"Sir, why are you making us read again?" For years this was a semi regular whinge from students whenever they were asked to read any content that they needed to work independently in a lesson. The question that I asked myself was, how can I encourage students to want to read, thereby gaining the information for themselves? As my practice has developed, this has become ever more important during lessons as spoon feeding content to student doesn't leave much room for group work, and or, individual learning.
As I move into my 11th year of teaching, I find myself using reading activities
more and more. To steal a phrase from Steve Wyborney, the "slow bolt
of lightning" that has struck me is that I teach mainly boys, boys are
competitive, so why not use the peace of literacy they have read to make a
game? So this year after most reading activities, I've put a game
together that student have to have read the information for before they
play them.
All the games that I have outlined below rely on the students reading some key
text before they play them.
Blockbusters
Anyone who grew up i the 80s will know what Blockbusters is.
Do not assume that your students will as I found out with my Y13 class
who had no idea what it was. Watching classic Blockbusters for 10 mins
during the lesson was time well spent I feel. The way that this game
works is to get students to read some content, then produce a Blockbusters
board with questions on based on what they have read. Students then using
counters, need to answer questions and either work horizontally, or vertically
across the board.
Snakes & Ladders
How many ways are there to play snakes and ladders? Surprisingly,
a lot more than I ever thought possible. The basic premise to using
snakes and ladders is to set up a board with questions on based on what
students have read. I'd advise briefly running through the rules with
them first as many of them will have very different ideas of how to play.
Get through the maze game
This game came out of the fact that I really like the film Labyrinth
from the 80s.
After students have read a piece of key information they need to roll a dice to see how many spaces they can move. If they come to a question square they need to answer the corresponding question before they can move on. As with all mazes the aim is to get to the finish first
After students have read a piece of key information they need to roll a dice to see how many spaces they can move. If they come to a question square they need to answer the corresponding question before they can move on. As with all mazes the aim is to get to the finish first
Battle Ships
Growing up one of my favourite games to play on a rainy Saturday
afternoon was Battle Ships. Students need to pick 5 positions to place
their ships, they then need to take it in turns to pick grid references to try
and find each other's ships. The twist is that each square has a corresponding
question that students need to answer based on some key text printed on the
board somewhere.
Dice questions
There are a wide and varied range of different dice games you can
use in lessons. Basically most of them centre around students reading
some key information, then picking questions to answer from a list either by
rolling one or two dice.
Question Grids
The general idea behind this type of game is to give students a 3
by 3 or 6 by 6 grid with questions on based on something students have
previously read. Students then simply need to roll a dice twice to pick a
question to answer. After students have been playing this for a bit, you can
pick on students at random to answer the questions so you can ensure that they
have been getting the correct answers.
Game Boards
This is an idea that once you get it set up, can be used in a
range of different
lessons. When putting a board together you need to
include a range of different squares to help keep students engaged. Some
of the squares that I include are primarily question squares, miss a go
squares, move back or forward squares ect. Once you have set up a template
you can tailor your board to the lesson you are teaching.
Jenga
I unfortunately can't take the credit for this idea but I'm
desperate to give it a go. All you need to do is get a mini Jenga set or sets,
number the pieces to correspond to a question grid, then get students playing
Jenga.
Key word game
I like many of my colleges did use to think of literacy was just
the domain of English teachers. However, I have come to the realisation
that we all need to try and play our part. After looking at where students
lose marks in exams is by not using key words, or using them incorrectly.
So one of the more recent things I'm trying to give a go is to primarily
ensure that the key words for the lesson are embedded in my lesson outcomes,
then building up a starter game around those
key words.
Come up with your own question game
The last idea that I'm going to discuss are games where students
come up with their own questions based on the key information they have read.
This sort of game works in a similar way as many other others I have
outlined, with the exception that instead of giving students questions to
answer they need to think them up themselves. I've found that this works particularly
well with higher ability students, however, lower ability ones have found it
more difficult and need more guidance.
Go out and buy yourself some dice and counters and give it a go.
I hope that you find some of these ideas helpful.
Thanks for reading
Chalky
