Review Fun: It’s in the Cards

By Jeff Burns

When the time comes each year to review for AP tests, end of course tests, and final exams, I, like many teachers, try to find as many varied ways of reviewing content as I can.  This year, I put together a couple of quick review card games which fit the bill.  They covered content.  Students were engaged and got competitive about it, and they enjoyed it. 

There are directions floating around for making your own version (or having students make versions) of Apples to Apples and Cards Against Humanity for history, but this is even simpler.  All you do is make or use pre-existing powerpoint presentations or flash cards.  For AP US History, I used one covering the major events of each president’s term, and a review powerpoint  of some 250 important concepts and events, both of which were created and shared by other teachers or their students.  You might also use powerpoints covering art movements, literature, or any topic you wish. The key is to make sure the slides have a visual and brief information points on them.

 

I then printed the powerpoints on cardstock, six slides per page, enough for several decks.  Then comes the hard part:  cutting.  If at all possible, use a paper cutter and do a few sheets at a time.  You can see from my cards that I could have taken more time.

My students sat in small groups, and I gave each group a deck of cards.  It becomes a grouping and matching game.  You can ask them to use the cards to complete several tasks and circulate to supervise and review their work.  Even if you don’t, they will make it competitive by trying to finish correctly first.

With the presidents deck, I did these things:
1.       Arrange in chronological order by presidency
2.      Group by party
3.      Which presidents’ terms were marked by war?
4.      Which presidents are known for specific domestic or foreign policy programs?,
5.      Select the three most effective, least effective, worst, best presidents, etc.

 

With the events/concepts deck, I asked them to pull out 5 or 10 cards that dealt with each of the following:
1.       Immigration
2.      Migration
3.      Labor
4.      Big Business/Industrialization
5.      Civil Rights
6.      Reform
7.      Economic Policy, etc.  You can use any subject or any theme you can think of.

 

Playing with the cards really made them think quickly and review things they’ve learned all year, and it forced them to make connections and to reflect on change and continuity over time.  

Why I am Okay with Games in the Classroom

By Nina Kendall

I am not a true gamer. Do I like games? Yes. Do I play games? Yes.  However there are times when both board games and computer games are more frustrating than fun for me.  Despite this frustration I support the use of games in the classroom. Games have great features that promote student learning.

-Games offer feedback and practice.
Students learn very quickly in a game if they have made the wrong or right move. This feedback gives students a chance ti to reflect and correct their thinking. We know that trying again is important. We know making mistakes is part of learning. A game offers the opportunity to try, fail, and triumph.

-Games offer chances for collaboration and conversation.

If you utter the words group projects to students, you will here some groans. Yet say the word game and they are ready to work together. Even better as they work together students are having unprompted conversations about the topic. The best spontaneous conversations among students about the unit of study have come from games.

-Games provide goals.

You have a goal for each lesson you plan.  However what seems like a clear goal t o you may not be discernible to students. This issue is reduced by the possible outcomes of a game.

-Games are fun and engaging.

With loads of testing and value added observations, it is easy to forget that learning can be fun and engaging. Games help put the fun back in the classroom for students and teachers.

Take time to play a game in your classroom even if you are not a gamer. The risk is worth the reward.

Creating Classroom Games: Bingo

You can customize simple content games for the classroom to help students review and reinforce knowledge. It just takes a little creativity. Follow the steps to create your own content bingo.

Establish a list of terms (people, places, things) students need to know.

For this effort, my list includes: Samuel Gompers, Jane Addams, Theodore Roosevelt, Sitting Bull, NAACP, Jacob Riis, Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, Andrew Carnegie, and John D. Rockefeller.

Establish a list of descriptors for your terms. You should include at least two descriptors for each term. The descriptors can apply to more than one term.

Example- “Muckraker” describes Upton Sinclair, Jacob Riis, and Ida Tarbell.

The descriptor for my set are below.

American Federation of Labor, Ghost Dance , The Jungle, Conservation, Reservations, US Steel, Hull House, Wounded Knee, Captain of Industry, National Parks, How the Other Half Lives, Vertical Integration, Progressive, Civil Rights, Standard Oil, Meat Packing, Homestead Strike, Horizontal Integration, Robber Baron, Meat Inspection Act, The History of Standard Oil

 Ensure that students have organized what they have learned about the terms. Students could use a simple chart to organize what they have studied.

People and Groups of the Gilded Age
Samuel Gompers
Jane Addams
Theodore Roosevelt
Sitting Bull
NAACP
Jacob Riis
Upton Sinclair
Ida Tarbell
Andrew Carnegie
John D. Rockefeller

Students will use the list of terms to customize their bingo boards.  I used the simple board below. Students started by writing a name of a person or group from the set above.

    Once students have customized their boards. You only have to explain the rules and begin game play.

   We played using the rules below in class.

·         The goal of the game was to get three correctly complete three boxes in a row.

·         You can make a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row.

·         A square is complete when the term is matched with two correct descriptors.

·         The term and descriptors must match in both historical accuracy and historical interpretation.

·         Once a row is completed the player yells “bingo.”

·         The squares must be verified before a winner can be declared.

To select descriptors during game play, I used the spinner from classtools.net that can be customized with a simple typed list. The spinner was projected on the board and the chosen word simply popped up.

This was a simple way to add a game to my class. It got students talking about the topic and provided a form of review they were attentive to as they played to win.

How do you add games to your class?