10 Ways to Get Students Reading Using Games

"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

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