Communication and professional relationships with children, young people and adults. 2. 3:1. 1 Describe how to establish respectful, professional relationships with children and young people. (Sourced from teaching assistants handbook level 2): Ten ways to develop positive relationships with pupils: 1. Remembering children’s names and pronouncing them correctly. 2. Being approachable and willing to listen to pupils 3. Listening and responding to pupils in ways which let children feel they are understood. 4.
Giving time to pupils as individuals within the school. 5. Avoiding stereotype judgements about individual pupils concerning race, gender, ability or religion.
6. Getting pupils own explanation concerning behaviour before critciising them; do not jump to conclusions. 7. Communicating with pupils I n a sensitive way, e. g. do not interrupt them rudely or talk over them. 8. Showing pupils that they are valued and important people. 9. Being alert to children’s feeling. 10. Looking at the world from a child’s point of view.
It is essential to show a genuine interest in the child’s welfare from a nurturing and educational perspective, being aware of confidentiality when working with children in your local community.
2. 3:1. 2 describe with examples how to behave appropriately for a child or young person’s stage of development. With every age group and remembering all children will have their own unique development it is important to get the basics right – “remember their frame of reference” – at the point of communication/instruction form the TA is the child/young person able to understand, carry out, think out a solution etc. t is important to remember also the developmental milestones discussed in section 2. 1 and alter behaviour accordingly. However there are differences in behaviour dependent upon leaners age, i. e. Children who are 3-5 years old need to have their welfare considered as a priority and a warm, safe play environment provided. These children will struggle to articulate their needs/wants appropriately. The TA’s role is to support the child’s expression and to guide the child in achieving appropriate age related milestones.
As the child gets older the more independent the child becomes in terms of, gross and fine motor skills, cognitive development, communication and language, emotional, social and personal development; therefore the behaviour of the TA has to alter accordingly. Children and young people need to have their own ability and points of view heard, their education and knowledge respected in the classroom. However structure and rules in the classroom are important to give a foundation for a warm supportive atmosphere.
Another example of this will be to awareness by the TA that from the age of 8 children will have a developmental milestones regarding personal, emotional and social development; so children can become sensitive to criticism, puberty changes and their idea of self-becoming more defined. The TA needs to encourage physical activity, allow them to talk freely or be aware of children needing alone time or privacy. * 0-18 months – A warm soft tone in voice, with soft friendly facial expressions; when preparing dinner and guiding the young child to either eat food or drink milk etc. he adult’s behaviour should be gentle and encouraging through eye contact, demonstration and praise. * 2-3 years – verbal communication with tone, body language becomes more important as the child starts to understand more words. With the situation of giving safety instructions to a child then the adults behaviour should reflect the importance of the instruction whilst ensuring the child feels safe and capable of following it, such as, holding hands whilst crossing the road.
I would ensure that I made eye contact with the child, positive friendly tone to voice and be at their level and then hold out my hand and state that when crossing the road we must hold hands and walk carefully across the road. This instruction is one often repeated on a daily basis when out and will develop as the child becomes older in terms of road safety – aware of traffic movements. * 5 8 years old – verbal instruction, participation, body language, discussion; these are all valuable at this age dynamically.
When involved in a task with children of this age, I would allow a greater freedom of involvement/contribution from the child using my own facial expressions to encourage this, such as, guided reading in a group – recently I experienced this where I encourage the children to ask each other questions, deciding how they would respond appropriately in the group environment. I found that this approach generated a good productive learning environment and they seemed to enjoy it. * 12 – 16. This age group needs a greater recognition for independence and knowledge. I would endeavour to use a more conciliatory attitude with this age group.
I would ensure that my body language was positive and accepting, such as, if involved with a group activity I would facilitate their ability to achieve a positive outcome by asking questions; these questions may relate to group dynamics, resolution of activity and how could the situation be improved. * 17-19 years old. This age group I would behave hopefully showing respect through my tone/body language. My verbal communication would be relevant and respectful allowing an openness of opinion within the learning environment. 2. 3:1. 3 Describe how to deal with disagreements between children and young people.
In the teaching assistants handbook there is a sentence which states, “to develop positive relationships every child needs: S – Security P – Praise E – Encouragement C – Communication I – interaction A – Acceptance L – Love The “special” example could be discussed in class by the learners and from there the discussion could be guided to discuss conflict situations. The learner through discussion and role play would become aware of passive, aggressive, submissive and assertive actions and realise the affect in a conflict situation if these traits where displayed.
In an actual event depending upon the severity it is important that both parties are heard with witness statements where appropriate and in line with the schools policy/legal/confidentiality constraints, if appropriate the issue resolved at time with a mutual agreement, such as an apology or where necessary moving into schools disciplinary policy. e. g. If a child of five kept annoying a fellow class mate and disrupting a task, then they might be asked to stop, sit on their own and placed on the class room” cloud”! , or if a child using physical violence and or swearing then this would be a matter or the teacher/head teacher to become involved in instigating school policy. 2. 3:1. 4 Describe how own behaviour could * Promote effective interactions with children and young people. * Impact negatively on interactions with children and young people Effective interactions: 1. Encouraging children to sort out their problems together. E. g. Conflict in playground could be resolved by asking the children/young persons to discuss what happened giving each time to state their opinion and then asking questions to aid the children overcoming the problem; do you agree with this?
And how would you progress the situation now? 2. Being a good role model; I would ensure that my own behaviour is appropriate and I would endeavour to demonstrate organically good manners, politeness and fairness. The class rules state to, “Care and Share”. 3. Allowing children to set their own ground rules/ agreeing a strategy with a child/children/ negotiating solutions with children * : in class the children established their own ground rules for behaviour, these were then written out onto a large poster and the children coloured in the words and decorated the poster.
The poster is now displayed in the class room for all to see, they then all signed it to say they agreed to act accordingly. 4. Talking to a child who has behaved inappropriately, away from others but still remaining in sight. I experienced a situation whereby a child had pushed another child which caused the other child to fall over and hurt themselves; the child that was hurt was quite upset and I felt that the child that had caused the accident needed to be spoken to about their behaviour.
I ensured the hurt child was ok and was settled and then I asked the other child to move to the other side of the class rooms – I was in sight of other children and teacher. I then asked why that behaviour has happened, we discussed the situation in light of the class rules that had been written and agreed and then the child agreed to apologise to the to the other child and I ensured that both children felt the issue had been resolved. 5. Thanking children for the help and support. I feel it is very important that a good example is set by my own behaviour and positively pointing out when they forget to say please and thank you.
At school there is a series of doors that breaks up the corridors between classrooms; children are encouraged to keep open the door whilst other people go through them. The children are asked to take note of those children who thank the child opening the door. In cases of exceptionally good behaviour “house” points can be given. Also year 2 to year 4 are encouraged to become good role models for the younger children, especially reception children; the teachers and teaching assistants always thank the older children for their help.
Impact negatively: 1. Shouting at children: In all ages, including adults shouting at them has little positive effect. In babies and younger children, shouting would cause extreme fear and only result in upsetting them severely. As children get older the initial fear reaction will still be there however the child may become confused, aggressive themselves as they will tend to mimic the way they are being communicated with. It can be the case of trying to motivate a child/young person through fear rather than interest.
