From: Sharon Wie
Submit: Post Field Note
VisitDate: 00/00/96
Date: 13 Oct 1996
Time: 17:13:11
Remote Name: as-maclab-11.ucsc.edu
Ariana is a fifth grader. Iban is in the third grade. Diego is a fourth grader and Victor is in the sixth grade.
When Ariana and Iban came to Barrios Unidos on Friday, they went directly to the game cabinet and picked out Monopoly. Ariana learned to play Monopoly for the first time, last week. After picking out the game, they guided me to the room where Monopoly was played last week. When I left to see if other kids wanted to play also, they began to set up the game board immediately. When I came back with Victor and Diego, they had already picked their characters and set them on the "GO". Ariana had again taken the role as realestater and Iban, the banker. I was very surprised to see that Ariana's first experience with Monopoly had made such an impact. Throughout the game, Ariana gave advice to the other players about buying property. She was much quicker at handing out the property and knew many of their values. She even grew a bit impatient when the game was going slowly.
Although it was only the second time Ariana has played Monopoly, she didn't ask me any questions regarding the rules of the game. The only time I needed to intervene was when she grew confused about the rent on the Electric Company and Water Works (The rent on those properties depends on the number the player rolls on the dice). She made a strong effort to grasp the concept and understand. We haven't yet had the opportunity to build house and hotels because of time, but the basic structure of the game seems to be quite understood.
I continued to work with Ariana and Iban because of my previous experience with them. I believed that one of the goals of this class was to follow a few children. I knew that there would be some differences playing monopoly this time and was interested in seeing how much Ariana remembered.