Extracurricular Intellectual Teams
I have always been the sort of teacher who gets involved in extracurricular activities. As such, I was an obvious candidate to take over the GeoPlunge team when the old coaches left. GeoPlunge is a trivia and strategy game about the United States. Students learn information about each state and then play a variety of games using that information (such as guessing an unknown state based on clues and organizing states based on map images). The game is a lot of fun, and it also prompts conversations that relate to access. Most of my students have spent very little time outside of the D.C. area, and learning about states all around the country is a great way to teach them about cultural differences and instill the idea that there is a lot to see outside of their neighborhoods. The annual interscholastic GeoPlunge competition in May is always exciting, and both of our squads notched winning records in 2017.
Photos from the GeoPlunge tournament in May of 2017. Scholars represented our school in competition against other teams and performed very well. Our emphasis throughout the day was on sportsmanship, and the students demonstrated graciousness in both victory and defeat.
This year, inspired by Paul Tough's description of Elizabeth Spiegel's chess program at Brooklyn's I.S. 318 in How Children Succeed, I decided to form a bridge team at West. I have been a serious competitive bridge player for the past five years, and I have taught beginning and intermediate bridge courses at Montgomery College in Maryland for the past three. Thus, I have seen firsthand the sorts of transformational experiences that the card game can produce for students who learn it. The game itself is endlessly fascinating, and it helps students improve their math, communication, and critical thinking skills (to name just a few). Moreover, it promotes the development of empathy, accountability, and other life skills that are essential even though they are not part of most academic curricula. Developing such skills early in life improves students' prospects for college and career success.
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West uses the Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM) to provide extracurricular enrichment to all scholars during the school day, and the bridge team fit naturally into our existing framework of weekly enrichment clusters. However, bridge is notoriously difficult to learn, and I was initially worried that students would become bored with the game before seeing its beauty. However, by developing a carefully scaffolded approach to the game that introduces new elements in a precise sequence, I have been able to keep my students engaged and excited throughout the learning process. I often supplement direct instruction and advice with the handouts and other teaching materials that I designed for my courses at Montgomery College, and it still amazes me how eager students are to master the intellectual intricacies of the game. In fact, at our latest meeting, one of my scholars actually asked if the team could sit at desks and take notes on a new bidding concept so that they would remember it better.
Examples of bridge handouts that I have used with my students. To the left are introductory materials about the play of the hand; to the right are introductory materials about bidding. These documents are based on those that I use with my older students at Montgomery College. They were created entirely by me, and they represent an unusually compact and accessible overview of key topics for beginning bridge players. Note that the first page on the left is a half-page handout that I cut to save paper.
Playing bridge is a great way to expand students' access networks. I am still routinely amazed by the people I meet at the bridge table. I have played against billionaire philanthropists, politicians from the House of Representatives and the Senate, award-winning authors, and even a Supreme Court justice. There is no reason that my students cannot be great at bridge, and many older bridge players are so eager to bring younger players into the game that they are willing to provide mentoring support. Successful young players can also earn scholarships and chances to travel through the game. All of this creates very real opportunities for my students.
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With this in mind, I am attempting to organize a sort of "pro-am" mentor-mentee game for later this spring. I am in the process of inviting local bridge players whose careers interest our students to compete with student partners in a friendly setting. There will be prizes for the winners of the game, food for everyone, and ample opportunities for students to learn about their adult partners' professions. The idea of impressing successful adults with their bridge abilities has already captured my students' imaginations, and I think it has real potential to expand their personal access networks. For example, I fervently hope that some of the aspiring doctors whom I pair with bridge-playing physicians will be able to stay in contact with their mentors (beyond the "thank-you" note that I will require them to write), ask for career advice, and perhaps even shadow them for a day to learn more about the field. I will also encourage the mentors from our game at West to come cheer for their student partners at the summer iteration of the D.C. Area Interscholastic Bridge Championship. I cannot directly show my students what it is like to be a doctor, lawyer, etc., but I can influence the actions of community members in my own access network—in this case, bridge players from the area—to facilitate such experiences. (I would have loved to run this event earlier in the year, but my students were adamant that they wanted as much practice as possible before playing with and against experienced adult players whom they would like to impress.)
Pictures from the first year of the West Education Campus Duplicate Bridge Team. To the left, I celebrate with the runners-up of the D.C. Area Interscholastic Bridge Championship in December of 2017. My scholars were the only middle schoolers in the competition and played against a group of high schoolers from private schools and public schools in much wealthier districts. Despite some nerves related to being the smallest players there, they placed second from among all of the partnerships there that day. To the right, the first members of our team learn and play together during a weekly enrichment cluster meeting.
In other intellectual competition news, this year marked my school's first foray into the district-wide Math Bowl, which is held annually on Pi Day (March 14). I put together a team of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, coached them on strategies for the event, and was extremely happy to watch them place second out of all the middle schools at the competition. My scholars love to compete, and this was a great way to honor academic excellence in much the same way we recognize athletic achievement.
The second-place finishers in the 2018 DCPS Math Bowl! My scholars succeeded not only because they had learned the mathematical concepts so well, but also because they had practiced working as a team and knew how to support their teammates even when they were not sure how to answer a particular question.
Colleagues Say...
One of the goals here at West is to expose students to a range of subjects and opportunities (which are, sadly, often overlooked at Title 1 schools where math and reading tend to be the exclusive focus). Mr. Gann helps us to meet this goal by leading a bridge team. Not only do the students on the bridge team have fun every Wednesday with Mr. Gann, but they also are becoming impressive bridge players. One of the teams placed in a competition earlier this year, and the pride and confidence that win gave them was obvious when they showed up to school on Monday. Students are growing a deeper love for math, and for learning in general, because of their time with Mr. Gann on the bridge team.
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Casey Davidow
Schoolwide Enrichment Coordinator
West Education Campus
GeoPlunge is an interactive and team-oriented game to help scholars build content knowledge in geography. We know content knowledge plays a huge role in students' overall comprehension and literacy skills. Knowing the facts they learn in GeoPlunge helps scholars gain greater understanding of texts both in social studies class, but also in science and ELA. We also seek to provide opportunities that align with student interest—this includes GeoPlunge—scholars who participate opt in, which helps to build investment in the learning process! Our scholars also love learning bridge, which really helps to build and support their critical thinking and problem solving skills—critical SEM qualities.
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Megan Vroman
Principal
West Education Campus