An exception may be when immediate danger, such as crossing the road or prevent an accident. 2. Invading children’s private space: It is important recognise a child’s personal space, at all ages it is important when in any caring, supportive and educational role with children that their personal space is not violated. In my personal experience I always ask my daughters permission to help undress/dress her; even when she was a baby I would talk through what I was about to do and why I was doing it, such as changing her nappy or feeding her.
I wanted her to understand that I do not have any rights to just invade her space without telling her what I was doing and now as she can do most things herself I will ask her if she needs help etc. before doing g it. In school I would always ensure that I would ask the child if it’s ok to help, such as during break time first aid cover – letting them know what I was doing for their care. 3. Teasing a child. Nobody likes to be teased even” in fun”!! – I feel humour is in important but a child’s emotional development has to be recognised as to what is appropriate humour to use.
A child of 5 would generally not understand sarcasm and could feel unsettled by its use; however when dealing with young people in some cases sarcasm may be appropriate as a 2. 3:2. 1 know how to interact with and respond to adults. Describe how to establish respectful, professional relationships with adults: It is very important when dealing with adults that appropriate forms of communication are used. Verbal, nonverbal, symbolic and written, using these with integrity and appropriateness will generate a positive start to forming professional relationships with adults.
This is important because it helps to maintain a positive learning environment that benefits everyone. 2. 3:2. 2 describe the importance of adult relationships as role models for children and young people. When a child or young person sees an adult behaving in a certain way, communicating with other adults it shows them how they could/should behave. It is important that adults are good role models for children and young adults because it shows them how to behave. Children and young people will often mimic the communication techniques of their family environment consciously or subconsciously. . 3:3 know how to communicate with children, young people and adults. 2. 3:3. 1 and 3. 2 Describe how to communicate with children and young people differs across different age ranges and stage of development. Describe the main differences between communicating with adults and communicating with children and young people. * 0-18 months – at this age and development the adult’s display of body language, facial expression, eye contact, tone of voice and verbal communication needs to be soft and reassuring to the baby. The baby needs to feel loved, warmth, well fed, well rested and played with.
Gently singing voices, soft toys and basic language such as food descriptions – milk, water, yes, no, hot and cold. * 2-3 years – at this age and development the child needs the points described above but now there ability to understand language is greatly developed; they will be able to understand a lot more and communicate back what their likes, dislikes, wants and needs. They will be asserting themselves – “the terrible twos”!! As some people call them. Then need to know boundaries such as safety boundaries but they ill understand basic explanations as to why as well. Often techniques such as the reflective chair is needed, naughty step etc. as at this age children their emotional development will tend to be yes or no, wrong or right, however praise and recognising when the child has behaved well is vital in achieving good communication with them. * 5-8 years old – again at this age and development the adult needs to recognise the child greater ability to understand verbal communication such as sarcasm, storytelling, and factual information.
They will need a lot of emotional support as they will have gone through some important transitions such as starting school, new role models in the lives – teachers etc. , new friends, an awareness of social status at school – these will need support from their carers and learning environment. This age group will be able to understand written communications better; the concentration spans will be longer enabling them to take in more information, such as in lessons. 12-16 years old – this age and development will be actively seeking communication with their peers and subjects of interest such as animal rights, poetry, music etc. They may find it difficult to talk to their carers/educators as they may feel that there is little similar interest etc. They will be using social media hopefully under parental guidance. They will be able to write extensively and express opinions about factual information. Their imagination will be able to create their own ideas and express them in their own unique way – such as photography.
The adults need to communicate effectively showing respect to the young person but ensuring safety is paramount. * 17-19 years old – at this point the young person is nearly an adult and will have a wide ranging vocabulary to use, be able to express ideas/opinions in a variety of ways. They will be able to retain large amounts of information and then communicate it all at exam times under a great deal of pressure. There emotional development however may still need maturing and therefore the adult needs to be aware of this as frustrations may be shown through confrontational behaviour.
Emotional and intellectual support will need to be communicated by the responsible adults at this time. * Adults – at this point the communication status should be relatively equal. There will be exceptions as respect has to be given for knowledge and position in society and this comes from a knowledge that can be taught through observations – how adults communicate with one another as a child develops and maturity – through experience, such as a doctors, police people, fire brigade etc. The difference being that there should be : 1. Appropriate body language . Tone of voice 3. Eye contact 4. Active listening 5. Correct emotional, intellectual response This is a dynamic process changing as the form of communication develops,i. e communication via text will have none of the above just written information but when talking to someone face to face , all of the above will be involved plus memory of previous conversations and there content etc. 2. 3: 3. 3 Identify examples of communication difficulties that may exist. 3. 4 Describe how to adapt communication to meet different communication needs.
Communication Difficulty| Strategies to use| English as a second language| Use visual cards with the word and the picture associated with it. Use their own language against our language on picture cards, source IT solutions such as translating documents/reading books so they have both to compare – may need translator for a time. | Hearing problems| Sign language, ensure eye contact is made. Sit at front of class – made need specialist support, medical, support teaching – also specialist hearing programmes on IT. Cultural differences| Embrace the difference; ask guardians if the class can explore their culture – read books in class, bring in objects etc. with culture to discuss – “show and tell”. | Stammer/Stutter| Ensure confidence in child, take time and don’t interrupt, made need specialist support, include in reading| Personality Clash| Don’t label child/young person – try and find common ground and try and get them to work together on a project – explain challenges to them and see if they would like to work together to overcome them. Shy/lacks confidence| Look at what they enjoy and give lots of praise when they take part without embarrassing them, involve as much as possible at their comfortable level| Forceful personality| Look at structuring their involvement; discuss other people’s characters and how they respond in situations and look at pros and cons – ask them to role play difference scenarios. | Additional points: Scenarios: 1. 2 children aged three years old are playing chase; one child has had enough and starts to get fractious about it when the other persists on carrying on the game.
I would initially see for a very short time if the issue could resolve itself on its own, however if I had to come in this is what I would do: * Make sure I was at their height level * Ask them both what was wrong in front of one another ensuring the children did not interrupt one another – by stating that we should listen and respect one another. * I would then see if they could play together doing something else. * I would express open body language; my tone of voice would be soft but reassuring.
I would try to ensure that the children were friends and played together, if not that they both felt at ease. 2. 4 children aged 7 are working on a project together creating a large scale model of a dinosaur from clay, one of the children keeps breaking the model in places as he has Dyspraxia and has poor coordination and manipulative skills and the others are getting frustrated. Initially I would ensure that the children were calm by asking them to speak one at a time to tell me what the problem was.
I would then ask the child with Dyspraxia what they felt the problem was; I would then ask the other children if there was one part that could be made by the other child. It would be important to ensure that the child with Dyspraxia felt included and I would do this by body laugauge and eye contact so that they were involved in the decision making process. 3. 2 ten year old boys are arguing about who has made the best picture for a school competition and it is now starting to get out of hand.
At this point a the situation needs to calm down so that would be my first priority and I would do this by asking them both to stop talking at each other and tell me one at a time what was the problem. Ensuring I was actively listening to them and had good eye contact. At this point how the conversation would go is difficult to say as I would suspect that in a few cases humour would be good to resolve, or a discussion on difference of opinion and the respect to agree to disagree etc. – could be used as a good learning opportunity for communication development. .
