From: Sharon Wie
Submit: Post Field Note
VisitDate: 10/30/96
Adult-Run:
Children-Run:
Collaborative: Selected
Unclear-Philosophy:
Bottom-up:
Top-down: Selected
Unclear-Approach:
Informal: Selected
Formal:
Unclear-Type:
Date: 03 Nov 1996
Time: 23:09:16
Remote Name: news-01.ucsc.edu
José, approximately fourth grade??
Last week, Jose and I played Monopoly for his first time. We were joined by a few others, including a guy working for Barrios Unidos in a different project. We got very involved with the game and stayed until 4:15pm. Monopoly is a time consuming game, however, and we didn't get to finish.
When I got to Barrios Unidos on Wednesday, Jose came up to me and asked if I wanted to play Monopoly. Louis had already involved himself with Jose, so all three of us went to play in the room next door. The setting up part of the game was easy. Jose didn't hesitate in picking his player and setting him up in go. He decided to take the role of banker (which he observed last game) and requested for information regarding the amounts each player needed of each bill. Although Jose learned much more about the game this second round, he was much more confident and sure of himself. He was confident enough to win the game. Pretty awesome, huh?
I am a little unsure about the philosophy of today's learning atmosphere. José basically asked the questions today and I answered them. I allowed José to steer the game, but I still feel a bit of adult- run philosopy in that I simply gave him answers. Since, he was the only child playing, I felt the need to tell him how to play. José, though, didn't need much guidance, he even helped me out.
Today was a very fun and interesting day. I learned a lot about José and different methods to winning Monopoly. José learned a lot of math today. He probably used paper and pen for at least seven of the math problems he encountered as banker.