I agree with all the reasons Gee puts forth about how video games and the concepts used to play them are excellent strategies that should be used as teaching methods in the classroom. However, I was struck by the section titled “Pleasantly Frustrating” It is unclear to me what this idea would look like in the classroom. Gee explains, “Learners should be able to adjust the difficulty level while being encouraged to stay at the outer edge of, but inside, their level of competence,” (10). Would this involve some sort of mobile tracking system within the classroom? If so, I feel that this would be discouraging to many students who realize that they are not at the same level as others in the class. Even if the tracking system leaves room for mobility, not all students will necessarily be able to move up. Those who stay in the same group and see their peers move up will eventually feel discouraged. I do like the idea of constant feedback from the teacher, which would give students encouragement in their improvement process, but would the initial idea of being tracked discourage them enough to stop trying? My little brother loves video games and I often saw him get so frustrated with games that he gave up altogether.

Rather than tracking reading and writing groups, I think the better route is to have diversified peer groups, just as Nancy Frey and DOuglas Fisher depicted in their article. By including students of all different reading and writing levels in smaller peer groups, everyone is comfortable speaking and students will be able to learn from each other. Those who have difficulty understanding might feel more comfortable talking it out with other students. Also, hearing classmates explain concepts and ideas may resonate more with struggling students. In addition, those who are at a higher level benefit from helping classmates through reinforcement by teaching these ideas to others.

I am just curious what other people thought about this section and how you think Gee would implement this in a classroom.