4 girls aged 15 have been short listed for the main role in the school’s annual production. There are roles for them all but they all want the leading part and tensions is clearly mounting amongst them to the point where they are picking fault with each other and highlighting the fact that one wears glasses, one is too “ fat” and one is Asian so couldn’t possibly play the leading part in Grease. This situation is a great opportunity to discuss diversity, cultural and social difference, empathy and acceptance of difference.
I would bring all the girls together and let them express what strengths they feel they have for the role in front of the other girls and then guide the conversation to who they felt best would suit the role, allowing difference of opinion be expressed but ensuring respect was maintained. My goal would be for the girls to choose themselves who would play lead. It may be important to carry on this situation by visiting/seeing performances which different to the normal expectations such as a modern Romeo and Juliet play etc. 2. 3:3. 5 Describe how to deal with disagreements between: The practioner and children and young people * The practioner and other adults If there was a disagreement between myself and a child/young person I would hope that the situation could be resolved between us. I would ensure that the environment we were in was conducive and that we were not on our own and that the child/young person was safe. I would initially say to them that I am sorry if I have upset them and that I really want to sort the issue out for everyone, I would ensure that my body language was appropriate, my tone of voice friendly and my language appropriate for their age.
I would ask them to tell me what they felt was wrong and ask how that makes them feel, if I thought it would help I would offer an explanation and then ask if they felt this had resolved the issue. If the issue was not resolved I would ask that another adult such as the teacher be involved to help come to a resolution. It is important to ensure that they child/young person has felt that their point of view has been heard no matter the outcome. In a case where safety is a risk then the child/young person might not be allowed to climb the outside of the school building!
But their wish has been expressed and heard and may be a trip to a rock climbing centre could be arranged. If there was a disagreement between myself and another adult I would wish to discuss the problem and ensure that it got resolved. I would actively listen, use appropriate body language and respond with respect. If the situation could not be resolved then I would ask for another adult to arbitrate the situation. 2. 3:4. 1 know about current legislation, policies and procedures for confidentiality and sharing information, including data protection.
Identify relevant legal requirements and procedures covering confidentiality, data protection and the disclosure of information. Data protection act 1998 covers 8 enforceable principles of personal data: 1. Fairly and lawfully processed 2. Processed for limited purposes 3. Adequate, relevant and not excessive 4. Accurate 5. Not kept longer than necessary 6. Processed in accordance with data subjects rights 7. Secure 8. Not transferred to countries without adequate protection
Individual rights are protected by Freedom of Information Act 2000; this allows individuals to ask any public sector organisation for all recorded information they have. Also; * Public authorities are obliged to publish certain information about their activates * Members of the public can request information from public authorities. Any personal data such as health records, credit checks etc. are governed by the Data Protection Act 1998. Also the school will have their own policies and procedures outlining their confidentiality mandate for the school.
The teachers and teaching assistants must ensure that these are followed. At school there will be records held about all pupils and these records are protected by these laws. However there will be general information that everyone needs to be aware of such as health issues, allergies, exclusion from religious education or physical education. Also if there are any confidential matters those teachers/assistants need to be aware of such as transitions that happening at home and child welfare issues. Also emergency contacts have to be available.
There will also be the information shared between colleagues at school that must be treated confidentially and discussed only ever in a professional manner, the parameters for these conversation may be outlines in the schools confidentiality policies. 2. 3:4. 2 describe the importance of reassuring children, young people and adults of the confidentiality of shared information and the limits of this. Any information shared amongst colleagues, children and young people with reference to others at their school must have a purpose and be non – detrimental to the individual concerned.
There is an obvious need for the knowledge of allergies to be known, such as nut allergies. The school needs to issue a policy so everyone is aware of what to do in such circumstances and what not to do to prevent an event. The parents of all children may need to be issued with a ban on nuts at school etc. There may be an incident where I am asked for specific information relating to another child by a parent, such as an address for a birthday party invitation. This is not a reason to state personal data to another and the parent should be asked to contact the appropriate parent themselves.
Another situation that could arise is whereby private information needs to be isolated before seeing to an issue that has is just arisen; in the case of completing school achievement records of a child/young person these should not be left if a first aid incident needed to be dealt with. The records could be placed out or reach or placed in a draw quickly before attending issue. If I had any concerns of a child’s welfare I would speak to the teacher about the issue before discussing it with anyone else. If appropriate I would speak to head teacher/safe guarding officer as well in such cases the teacher was implicated.
I would write my own notes and then give them to the head teacher and monitor the situation. If a child raised an issue with me and I felt that their safety was at risk I would have to let them know that I have a duty of care to inform the safe guarding officer at school of what I have been told. However I would do my upmost to ensure that the child/young person was looked after treated with respect and the situation dealt with care. 2. 3:4. 3 identify the kinds of situations when confidentiality protocols must be breached. I would breach confidentiality of a child/young person if I felt that their safety/welfare was at risk.
Cite this How to Establish Professional Relationships With People?
How to Establish Professional Relationships With People?. (2016, Oct 12). Retrieved from https://graduateway.com/how-to-establish-professional-relationships-with-people/


Good practice books with non formal and gamified activities for NGOs to be used by other NGOs in their own inclusion and integration projects.
What is Gamification? (A simple question, no simple answers)
There are many definitions for Gamification, but probably the more encompassing one would be the one Gartner coined: “Gamification is the use of game mechanics and experience design to digitally engage and motivate people to achieve their goals.” This definition highlights gamification’s reliance on digital technology and the design of the user experience.
The key elements of this definition are:
- Game mechanics as, for example, the use of elements such as points, badges and leaderboards that are common to many games.
- Experience design describes the journey players take with elements such as game play, play space and story line.
- Gamification is more often than not a method to digitally engage, rather than personally engage, meaning that players interact with computers, smartphones, wearable monitors or other digital devices, rather than engaging with a person (but it doesn’t always have to be the case)
- The goal of gamification is to motivate people to change behaviors or develop skills, or to drive innovation.
- Gamification focuses on enabling players to achieve their goals. When organizational / educational goals are aligned with player goals, the organization achieves its goals as a consequence of players achieving their goals.
Gamification Techniques everyone can use
Gamification is normally employed as a strategy to make user interfaces more engaging to achieve learning goals and promote cooperation, as an example. There are hundreds of different techniques, some of the most commonly used are listed below, but before you get started make sure of the following:
Take the long view: Regardless of who or what you’re trying to gamify, it’s very important that you take the long view. It’s very easy to get people riled up, and in any group of people, there are going to be those that love competition and those that do not. One of the more important things to avoid when it comes to gamification for social good is going too deep too early.
Make sure that whatever you do is appropriate for the audience and not going to be a one-size-fits-all type of program.
Don’t overemphasize rewards: Thinking that people will only participate in your program if the rewards are big and flashy is a fallacy. The best gamification programs are about the experience itself (sometimes a competitive experience, others a collaborative one). Focusing on the rewards only often creates false incentives (people end up cutting corners and doing things you really don’t want them doing, just for the win).
Level the playing field: Starting by clearly understanding what framework to use and share the rules, goals and expectations with everyone involved (you can even create those together, if the opportunity and the conditions are there). This helps everyone understand how the game works, what they have to do, and how to succeed. Of course, gamification in the social environment should preferably be about some larger goal and having the rules of the game out in the open helps everyone participate, regardless of who ends up winning or not.
