams • Rory’s Story Cubes • Ultimate Werewolf

  25. Evaluating games (public) Beginner… • Qwirkle • Blokus • Mancala • Checkers • Chess • Jungle speed • Sequence Intermediate… • Big boggle • Funglish • Scrabble • Taboo • Ticket to ride • Carcassonne • tsuro Advanced… • Life • Monopoly • Apples to apples • Risk • Scotland yard • Settlers of catan • pandemic

  26. Thank you! Lee Puddephatt Halton Hills Public Librarylee.puddephatt@haltonhills.ca @pdiddyphatt Michelle Goodridge Wilfrid Laurier Universitymgoodridge@wlu.ca @migoodridge

More Related