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Classroom Strategies: GAMES

Image by Riho Kroll

Want to get students on the computer?

 Play some online games with one another or independently, check out these websites that allow you to build games for your learners.

  • Gimkit - live learning game show – Gimkit allows you, as the teacher, to make online games for you students to participate in. After creating a game, learners have the opportunity to compete with the time to earn points.
     

  • Kahoot – Kahoot, similar to Gimkit, is quiz-based. Consider creating an activity and then putting it on a computer or the projector screen to play as a class.

Being able to type effectively is necessary for many of today’s careers. Learners can practice their typing skills using the following games:

The relevancy and effectiveness of games

  • Games can be used to gauge prior student knowledge. They also allows teachers to see when a concept or skill has been learned sufficiently, or when further teaching is needed.

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  • Games are an effective, fun, and focused way to engage your students to learn or review content (Tate, 2012). Games are ways for students to demonstrate understanding, which enhances learner motivation.

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  • Games stimulate the attention of your students (Marzano, 2007, as referenced in Tate, 2012).

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  •  Games incorporate “challenge, novelty, feedback, coherence, and time,” a combination  which enables the brain to learn faster (Jenson, 2001, as referenced in Tate, 2012, p. 32).

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  • Games are accessible. As an instructor, you can create new games based off games you play (or used to play) and adapt them to meet the needs of your class.

According to Delacruz (2011), games include “measures of student progress and various types of immediate feedback or formative assessment.” There are countless reasons to include games in the adult learning classroom. Here are just a few:

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Ways to incorporate games into the classroom

Here are some games you can adapt for teaching or reviewing GED or ESL content, or to learn more about your students to build relationships:

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  • Two Truths and a Lie: Begin by modeling this for the students. Write three things about yourself on the whiteboard, two which are true, and one which is false. Have the students guess which statement is false. Then, it is the students turn! Have the students do this on loose-leaf paper or provide a template which includes scaffolded phrases for the learners to fill out. Then, have them present their two truths and one lie to the group. Items needed: loose-leaf paper

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  • Bingo: Play a game of Bingo to review vocabulary words. You’ll need to create a few different versions of Bingo cards with vocabulary you’ll want to target. Feel free to draw Bingo cards, or, you can make them using this website. You’ll also need some type of marker for the students to use to cover up the spaces on the card (even ripped up pieces of paper will do). During class, read definitions to the group. The first student to complete a line, diagonal, or blackout their entire card, wins! Items needed: A variety of Bingo cards, markers to cover vocabulary words, definitions of the vocabulary you are reviewing

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  • Ball toss: Ball (or balloon) toss is a simple way to review vocabulary, concepts, or phrases, or to get to know your students better. Using a Sharpie, write questions on the ball. When you toss the ball to a participant, they need to read and answer the question underneath the finger you define. Then, they pass the ball on to another. Items needed: A ball (or balloon), a Sharpie

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  • Want to introduce or review vocabulary words? Try crosswords, word searches, or word scrambles to focus your students on new words. A great place to make these games is wordmint.com.

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  • Any household game can be adapted to generate fun review activities for adult learners. Consider using Scrabble pieces to have students race to create words in a category you provide, or using Jenga with questions or words written on some of the pieces, to be answered as students play the game.  Play Taboo for learners to practice describing concepts to a team to try to get their team to guess the correct vocabulary word.

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Other resources

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  • Additional Sources​

    • Tate, M. L. (2012). Sit and get won’t grow dendrites. Corwin.

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