You’re all winners! This probably goes without saying, but when we talk about gamification, most of the times the competitive aspect is very strong, but even in the more competitive scenarios performance should be measured at least in part based on participation, let alone in projects of the cooperative kind. If 90% of your participants are fully engaged in your program (whatever it is), that’s a huge win, regardless if the top 10% are driving the majority of the results. Gamification in the context we are working is about the team, about every single participant.
Where to start?
The concepts we are sharing here may seem quite simple but one can easily get lost in the process. A game is most successful when there is a clear theme and goal, and when the game is designed to help the player achieve those goals. Picking the right style of game for the right case or issue is also important.
- Recognize the theme. Figure out the problem, cause, issue of interest.
- Figure out the GOAL. What is the point of the game? What would you like the players to be able to do upon completion of the game?
- Plan how to realize the goal you set through the game engine. Is it a simulation game? Trivia game? Strategy?
- Reward player understanding and knowledge acquisition.
- Know the audience. The players determine the course of the game you are developing and how successful that game is.
Having a good framework makes the process a lot more manageable, easier to measure and to replicate in different countries / contexts. The framework we found to be more robust, complete while fairly easy to understand is the Octalysis tool, developed by the Gamification Expert Yu-Kai Chou.
Chou regularly offers his Udemy courses on Gamification for free and they are extremely informative and clear.
Why does Gamification make sense in the Citizen Time project?
- More than just gamification, this project is using the power of play to foster interconnectedness, to go back to the basics of what it means to be a human being, to use emotional tools that cause visceral and emotional reactions and connect to those who might seem different at first, but are so alike when we look closer. It’s the best place to see the other as just another part of ourselves. What better tools to promote empathy than to play music together, to be part of a theater play, to go back to that childlike place when we play an engaging game, either something physical, like football, a board game, or even a digital collaboration game online?
How could these experiences of play help?
Jean-Michel Blottière, Co-President Games for Change Europe said it in the best possible way:
We don’t pretend we can solve the extremely complex issues involved in two days. They will take far longer to understand and master. We don’t think videogames are a kind of “magic wand” to be waved at Immigration or Integration. We certainly don’t claim we are specialists in answering these questions. Instead, our plan was simply to bring together game designers, researchers, activists, artists and others who recognize the importance of the topic, experts who are willing to explore how video games can help. Two of the most important areas where video games have proven to be successful are to educate, and to tackle critical issues without preaching. Combine those strengths with a game’s proven ability to build self-esteem in players, and they seem a perfect way for exploring such an important and timely subject. Video games already offer extremely powerful alternative education models. Would it be possible to create games that would educate migrants and refugees who don’t speak the language of the country where they’ve just arrived, but who can master the universal language of video games? We wanted to see if it is feasible to create videogames that would help restore the self-esteem of people who have been deprived of their social position, their everyday way of life, and find themselves living in tents in mud pools or hiding in trucks; people who are trying to cross borders, most of the time without success, even losing loved ones in the attempt. We know video games can influence gamers for better or worse. Some of them merely strengthen “fixed mental attitudes,” reinforcing stereotypes about women and other cultures. Europe is made up of old countries, proud of their “identities.” But it should be possible to create videogames which could help French, English, German, Italian citizens to better understand “others,” “strangers,” “invaders.” Can video games assist in changing these “fixed mental attitudes” as well? We could add to this list many other topics ripe for exploration. Social entrepreneurship can offer the possibility of a meaningful and productive future for refugees who see no future at all. Videogames can restore pride in one’s traditions and culture. There are even more needs to be addressed such as getting “papers” please, and locating lost family members. Marie Gillespie told us how important cell phones are for refugees to get information about which border is open or closed; to alert coast guards when Zodiacs are about to sink; or to help sick people to explain, via translation tools, their symptoms. What will work? What won’t? We don’t know. Not yet. This was a beginning dialogue. The dialogue began. Where it goes after this is up to you. Au travail!
Some inspiration / examples
So how can a game be used for social change or as behavior change tool? With Gamification the idea is that you take something as routine as vocabulary building, recycling, or exercise and turning it into something exciting. Let’s face it; some of the good habits we really want to and are trying to develop can be tedious. By turning these events into games, you can change these tasks into something exciting, and make it easier to learn or sustain a behavior too. It would be wonderful if we could ALWAYS have enough intrinsic motivation to change certain habits or states of mind without external aids like gamification, but while we work of those more permanent internal shifts, any help is welcome. Let’s look at a few brilliant examples of using gamification for social change.
Vermontivate online game is an annual challenge designed to help players of all ages and experience levels take meaningful action on climate change. You can play as an individual, or as a team member for a school, a community or workplace. You can “win” prizes by collecting points for completing an extensive array of suggested climate-friendly tasks, as well as being recognized for submitting photos or other sharing activities.
World Peace Game The World Peace Foundation recognized children’s potential, and set out to educate them using a system called the World Peace Game. This game was developed almost twenty years ago and is a political simulation which takes up an entire classroom and typically involves the participation of at least twenty-five students. The game starts with each child, who has been chosen to represent a particular country, inheriting some form of conflict upon their country be it economic, political, resource related, and so on. The idea is that each child must then use their thinking skills and imagination to work out this problem in a peaceful way.
GeoQ: Game Based Training Tool For First Responders GeoQ is a web-based, open source workflow and exploitation platform, which enables analysts to work with each other and first responders in a collaborative mapping environment.
Freeric is a multiple-choice game that has you pick the definition to a word. The United Nations World Food Program owns and supports this web-based game. For each right answer, you donate ten grains of rice. The donated rice is then given to underprivileged countries. Not only are you learning definitions to words you didn’t know the existence of, you‘re donating rice to a hungry family.
MOTOVATE is an app-supported incentive program for families and fleets to improve driver behavior and reduce distracted driving.
Samaritan App The samaritan app reveals the story of unsheltered people whom you pass by daily. You can give towards critical needs and create lifelines of hope
MaximusLife Raise money and awareness for good causes when you walk, run, workout, bike, do yoga, lose weight, drink water or any other activity based challenges you choose. Every check-in allows you to easily raise awareness, earn sponsored donations and enters you to win big prizes for your social good! Everyday you check-in to your challenge you earn points for rewards and earn entries to win rewards and experiences from our sponsors & celebrities.
We365 What if everyone took one positive action, big or small, every day? We365 is a community of people making the world more awesome by accepting inspiring challenges that impact hundreds of causes. From the environment to human rights, We365 makes taking positive action and tracking your impact easy.
To help you get started
Even though the Octalysis Framework can be quite helpful, there are already a few ready-made, very good tools to assist you in taking those first steps, that are often the more challenging ones:
Classcraft is an amazing resource to use to gamify a learning environment like a classroom or a workshop
Quest to Learn (Q2L) is similar to Classcraft but aimed at students from middle to High School.
Quizziz Free self-paced quizzes to review, assess, and engage – easily integrates with Google Classroom too.
Gamification Badge Kit for you are looking for something simple to give that gamification feel, but ease into it slowly, you can download this free Gamification Badge Kit to recognize participants in your programs for their achievements, commitment, team work, etc.
