Immigration is a global phenomenon and foundational aspect of our shared cultural experience. In our presentation, Breaking Out the Immigrant and Refugee Experience, we will be engaging a game-based exercise in empathy designed to connect learners with literature that highlights the immigrant and refugee experience, building toward mutual understanding.
Immigration is a global phenomenon and foundational aspect of our shared cultural experience. Our global future is shaped by “unprecedented demographic shifts'', with immigration becoming a major contributor to population growth (Amthor & Roxas, 2016). This displacement is happening globally and locally, it is important for us to support immigrants and refugees as they transition. It is projected that by the year of 2050, one-third of the children in the U.S. will be either immigrants or the children of immigrants (Lander, 2018). As educators, we should adapt to the dynamics of a multicultural classroom and become culturally responsive so that we can better serve the needs of all students, including immigrant and refugee students. In our presentation, Breaking Out the Immigrant and Refugee Experience, we will be engaging a game-based exercise in empathy designed to connect learners with literature that highlights the immigrant and refugee experience, building toward mutual understanding.
This hands-on presentation seeks to engage educators with game-based learning solution to create a shared understanding among native and first-generation students. We will be executing an exercise in empathy designed to connect native born and first-generation learners with literature that highlights the immigrant and refugee experience, building toward mutual understanding. To accomplish this goal, educators from differing grade levels will participate in a game-based learning experience grounded in quality literature to reach learners. Each participant will engage in creating an original and reusable game-based learning experience focused on a piece of literature to be implemented in their learning environment. The benefits of game-based experiences on motivation, engagement, and learning are well documented (Jabbar & Felicia, 2015). Integrating games and literature that highlights the immigrant and refugee experience has great potential to engage the participants in a learning process that can build mutual cultural understanding in the classroom.
The vehicle for applying game-based learning in this project will be Breakout EDU and Google Suite applications. Breakout EDU, which is an escape-style, educational game where groups of learners must work collaboratively to solve a series of puzzles or problems by unlocking boxes with clues (Rouse, 2017). It is a game-based, problem solving, and immersive experience designed to engage participants in higher-level authentic learning while encouraging teamwork and collaboration toward mutual goals. Google Suite will be utilized through multiple applications to create a no cost version. The Google applications used will be Google Docs, Google Slides, and Google Forms.
This game-based learning experience will provide a supported environment for group cultural learning and discussion. This combination of literature and game-based learning can be customized by learner level, culture and cross-curricular topic to embrace multiple curricular needs. Our participants will receive access to templates and resources that focus on the immigrant and refugee experience from multiple cultural identities. Educator participants will have the opportunity to revise and improve their Breakout EDU design and related materials. The sharing of these materials freely will allow for the greater dissemination of the project Breakout EDU and Google work products in service of the greater good locally, regionally, nationally, and globally.
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