Jenga! - a metaphor for how writers use tension

 I love finding ways to get games into the classroom (if you've read any of my other posts, you may have noticed). It is a great way to immediately amp up the students' engagement and energy levels. Many of the others I've written about - beep, bingo, taboo - can work in any subject. This one, I'm afraid, is purely for those Literature teachers among us...


Jenga is a tense game. Therefore, I use it as a metaphor for tension in a text. I literally get the students to play Jenga as we read a tense moment of a text. Favourite moments for this include: Romeo & Juliet Act 3 Scene 5; the bit with Candy's dog in Of Mice and Men; and when Fi gatecrashes the wedding in KE Salisbury's the face that pins you. As I'm reading I call people up to take a turn. The other students will get massively distracted, but at this point you pause (maybe while a student has half pulled out a brick) and ask the students if they are enjoying the lesson.

"Yes!" they reply.

"Ah ha! Why is that?" you ask.

"Because of the game!"

"Ok... but how is the game making you feel?" 

"Um... excited? Nervous? Tense?"

"Right... so how is that similar to what the writer is doing at this point?"

Hopefully, this will then cue a light bulb moment for many of the students as you then discuss how and why writer's create tension (this is usually my learning objective for lessons like this). Adding in a few jump scares - where you make a loud noise behind the back of the student taking a turn - will help make the point further! The students will be buzzing and you will have just brought the text to life in a very real and kinaesthetic way. 

Obviously, to create risks and rewards somewhat similar to those the characters are undergoing, there needs to be some kind of penalty for the student who knocks over the tower and a reward for the last student to successfully have a go before it gets knocked over. You can even have them play in teams; the whole team gets the penalty or reward, thus increasing the pressure on the individual. 

If you don't have Jenga, persuade your Head of Department to buy a set. However, I've occasionally used Monkey Madness for variety's sake. I imagine games like Buckaroo or Operation would work equally well. Sometimes being a parent has huge advantages for teachers!  




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