Gamification.co A blog about gamification, with lots of examples, free resources, webinars about how to use gamification
Games for Change Festival If you are interested in how serious games and gamification can be a tool to solve problems around the world, you will want to check out a festival designed to highlight the impact games can have across many different industries. Every year the Games for Change Festival showcases cutting edge games that target areas of concern in healthcare, environmental impact, research, human rights, economics, education and many other major issues.
Activity ideas, concepts and best practices
An activity similar to games nights that revolves around the theme of immigration and features games connected to that theme, including, but not limited to videogames, board games, VR experiences or Adventures where the idea is to step into an immigrant’s shoes in an immersive way. Because these games exist already and this isn’t a simple addition of game elements to already existing experiences, we normally refer to this type of activities as Game based learning.
There are a number of games that could be used and here we list only a few that we have played and know can be impactful and generate debate. All of the games listed here are free to play (the reason why games like Papers, Please are not included here).
The migrant trail The Migrant Trail is a single-player simulation game examining the life of migrants and border patrol agents on the U.S.-Mexico border as part of The Undocumented transmedia campaign (pairing the game up with The Undocumented documentary).
Cloudchasers Journey of Hope – Guide a trailblazing father and daughter team through the deadly deserts of a dystopian future.
Way WAY’s non-verbal gameplay is meant to elicit feelings of connection with random strangers from no particular part of the world. As players are unknowingly paired up with one another, they must adapt to gameplay changes while depending on a stranger to help them succeed and vice versa. This unique gameplay style is meant to spawn feelings of kinship and personal connection, which can be shared on a global message board on the game’s website.
Choosing my way , Choosing My Way is a video game where players decide how to respond to opportunities and challenges after resettlement in the United States. Players choose goals, collect resources, and respond to situations. The goals and situations change every time, so the game is never the same.
Syrian Journey A powerful game likened the Choose Your Own Adventure style that asks the questions: If you were fleeing Syria for Europe, what choices would you make for you and your family? Take our journey to understand the real dilemmas the refugees face. Along with this game, because it centers around empathy the activities that have been conducted included writing a journal from the perspective of a Syrian refugee. Prior to the game, other media are used, including the video clips like “What’s Happening in Syria?” These are followed by the question, “How many refugees have left Syria since the beginning of the war?” Next, students read through Bana Alabed’s Twitter feed. Alabed is a girl who, with her mother, fled Syria and regularly tweets about the refugee crisis. In the experiences described by some teachers who have used this game, they also asked participants to view videos on the I Am Syria website, answer questions, and create a Venn diagram comparing their lives to those of children in Syria. According to the teacher Matthew Farber, the participants were also required that their diagrams had at least eight differences and four similarities. When students play Syrian Journey, they take notes on the decisions and choices made, and describe the difficulties and challenges faced. As Syrian refugees, readers decide whether to deal with smugglers or to take a dangerous raft ride across the Mediterranean Sea. The culminating activity is a student journal that includes the country they are headed to and whether asylum was granted.
Mission US: City of ImmigrantsIn the past several years, the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) has supported and funded digital games, including Mission US: City of Immigrants, a game about the immigrant experience. You play as Lena Brodsky, a Jewish immigrant in 1907 New York. It’s a great teaching tool as you quickly realize how difficult it can be to assimilate to a new country. The game includes an Educator Guide with lesson plans and primary sources.
The Waiting Game ProPublica and WYNC produced The Waiting Game, an online game designed to introduce users to the experiences of asylum seeks before, during, and after their attempts to make it to the United States.
The VR experiences
Carne y Arena
Carne y Arena premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival as part of the official selection and was the first virtual reality project to ever be featured at the festival, written and directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu it immerses “viewers into the harsh life of an immigrant”. The experience is not available to the general public, but there’s plenty of information, videos and accounts of the experience that almost feel like we can experience it first-hand.
Limbo: a virtual experience of waiting for asylum
Limbo: a virtual experience of waiting for asylum What is it like to flee your home and start again in a new country? Asylum seekers live on £5 a day while they wait to hear whether they can stay in the UK. This exclusive Guardian virtual reality film allows you to experience how this period of limbo feels, waiting for a decision that will affect the rest of your life
Maybe even, a more simple, less technology and more community centered board games event where participants could gather and play board games like:
The immigration Game According to the Game Designer ” The tiles for the The Immigration Game are all based on true stories collected from my personal experience as an immigrant, books, Internet blogs, and interviews conducted with friends, family members and neighbors about their immigration experience to the US. Research on how to share this experience is still on-going. The goal is to educate native born Americans about issues surrounding the process of immigration and the life of immigrants, especially cultural and identity issues that are often not spoken about in the news.”
Refugee Journeys is based on a simple “snakes and ladders” game concept – players move forward, backward, or miss turns based on the cards they draw or the spaces they land on. Cards include integration experiences of real refugees, drawn from academic research, news and media, and the game creator’s personal experiences. Examples are: “You are 65 years old. You want to learn English, but the topic is always about finding a job. Move back a space.” “You were sponsored to a rural area, where there is no bus transportation. You always have to ask for rides. Move back two spaces.” “Your child has made a friend at school. Move forward a space.” Players move through the game using an “Identity card” which details their country of origin, family background, housing situation, gender, and many other identity markers.
As they move through the game, their identity influences the path they take.
Forced to flee This is rather a simulation exercise, more than a board game, but it goes in the same direction and follows similar precepts. The goal is to work together in “family units”, making difficult decisions to maintain their supply of food, money, and health while securing their future post-conflict.
The idea would be to play these games, either individually – in the case of video games and VR – or collectively – with the boardgames and then discuss the experiences, the challenges, the struggles, the frustrations they encountered but also ideas and insights that might have come up during the play session.
Immersive theatre often uses game mechanics and techniques to induce a sense of agency in the participant. Site, specific, interactive, immersive forms of theatre help in getting
immersive” as defined by the concept of ‘immersive theatre’; to describe performance where the audience member is an active participant and experiences the piece from literally being inside it. This can include walking around the set, touching things and interacting with performers. In many immersive shows, the decisions that the audience members make have around the set, touching things and interacting with performers. In many immersive shows, the decisions that the audience members make have a bearing on the actions of the actors and the direction of the story. Consider questions of empathy. What kind of emotions will the audience be feeling? What kind of environment were they in before they entered the show? Are they stressed/anxious? How can we remedy this? Design decisions are frequently questioned throughout the process to check how they will impact the audience. Immersive theatre often includes elements of gamification. As with apps where users are rewarded for their time spent using them, gamification in theatre is often used to encourage audience participation and risk-taking. For example, renowned immersive theatre company Punchdrunk are known for their ‘one on one’ experiences, where an audience member finds themselves alone with an actor. Naturally exhilarating, fans of Punchdrunk will often spend their shows deliberately seeking these out and ‘collecting’ them like Easter eggs in video games.
