Let us face the facts: Students would rather have fun than listen to their teacher talk.
Teachers--you can relate. You loathe sitting through faculty meetings in which some guy from some agency is talking about some insurance that you hope you never need. After sitting through his presention, you cannot even imagine purchasing the insurance because you do not want to meet with him and hear his voice again.
What if the insurance guy was throwing out hundred dollar bills--then you would be interested.
Make it a game. Everyone, especially youngsters, likes games, so if you make learning a game or use a game to teach learning then you are going to reach your students and keep their attention. You are not throwing out hundred dollar bills, but you are throwing out information, which will take children a whole lot farther in life.
One game that you can use in your class is Jeopardy. The teacher takes on the role of the game show host, and students become the contestants.
To get started, follow these steps:
1. Use PowerPoint or SMART Notebook to set up a template.
2. Key in point values on each box, except for where your category titles will go.
3. Set up your categories. I use this game with letter terms. Some categories I use are begins with letter -, examples of lit devices, or sounds like--you can use whatever categories you like.
4. Elect someone to keep score.
5. Select your contestants--you can use this with a whole class or with as few as three students. It depends on how well you can control the noise level of your class and how willing your students are to participate.
There has to be a significant reward for the winner, such as free literary terms or vocabulary test pass. Obviously, someone in the class will know the terms, and if they know the terms, then why should they have to take the test?
Rewards also encourags students to learn the material, so the next time you play, your students will bring their best game.
