Monsieur Autio

Looking Back

I have always played cards and board games. Little did I know then how much learning happened in these games or how much of a staple they would become in my teaching practice.

Set Up

I cherish memories of my paternal grandma and me waking up early in the summer and playing countless rounds of Gin and all its variants on her patio; playing Hearts on family camping trips with the propane lantern whirring into the dark night; playing Crib on my maternal grandparents’ living room table; and playing endless rounds of Speed at summer camp, where the cards always fell through the cracks of the green-painted wooden picnic tables.

In Grade 10, I did an exchange to a tiny town in Quebec—Saint-Hilarion—and for the first time took a bus to La Baie-Saint-Paul for high school. There, I somehow fell into a group of new friends who played Big 2 at every break on the communal benches in the hallway. Then in university, I played Sevens with my neighbour and her friend and instantly found a safe place even though I was across the country from my family. Seeing this now, it’s clear that playing cards was always a way to build connections and have fun.

Then there were the board games: Clue, The Farming Game, Dutch Blitz, Settlers of Catan, Dominion, Pay Day, Cranium, Sequence, Masterpiece, Monopoly, Fluxx, Cards Against Humanity (Apples to Apples at school), and so many more—just a few of my and my family’s favourites. We would often take out a game after a big family meal and take a break from eating before dessert. More often than not, snacks, tea, and other drinks would accompany our playing. We’d play round after round of whatever game was on the table, often before dessert was ever served. The end of the game was usually a natural time for the evening to come to a close, guests to leave, and us to head to bed.

I would be remiss to share childhood memories of board games without mentioning the perhaps thousands of games of Scrabble I witnessed over the years played by my mom, grandma, and aunts. Our family certainly doesn’t play the competitive version—we show each other our tiles and go “shopping” in the dictionary to the point that the game becomes more of a conversation starter than a competition. My mom, though, always cheats—because she keeps score.

Object

As I reflect, I can now see that the underlying object of these games was to connect, learn, and teach. We connected across generations through chatting and learning to socialize. When playing with guests, we would often have to teach them how to play our favourite game—or, vice versa, be learners alongside them. Sometimes we’d adapt or add rules to fit the group and problem-solve together. In other instances, we would have to learn new rules altogether. This required a lot of patience as we learned, tried things out, read instructions, or watched video tutorials.

When playing board games, one must practice a high degree of selflessness and learn to “read the room,” particularly when teaching and learning across generations. We had to consider who we were playing with, their experience, and sometimes adapt to meet their skills and needs. With people new to the game, we often played an “open hand” to show how the game worked. Then, we’d scaffold to a “closed hand” and move forward. With more experienced players, we gained excitement from strategizing and leaning into the competition.

At the heart of it, the object of most board games is to win—but is that truly the ultimate goal of playing?

I love the French translation for board games: jeux de société, which literally translates back to English as “social games.” In many ways, this is the true raison d’être of board games—to gamify society! When we play together, we take on roles of both learner and teacher.

Last year, I introduced Hearts to my class, and soon after, card games gained momentum. It became an opportunity for children to take on leadership roles and develop deeper peer relationships.

What’s more, in the BC Curriculum is the idea of “purposeful play” as a way to learn different concepts and ideas—and how much more playful can we get than board games? Another cornerstone of the BC Curriculum is the Core Competencies: Communication, Critical and Creative Thinking, and Personal and Social skills. Even without naming them, you can see direct connections between these competencies and the stories above.

I often have students complete a self-reflection about social games and the Core Competencies, with particular focus on Personal-Social as well as Communication. Therefore, playing board games is part of the curriculum! We’re playing with purpose—to develop our Core Competencies, and more.

Game Play

Board games have been a staple for our Friday afternoons and have made several appearances during math and literacy centres. Some of our favourites have been Beaux gestes (Guesstures), Dixit, Apples to Apples, Spot It!, Headbandz, Bananagrams, Mobi (essentially math Bananagrams), Prime Climb, and more recently, Exploding Kittens (French edition) and Taco, Chapeau, Gâteau, Pizza.

Typically, I introduce one new board game at a time in addition to ones that students already know or can lead. For some games, I’ve shown video tutorials to the whole class or done live tutorials myself. My next step is to curate quality tutorials and include QR codes in the boxes for even more independent learning.

To introduce card games, I specifically do a tutorial of Hearts, as I can easily access an online version to show on the screen and share my personal connection of playing it while camping. During this tutorial, I introduce vocabulary and rules at the same time. Then everyone plays, and I circulate, encouraging the use of new vocabulary.

Last year, card games were such a hit that they became our after-lunch activity for about 15–20 minutes as students used the washroom and made their way back to class. It was a great way to get students speaking in French, and as time went on, the class developed their fluency, confidence, and leadership skills. It was a way for us to authentically build empathy and deeper relationships and put into practice a lot of the social-emotional learning we had learned through the year. 

Strategy

To introduce social games in French Immersion, a simple set of words is all you need:

• Turn – ton tour
• Shuffle – brasser / mélanger les cartes
• Deal – distribuer
• Deck – jeu de cartes
• Draw pile – la pioche
• Suits – enseignes (ou couleurs)
• Hearts – cœurs
• Diamonds – carreaux
• Spades – piques
• Clubs – trèfles
• 1 à 10 – un à dix
• Jack – valet
• Queen – reine
• King – roi

With these words, you can play almost any social game, particularly card games. As students become more familiar with the vocabulary, they’re better able to take on leadership roles—teaching the class or small groups new games they know. The repertoire of games in the class evolves and becomes a playful community—or society. Moreover, these words transfer to board games, and students gain independence in learning new games or at least starting to play more in French.

Collecting

My collection of board games has grown over the years. Most have been purchased from thrift stores, Facebook Marketplace, or through French Immersion government funding. Sometimes I’ve even found French versions of games at Winners! The decks of cards were already at my school, but they have stickers from a casino that supposedly donated them years ago (or perhaps a teacher went and asked for them?).

Management and Leadership

For game management, I have a shelf where the games are easily visible, and I try my best to sort them in color order by box (ROYGBV to black and white). This works surprisingly well.

As far as standards, this year I projected the expectations for social game time as:

1. Stay calm.

2. Speak more French than English.

3. Be inclusive and respectful of everyone. (When someone gains the courage to ask, “Can I play?”, your answer should always be, “Sure you can play, but you may need to wait for the next round for us to deal you in!”)

4. Take care of materials: leave the games better than you found them (lids on correctly, all supplies in place, tidy, back in their place).

This last standard is framed after the “camping” motto my parents taught me as a child and transfers beautifully to board games.

Winning

There is so much to love about social games, and what I love most is that they are a way to live the BC Core Competencies, to authentically learn new languages, and—above all—to have fun! I’ve learned, too, that this time is a great opportunity to socialize with my students and play with them as an equal.

It’s a way I can share something that has been special in my life with my students—and pack in a lot of quality learning. As teachers know, play is learning and board games provide a structure that helps guide that play to be not only purposeful for learning but meaningful, and memorable for the everyone. 

Autios! À la prochaine!

Where do you see yourself in my story? Leave a comment!

• What is your favourite card or board game to play?

• Share a time you played games with new people.

• What’s a “hidden” lesson in games you now realize?