Akin to this, multi-sensory techniques used in immersive theatre, such as Sensory Labyrinth Theatre add another deeper, more meaningful and more empathetic layer to these practices. This type of immersive theater was created by Iwan Brioc, Artistic Director of Theatr Cynefin, as an applied theatre methodology inspired by Enrique Vargas’s ‘Poetics of the Senses’. In this form of play, that relies greatly on game-like mechanics to enter the labyrinthine ways of human connections (as described by the Brioc himself on his website): “individual audience members journey alone through a darkened three-dimensional labyrinth and along the way encounter moments and meetings that provoke subconscious sensory memories (sensory portals) into which they are gently invited to fall. In accepting this invitation constructs such as time and space, me and you, the inner and the outer start to collapse. Framed for the audience as ‘theatre,’ this space also takes on the added dimensions of the aesthetic space – memory and imagination: so that consciousness and this conditioned process of construction we call ‘reality’ can become an observable phenomenon – observed by the ‘character’ of the traveller in the performance. One function of this technology is to support the emergence of ‘communitas’-the quality, first described by anthropologist Victor Turner, without which community is just a term to describe a group of people and not a feeling of
common humanity with a shared meaning within that group of people. Sensory Labyrinth Theatre has the capacity to bring about ‘communitas’, an unifying sense of meaning from having touched together the ineffable mystery of our being, undermining any cultural, religious or ethnic barriers that otherwise divide us.”
Mixed realities (when we mix everything up and shake it up a bit more)
Using game elements doesn’t necessarily mean that the experiences or projects created don’t have to be games, per se: There are some very interesting programs using tools like Storyboard That to create graphic novels, while others interview immigrant family members and publishing the interviews on StoryCorps, a podcasting site for oral histories. A good way to start is by reading this guide about Community Storytelling best practices and how to’s. These tools use storytelling as their core mechanics, which is commonly used in games as well, while not exclusive to games.
Other enthralling tools that can be used for immersion and gamelike scenarios are, for example, BreakoutEDU – To play, you figure out a series of puzzles that open a series of locks. As a result, participants are embodying the push and pull factors of immigration through the core mechanics of a breakout and escape game. Other tools can be used for creating location-based games using ARIS or TaleBlazer,. An example, just for you to get an idea around this topic is Jewish Time Jump, an ARIS location-based augmented reality game about the immigrant experience. Set in Greenwich Village, New York, in 1900, it is playable on a smartphone.
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Courtesy Library of Congress
Music in the Early American Republic
Early American ears pulsed, lips hummed, and feet shuffled to the multitude of sounds infusing life’s rhythms. During the earliest decades of the nation, virtually everyone heard, made, and moved to music. In an age before broadly accessible commercial entertainment, where one’s routine labors begged for distracting relief, song and dance enlivened life’s tedium. Music filled an important social niche in the publically lived do-it-yourself world of early America. During an era before recording devices, the ephemeral life of sound resonated solely around those who made it. Early American music constructed a momentary community of listeners who could create or transcend the young nation’s refashioning social order.
Describing this world of early American music challenges any historian precisely because of music’s ubiquitous presence in the lives of all Americans. Because nearly everyone made music, and because music could be used in any number of ways, the shear variety of sounds and sites of performance preclude easy generalization. Music held the social order together, but it might also be used to challenge the status quo. People sang privately to sooth their sorrows and publically to celebrate joyous events. Song might awaken the sacred forces to one’s aid; it might also embody profane desires and accompany riotous behaviors. Bells pealed to mark the seasons and to call a community to arms. Some worked to music, while others played. Music might even provide one’s livelihood. Musical acumen and literacy gave the educated elite status, while common folk employed music to express equally as meaningful identities. In all these ways, music symbolized, expressed, and transcended the diversities of early America. This essay treats some of the particular music making activities of Native Americans, the enslaved, new immigrants, and American-born United States citizens. Interwoven with an exploration of some of the sounds made by these groups of people, it considers the ways music contributed to their religious, festive, political, and artistic activities. Early Americans made music in multiple sites and for diverse ends. Our recognition of its significance to them opens new avenues of historical discovery.
Native American Music
Native American music styles in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries remained as diverse as there were tribal communities. Despite this, some broad generalization can be made when compared with non-Native sounds and uses of music. Singing rather than instrumental performances grounded Native music making, although drums and other percussion instruments accompanied many songs, as did flutes and whistles in certain regions. Indigenous songs nearly always connected to spirituality even if ostensibly made for other reasons, and the efficacy of a ritual might require the appropriate song to be sung. Yet like music-makers the world over, specific pieces accompanied dancing, storytelling, or even games. Certain songs would be used for a particular ceremonial or seasonal event in traditional and innovative ways. With the increasing arrival of newcomers to the continent, tribal people adopted and adapted European instruments, such as the fiddle, to indigenous music making practices. Records kept by Spanish missionaries in California and New Mexico reveal the centrality of music to their conversion efforts. These priests used fluency with European music and instruments to measure degrees of assimilation, an important gauge in their efforts towards complete and permanent conversion. Yet even after integrating aspects of European music, to Native Americans, as one scholar notes of Ojibwa music, “songs fundamentally did things in the world.” As such, Native people categorized songs in terms of their usefulness, for example as love songs, dream songs, or pipe songs. Songs also mediated personal bonds and functioned as part of ceremonial protocol. Music built and stabilized relationships within a tribe, between tribes, and between tribal and non-tribal people. Native American music facilitated interactions, including those between the human and spiritual worlds.
Music performed in the context of sacred observances was also important to African and European born and descended people. By the turn of the nineteenth century, the hymns of Congregationalist Churches had shifted from ritual to art with a full support system of church choirs, singing masters, published psalters, and singing schools. The first known black American published composer, the African-born former slave Newport Gardner of Rhode Island, emerged from this singing-school movement. By 1810, over 5000 musical compositions by American psalmodists had appeared in print, including Richard Allen’s 1801 hymn collection for his Philadelphia African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first known compilation of sacred music for a black congregation. By the 1820s, singing societies influenced by German Romanticism, such as the Boston Handel and Haydn Society, attached moral uplift to certain song styles. Such institutionally supported sacred music competed with the music culture enlivened by the Second Great Awakening. These styles necessitated accessible and individual expressiveness as part of revivalist religiosity. A lack of musical literacy in the rural areas of the revivals led to call-and-response song patterns and singing “marked by spontaneity, immediacy, emotionality, and the use of well-known tunes.” This trend remained true among black urban congregations as well, in which the act of vocalizing could inspire worshipers even more than a song’s lyrics. A central message of this sacred music style invoked the fundamental appeal of the Great Awakening ideology: God’s grace was available to all.
Often in conjunction with religious purposes, Americans heard an increase in music making during holidays. In primarily agricultural communities, early winter was a time to celebrate after a demanding harvest season. The English wassailing tradition, whereby lower sorts intruded into the homes of the wealthy singing demands for food and drink in exchange for goodwill, continued in early America. Though less meaningful by the nineteenth century with the demise of older traditional hierarchies and obligations, rowdy, raucous, drunken singers paraded at night during the Christmas season even in urban areas. Drinking and singing remained intertwined as significant holiday practices. John Canoe rituals enacted during the Christmas season by African-Americans included public song and dance. In these, parading bands of musicians requested gifts of food, money, or alcohol, taking African-derived song and dance culture to the broader communities amongst whom they lived. Parades remained central to black public musical activities that “typically featured boisterous, improvised music and back-and-forth interactions between male and female spectators and parade performers.” Messages could be sung in this ritualized context not uttered in other circumstances. Cloaked in a garb of traditional holiday license, ridiculing the powerful or “singing the master,” empowered the enslaved to express feelings otherwise forbidden.
