Battle Royale All Will Learn

OK so the picture is kind of unrelated to this post but I like it. Also unrelated, did you know that Pokemon is on Netflix??? wow

 

Recently, I have started reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. IT’S SO GOOD. For this book, we will be doing a Socratic Seminar type of thing. Now I know what you’re thinking, “Socratic Seminar?? how could the best English class in the world possibly do a simple Socratic Seminar??, they’re so boring and so uneventful.” Well, instead of a boring Socratic Seminar, we are doing a BRAWL, or a Battle Royale All Will Learn. It’s a more competitive team-based style of discussion which I think is WAAAAAY better than a regular Socratic circle. We got into groups of 4 and read the first section. Then, the whole class submitted questions and my teacher picked out the questions that he thought were the best. We then split up the questions based on the categories and had two days to answer them. On the  day of the BRAWL we chose one team member to represent the team and they sat in the “inner circle” (the desks closest to the middle) and the rest of the team sat on the outside circle. Our teacher then asked everyone a question from the list that he had picked out and they answered them. Each team then had to reply to two other questions to get full points. Here is a more in-depth explanation. At first the BRAWL was intimidating because it was a new experience and I didn’t know what to expect, but once we went through a few questions, I realized that it was nothing to worry about.

Some tips for doing this is you are going to do one:

• Use a google doc because then you can see who is on the doc editing it, you can chat on the doc, you can comment on other people’s answers without changing what they wrote and it’s fairly simple to use.
• Get the phone numbers or emails of your teammates.
• Choose people for your team who you respect and work well with so that there is no drama.
• Color code the categories so they are easier to find and number the questions for better organization.
• Some people in my group did not staple their papers together and they were all over the place, so staple them together! That one little piece of metal makes a big difference.
• Take notes as other people are answering questions to better understand the text and notions of the author and to see things from a different perspective.
• Try to get answers up on the google doc in a timely manner so that your group is not waiting for you to answer your questions.
• Try to split up the questions as even as possible and help your group members should they need assistance. You guys are a team after all!
• Be open to different opinions than your own.
• Respect the other teams and members and pay attention because things go surprisingly quick once the BRAWL has begun.
• List page number and chapter numbers in your questions and answers and try to use specific quotes from the book.
• Don’t be afraid to think something different than everyone else.

Also, make sure to actually read the text or I imagine it will be extremely hard trying to come up with a great answer for something you haven’t read. Just relax and have fun because this isn’t supposed to make you stress out, it’s to help you further understand the things that you are reading and make connections to other things as well.

Don’t forget to smile! 🙂

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