Entering the Magic Circle; what happens when the classroom becomes a space of make-believe?

One of my favorite things about playing games is the idea of the magic circle; the invisible yet unbreakable boundaries that are established by the very act of play. The ‘lusory’ attitude that players take upon within this new space of meaning provided by the rules and space of the game.

It entails a certain level of commitment to play a game. It means that you are going to invest your time and energy in the interactions that take place in a temporary world. At that point it is not important how much this temporary world resembles the ordinary world or if what you are experiencing is real or not - what is important is that you keep playing.

This very idea of ‘playing along’ as part of the ‘magic circle’ is one I find extremely powerful when talking about engaging kids in their learning. I remembered this during the last day of the trimester when we went through a ‘quest’ with the kids  at Q2L, that required them to be fully engaged in the following scenario; ‘you will have to present arguments based on historical facts during a short phone-call with angry ghosts from the colonial times’. (see previous post to understand what is a ‘quest’ and all the other lovely things about the school i work with called Quest to Learn)

To give you a bit of background, in Ghost vs Ghost, a Mission designed for the Being Space and Place class that has a focus on ‘point of view’ this trimester, children are faced with a disaster happening in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The colonial ghosts that are living in the American Wing of the MET have revolted against each other. Their different points of view have caused them to fight and as a result chaos has broken in the museum’s wing. As the kids are informed by the girlie rapper rat , Ratatat - the American Wing of the MET is now closed. In order for the museum’s wing to open again the children have to go through a series of “Quests” in order to gather all the historical facts they need to build arguments that will convince the ghosts to stop fighting.

So fast forward, here we are in the last day of the trimester where the students - these are 7th graders - are gathered around a projector connected to a computer anxiously waiting for the colonial ghosts to call them on skype. You see, this is their last chance to convince the ghosts to drop their differences and respect each other’s point of view. Moreover, there is competition between their peers; the class that will provide the best arguments will win the tenth and final key out of nine keys that children have been collecting all along the trimester and will be announced the winner of this Mission.

The first group of kids are holding their notes tight in their hands. They all have roles; there is a historian; a consultant and a mediator. And then the first ghost calls…It is Oberlin, a Native American Chief that is having troubles accepting the fact that Edward, a Northern Colonist has taken over his land. The kids listen to the deep voice, a clip I had recorded and distorted in garage band earlier that week, and look at each other smiling. They know that the ghosts do not exist and that the voice most likely belongs to one of their teachers. But they choose to play along; once they are on live on Skype they put on their serious face and with exceptional professionalism explain in detail all the reasons why Oberlin should try to understand where Edward is coming from.

What is interesting is that the students do not care that the ghosts are fake and that it is rather silly to be talking on skype to make-believe characters. What matters to them is that they have taken a commitment to play along, be part of the game and as part of that commitment they want to work together and do the best that they can do. The classroom at that very moment has turned into a space were learning happens seemingly…within the ‘magic circle’ of the game.