Music of the Enslaved
As music scholar Jacqueline Cogdell Djedje states of African American music, “on the one hand very little disappears, but also nothing remains the same.” During the early American republic, music made by black Americans could be decidedly African, but it could also be distinctive from anything heard on that continent. The factors that shaped the nature of the African-derived music in early America largely depended upon a music maker’s exposure to the sounds of the diverse American populace. West and Central Africans made music as varied as the Europeans amongst whom those enslaved would eventually live in America. They carried their local musical expectations to their new homes across the Atlantic, where they accessed multi-continental repertoires. They and their descendants built upon musical heritages both deep and broad.
During this era, diverse African songs, dances, instruments, as well as rituals and festivals, remained significant to enslaved and free black populations. Congo Square in New Orleans, a place central to the survival and dissemination of African-derived performative traditions, persisted as a site where slaves from the city could go to socialize on Sunday afternoons. Here they sang and danced in styles from distinct homeland traditions providing not just entertainment, but also connection to one’s heritage. Some Catholic Congolese slaves performed sangamentos, the highly choreographed mock war dances accompanied with drums and bells crucial to later Mardi Gras practices. This diasporic custom combined traditionalism and adaptability more “inventive” than “invented,” evidence of continued African traditions in America. The persistence of practices such as sangamentos bound new communities together and provided cultural sustenance in the harsh new circumstances of slavery.
Slaves’ lives were filled with labor. Traders might expect the enslaved to sing and even fiddle while marching in the chained coffles to the growing western plantations. Song organized regimented tasks and eased the burden of toil. The call-and-response style helped build and strengthen community. Particular songs might be appropriate for a certain labor activity, such as rowing, hoeing, or shucking corn. Work songs reinforced social bonds and hierarchies, although lyrics might challenge these with satirical rhetoric. Enslaved musicians had to master multiple genres as they performed for both the formal cotillions of elite white society and the livelier jigs, breakdowns, and reels popular with lower class white and black dancers. Black music and dance emphasized improvisation, complex rhythms, artist/audience dialogue, as well as personal stylistic competition in community-approved contexts. These African-derived music ways gained poignancy under slavery. They could even function as political statements for people denied an officially sanctioned political voice.
Music and Politics
Much political activity in the young nation transpired with musical accompaniment, although at times this “music” might more appropriately be called “noise.” Drums (and even pots and pans) drew attention to community grievances, as in the “rough music” used to enforce social norms under threat. They did the same for impromptu public protests and even institutionally sanctioned civic parades. Although political music often took place in the street, taverns hosted politically infused music making as well. Concerts and balls facilitated by amateur and professional musicians raised money for a cause or commemorated significant civic events. Americans marked Independence Day and Washington’s birthday with patriotic songs, balls, and parades. They did the same to honor the Revolutionary War hero General Lafayette on his 1824–1825 tour of the country. This shared musical commemorative culture helped knit the young nation together. In addition, stage performances allowed for the consideration, creation, and affirmation of one’s sense of self in relation to the diverse American population. An Irish immigrant character might sing as a laughable bumpkin or a liberty-seeking republican refugee. Staged characters sung a combination of their old and newly forming national, ethnic, and racial identities during these decades when the traditional order had become increasingly unstable. Music was central to these performances that shaped the nation.
One good example is the song “Yankee Doodle,” which might accurately be described as the first American national anthem. Singing “Yankee Doodle” exemplified what one scholar has called a “sophisticated rural self-parody.” As a celebratory comparative to British pretentiousness and a glorification of a distinct American character, singing Yankee Doodle in the young nation remained a political act. An infinite array of locally created verses, mostly now lost to modern singers of the tune, reveal a proud articulation of American rusticity (as well as the glorification of sexual adventures and drunken escapades). Other popular early American songs borrowed heavily from British music culture, but were transformed with deep sarcasm to serve American ends. Sailors and boatmen played an essential role in this transition. Music was already crucial to the labors of these men who sang to keep time as they rowed, heaved, and pulled. The centrality of American seamen to securing the legitimacy of the new nation led to the development of maritime-themed patriotic songs in particular.
Though native-born Americans employed music to shape the nation’s identity, the significance of European immigrant musicians to early United States music cannot be overstated. English, German, French, and Italian musicians fundamentally shaped the young country’s sacred, military, social, and concert music. They published songsters, organized bands, performed in orchestras, led educational efforts, and ran music-related businesses. In addition, the growing American sheet-music industry facilitated domestic exposure to diverse immigrant sounds. Published songs denoted as Irish, Scottish, and Italian helped invent the idea of ethnicity in America, even if they were only loosely based on actual regional European styles. Irish ballads and dances remained popular through the early nineteenth century due to immigrants influenced by the Celtic cultural revival, as well as Irish music’s fundamental role in British American culture. Nostalgia-infused “traditional” Irish music (and musicians) found commercial success in the young nation. As such, it became a genre of music that bonded an Irish-American ethnic community together, introduced Irish culture to those unfamiliar with it, and entrenched stereotypes about the Irish. Similarly, Americans held Scottish folksongs in high esteem as they imagined a disappearing Scottish primitivism. Later German arrivals initiated the rise of singing societies, called Männerchöre, which functioned as social and musical organizations. These not only helped keep German culture alive in America by the repetition of musical forms, but they also provided support systems though which immigrant communities could remain active and strong. These same immigrant musicians facilitated the development of formal European-style concert traditions in the United States.
In the earliest years of the century, no musical style or genre was reserved for a particular class of people. Concert halls welcomed all to their performances, although elites remained segregated in boxes from the messiness of the pit. Concert music had existed in East Coast urban centers for a century when in the 1830s wealthy patrons financed via subscriptions the first professional orchestras. Lacking the aristocratic tradition of court and church patronage, the early American music “industry” had to function as locally financed businesses. New Orleans was the first American city to support an opera company. French operas had been performed in the city from at least 1796. A decade later, in the span of four months, New Orleanians could witness twenty-one performances, which included sixteen different operas from nine composers. This town of only 12,000, one third of who were enslaved and who attended performances on discounted tickets, clearly valued and invested in public music performances. An evening listening to opera often ended with dancing at a ball. Though most of these dances were segregated by race, authorities could only enforce this rule with limited success. From the 1790s through the 1830s, the number of theater and concert performances grew, although not until the 1840s did the United States develop the necessary infrastructure to support the performing arts broadly. Immigrant musicians made up the majority of these professionals and typically performed European composed pieces from the traditional European canon.
Yet in these same settings, audiences demanded patriotic pieces. Bands formed from discharged military musicians honored such wishes. Most towns supported at least one band by the early nineteenth century whose members played in the streets as often as in the concert halls. The hugely popular African American composer Frank Johnson led military bands and dance orchestras in the concert halls of Philadelphia and cities across Europe. These democratic assumptions about experiences with music changed by mid-century with the growing sense of moral uplift attached to certain types of music. As a result, musicians transformed from craftsmen to artists. By the 1840s the elite had increasingly withdrawn into performances reserved purely for their own enjoyment (such as Italian opera performed in the original language). Blackface minstrelsy, which both adopted and parodied this now-segregated art music, filled the publicly available musical performance void.
