Intergalactic warfare and a battleship named 'Speare may not be the first thing that comes to mind when hearing the classic speech "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" Yet 'Speare, the new Flash-based game, available online at http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/Speare_full_free_Folder/speare.html does just that. Aimed at 10-15 year olds, it claims to promote literacy and provide a fun, interactive and non-threatening way to introduce students to Shakespeare's works1. Not bad for a video game.
The premise of this first-person shooter game is relatively simple, for a space soap opera. Apparently, each solar system in the Prospearean Galaxy is supposed to protect the literature of the ages by constructing Knowledge Spheres. Things were fine until a civil war broke out between the planets Montagor and Capulon, who were entrusted with guarding, of all things, the text of Romeo and Juliet. The Insidian Army captured this Knowledge Sphere, and as the game begins, it is now up to the elite squadron of spacecraft, 'Speare, to go out and get it back.
As far as video game play goes, it’s not half bad, and has been well-received in the gaming market2, which means there may be something to the website’s claim that 'Speare, unlike most other educational games, is designed to appeal to gamers3. There is a graphics-heavy introduction to the universe, and then, using your arrow keys to maneuver and various others to fire you scroll through five levels interspersed with the "poetic code," which turn out to be randomly chopped up bits of Shakespearean dialogue from the appropriate act of the play. The Insidians occasionally drop word-spheres, which you must shoot at to display a word in the quote. If your roll over the right words to complete the line, you are rewarded with points. Roll over the wrong words, and you blow yourself up. Occasionally you receive random bits of trivia about Elizabethan England and the play itself, which you must strive to remember for the end-of-level quiz, completed after defeating the level's big bad.
But can it actually improve literacy, particularly boys’ literacy? Hamlet and I concur that "that is the question." As any educator faced with a room of teenagers nodding off to the sweet strains of "to be or not to be" knows, the first step to improving literacy is getting students to engage with the text. Research by Kathy Sanford and Heather Blair, two Canadians who are currently studying the literacy of adolescent boys, suggests that the features and format of the game would definitely be appealing for boys. These researchers have found that boys’ interest in any sort of text is dependent upon their active emotional, mental and physical engagement, as well as the amount of success they experience4. According to their research, boys not only like to read and write about action, but they "really want to get into the action5" themselves and "do stuff6." Fun and challenge where they could experience success were also major themes that arose in their study of why boys chose the texts they did7. A fast-paced, shoot ‘em up video game like 'Speare, which continually challenges its players, would definitely engage boys by providing them with success at recognizing a text which is part of their English curriculum.
As for the actual content, the game does test players on basic English grammar and vocabulary, such as homonyms and synonyms, as well as their content knowledge of the play and Shakespeare's world8. Daniel Fischlin, an English professor at the University of Guelph and one of the game’s creators acknowledges that while some may think this type of approach to teaching literacy is "gimmicky9," those who ignore the power of new media as a pedagogical approach "do so at their own peril10." According to results from his focus group, after an hour of game play, literacy scores of the players increased by 72%11. The game’s intro informs us that "the power to speak is the power to do." With 'Speare, the power to play is the power to read.
1 Fischlin, Daniel (2004). Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project. University of Guelph. Retrieved March 16, 2009 from http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/speare.cfm .
2 Peckham, Matt. "'Speare: To Zap or Not To Zap" Weblog Entry. Game On. http://blogs.pcworld.com/gameon/archives/004214.html Posted April 24, 2007. Accessed March 16, 2009.
3 Fischlin, Daniel (2004). Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project. University of Guelph. Retrieved March 16, 2009 from http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/speare.cfm
4 Sanford, K. & Blair, H. (2003) Findings from the Canadian Adolescent Boys and Literacy project. Retrieved March 16, 2009 from http://www.education.ualberta.ca/boysandliteracy/findings.html
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 Griard, D. (2007, April 24). 'Wherefore art thou (zap) Romeo?' The Toronto Star, Retrieved March 16, 2009 from http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/206412
9 Proudfoot, S. (2007, April 24) "Wherefore art thou Shakespeare gamers?" Canada.com Retrieved March 16, 2009 from http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/documents/speare_canadacom_24_4_07.pdf
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
In the midst of panic about our failing boys, some educators have suggested that our definition of literacy is too narrow. If we re-define literacy to include digital literacies, such as the ability to play video games and surf the Internet,...
As an educator in an inner-city middle school and a parent of two teenage boys, I believe we must seriously question the effects of using popular digital literacies in our classrooms. Although our own Ministry of Education may...
Helen K. is a grade 8 teacher who believes that using digital literacies to reach her male students is a "natural progression." Her literacy unit that encourages students to utilize computers, video games, the internet and CD ROMs and deconstruct them...
This page uses the Perfect 'Right Menu' 2 Column Liquid Layout by Matthew James Taylor. View more website layouts and web design articles.