The decade of the 1840s saw a marked shift in American music. By mid-century, music had become a commodity. The broader forces of the market revolution had thoroughly altered American music. Industrial development spurred by transportation innovations, the rise of cities, and an increase in immigration changed the sounds and sites of music in America forever. European virtuosos, such as Ole Bull and Jenny Lind, toured even into the American hinterlands. As the middle class family withdrew into a private sphere, they simultaneously domesticated music making. The parlor piano, the sheet music industry, and the greater access to touring performers reinforced each other; mass commercial sound styles grew. The rise of widely and cheaply available popular music in all its various forms shaped composers’ and publishers’ choices. Blackface minstrelsy developed as a significant part of this phenomenon. Initially occupying the raucous space desired by white working class men, blackface minstrelsy entered the domestic sphere as well. The broadly participatory public music making so normal in the young nation had increasingly been overshadowed by professional commercial activities.
Yet this commercialization only went so far. Attempts to repress the earthy, bawdy, vernacular, oral music cultures considered unbecoming to a legitimate nation only partially succeeded. In the 1830s, when the city of New Orleans introduced a formal parade to officially conclude the carnival season, they hoped to structure and control the chaotic parading accompanied by boisterous song and dance. Instead, citizens continued to march in “rich confusion, up and down the streets, wildly shouting, singing, laughing, drumming, fiddling, fifeing . . . as they wend their reckless way . . . laughing loudly at threatened punishment.” Though much about the sounds, sites, performers, and performances had changed, much still remained the same. An exuberant humanity pulsated with playful, personal, and public music making. Our recognition of their expressiveness provides a richer and more complete understanding of the lives of early Americans.
Ann Ostendorf is Associate Professor of History at Gonzaga University. She is the author of Sounds American: national Identity and the Music Cultures of the Lower Mississippi River Valley, 1800-1860. Her current research is on the histories of the Roma (Gypsy) in the colonial Atlantic world.
 For a concise history of the Early American Republic, see Paul E. Johnson, The Early American Republic, 1789–1829 (2006).
 Victoria Lindsay Levine, “American Indian Musics, Past and Present,” in The Cambridge History of American Music, ed. David Nicholls (1998), 4–12; Kate Van Winkle Keller with John Koegel, “Secular Music to 1800,” in The Cambridge History of American Music, 60–61; Nym Cooke, “Sacred Music to 1800,” in The Cambridge History of American Music, 79; Michael D. McNally, Ojibwe Singers: Hymns, Grief, and a Native Culture in Motion (2000), 26–28.
 Cooke, “Sacred Music to 1800,” The Cambridge History of American Music, 81–83, 97–99; Eileen Southern, The Music of Black Americans: A History (1997), 68–89; Katherine K. Preston, “Art Music from 1800–1860,” in The Cambridge History of American Music, 197.
 Stephen Nissenbaum, The Battle for Christmas: A Social and Cultural History of America’s Most Cherished Holiday (1997), 9¬¬–11, 16–17, 42–45, 261–62, 285–91; Roger D. Abrahams, Singing the Master: The Emergence of African-American Culture in the Plantation South (1992); William D. Piersen, “African American Festive Style and the Creation of American Culture,” in Riot and Revelry in Early America, ed. William Pencak, Matthew Dennis, and Simon P. Newman (2002), 256–68.
 Jacqueline Cogdell Djedje, “African American Music to 1900,” in The Cambridge History of American Music, 103–34. Two classic works on black music in Early America include Dana J. Epstein, Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War (2003) and Eileen Southern, The Music of Black Americans: A History (1997).
 Jeroen Dewulf, From the Kingdom of Kongo to Congo Square: Kongo Dances and the Origins of the Mardi Gras Indians (2017), xvi; Freddi Williams Evans, Congo Square: African Roots in New Orleans (2011).
 Djedje, “African American Music,” The Cambridge History of American Music, 103–34; Abrahams, Singing the Master.
 William Pencak, “Introduction: A Historical Perspective,” in Riot and Revelry, 5-6; Sterling E. Murray, “Music and Dance in Philadelphia’s City Tavern, 1773–1790,” in American Musical Life in Context and Practice to 1865, ed. James R. Heintze (1994), 3–47; Ann Ostendorf, Sounds American: National Identity and the Music Cultures of the Lower Mississippi River Valley, 1800–1860 (2011), 90–98; Jeffrey H. Richards, Drama, Theatre, and Identity in the American New Republic (2005), 5–8.
 Nissenbaum, Battle for Christmas, 25–26; William Pencak, “Play as Prelude to Revolution: Boston, 1765–1776,” in Riot and Revelry, 141–49; Paul A. Gilje, To Swear Like A Sailor: Maritime Culture in America, 1750–1850 (2016), 157–81; Ann Ostendorf, “The Mythical Musical Boatmen: Integrating National Icons in Antebellum American Culture,” American Music 37 (forthcoming).
 Edward C. Wolf, “Peter Erben and America’s First Lutheran Tunebook in English,” in American Musical Life, 49–74; James R. Heintz, “Gaetano Carusi: From Sicily to the Halls of Congress,” in American Musical Life, 75–132; Jon W. Finson, The Voices that Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song (1994), 270–84; Ostendorf, Sounds American, 4–10, 107–72; William H. A. Williams, ‘Twas Only an Irishman’s Dream: The Image of Ireland and the Irish in American Popular Song Lyrics, 1800–1920 (1996), 19–25; Michael Broyles, “Immigrant, Folk, and Regional Musics in the Nineteenth Century,” in The Cambridge History of American Music, 138¬–139, 146–147.
 William Brooks, “Music in American: An Overview (Part 1),” in The Cambridge History of American Music, 38–39; Henry A. Kmen, Music in New Orleans: The Formative Years, 1791–1841 (1966), 44–46, 56–74; Preston, “Art Music,” in The Cambridge History of American Music, 186–187, 192.
 Dale Cockrell, “Nineteenth-Century Popular Music,” in The Cambridge History of American Music, 160–162; Southern, Music of Black Americans, 108–14; Preston, “Art Music,” in The Cambridge History of American Music, 190–91; Lawrence W. Levine, Highbrow Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America (1988).
 Preston, “Art Music,” in The Cambridge History of American Music, 200–04; Cockrell, “Nineteenth-Century Popular Music,” in The Cambridge History of American Music, 158–85; Brian Roberts, Blackface Nation: Race, Reform, and Identity in American Popular Music, 1812–1925 (2017), 25; Nicholas E. Tawa, Sweet Songs for Gentle Americans: The Parlor Song in America, 1790–1860 (1980). This essay does not deal with blackface minstrelsy, the most popular form of entertainment in the United States from the mid to late-nineteenth century. Blackface minstrelsy’s emergence in the 1830s and its surge in popularity in the 1840s falls beyond the chronological scope of the era traditionally thought of as the Early American Republic. However, its significance to American music and dance (among so much else) cannot be overstated. For scholarly treatment of blackface minstrelsy, see Eric Lott, Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class (1993); Dale Cockrell, Demons of Disorder: Blackface Minstrels and their World (1997); W. T. Lahmon, Jr., Raising Cain: Blackface Performance from Jim Crow to Hip Hop (1998); William J. Mahar, Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture (1999).
 Dewulf, Kingdom of Kongo, 134–35; James R. Creecy, Scenes in the South (1860), 44.