Academic Games

Milford Public Schools

August 14, 2012

Engaging Students

• On some good days we may have 70% of our students engaged in learning.

• Good teachers make sure that it is a different 70% that is engaged throughout our time with the students and all students are engaged at some point in time.

So why is it necessary to change up instruction?

As your brain gets numb-er Your brain gets dumber

Changing STATES

Change up instruction 5-10 min. for pre-adolescents, and

Every 10-20 minutes for adolescents into adults.

Thinking About It

• Why would you want to change states when you finally have students quiet, sitting in their seats, and looking like they are listening to you?

• Because the brain needs a chance to refocus and start again.

• When you stand up blood flow to the brain increases.

The Importance of Processing Time

• The brain needs time to create connections and pathways to create long term memories.

• The hippocampus can only hold so much • Example of glass of water.• Too much, to fast, it won’t Last.• 10-2 or 5-1 rule

Lecture

Reading

Audio-visual

Demonstration

Discussion Groups

Practice by doing

Teach others/immediate use of learning

Average Retention Rate after 24 hours

5%

10%

20%

30%

50%

75%

90%

Adapted from David Sousa’s figure 3.9in his text, How the Brain Learns p 95

Boosting Retention

Art and Science of Teaching

• Question #5: What will I do to engage students?

• The teacher uses academic games and inconsequential competition to maintain student engagement.

Games and Inconsequential(Just for Fun) Competition

• Games should always have an academic focus.• Regroup students so that all students

experience winning and losing.• Points are tallied but not used to increase or

decrease scores or grades.

Research on The Use of Games to Improve Student Learning

Marzano Research Lab reports the results of three meta-analyses.

Student growth in classrooms that used games ranged from a 13 percentile gain to an 18 percentile gain.

This is significant.

Games

• Millionaire Game

• Jeopardy

• Taboo

• Who (what) Am I?

• Talk a Mile a Minute

• Name that Category

Millionaire Game• 4 choices on each question

• The student keeps going as long as they get the right answer

• Life lines– Phone a friend– Poll– 50/50

• May want to do this in small groups to increase engagement

• Demo

Jeopardy

• Consider competing by rows

• The first person in the row answers for the group.

• After each question, have the students move forward one seat, the student that was in the front goes to the back row.

• Demo

TABOOThis favorite game is a

great tool for students to practice vocabulary and summarize. The object is to get someone to say the word using clues that don’t use the “taboo” words.

14

president

Obama

White House

Republican

Washington

Lincoln

TABOO

Star WarsLuke SkywalkerDarth VaderYodaMoviePrincess Leia

TABOO

Bo PeliniNebraskaCoachFootballMemorial StadiumCornhuskers

Create Your Own

• Write a taboo term or concept on a notecard

• List up to 5 taboo words

Who am I?• On note cards, teacher writes names of people

studied in class, vocabulary words, places or things from content.

• Student puts on top hat (or baseball cap) or sticky note, and chooses a card without looking at it. The other student tapes the card to the hat, or put the sticky note on his/her back.

• The student determines the name on the card by asking yes or no questions.

Who am I?

•Let’s play.

•In your group, pick one person to turn away from the screen.

•The name appears on screen.

•The “It” person asks yes or no questions until he or she answers correctly.

Who Am I?

• Tom Hanks

Who Am I?

• Bill Gates

Social Studies Examples: Who am I?Elementary

• Daniel Boone• Amelia Earhart• Abraham Lincoln

• Albert Einstein• Dwight Eisenhower• Sigmund Freud

Social Studies Examples: Who am I?Middle School

Social Studies Examples: Who am I?High School

• Joan of Arc• Ulysses S. Grant• Aristotle

Other Examples?

What Am I?

Science

• Insect• Mammal• Gravity• Force• Compound• Element – (specific)

English

• Parts of speech • Poetry• Essays• Genres• Literary Techniques• Titles

What Am I?

Math

• Order of operation• Scientific notation• Pythagorean

Theorem• Variable• Slope• Intercept

Social Studies

• The Constitution• Republic• Democracy• Free trade• States Rights• Electoral College

Talk a Mile a Minute

Things Associated with the American

Civil WarRobert E. Lee

Ulysses S. Grant

Gettysburg

Slavery

Antietam

Emancipation Proclamation

Abraham Lincoln

Things Associated with

Outer SpaceSun

Orbits

Mars

Venus

Saturn

Galaxy

Meteors

Shapes

Square

Circle

Rectangle

Triangle

Right Triangle

Oval

Diamond

Artists

Vincent Van Gogh

Michelangelo

Picasso

Leonardo da Vinci

Monet

Rembrandt

Andy Warhol

Units of Measure

Inches

Meters

Gallons

Hours

Quarts

Square Yards

Liters

Tech Tools

Google Docs

Google Forms

Go Animate

Voice Thread

Drop Box

Wikis

Pod Casts

Voki

Craft Knowledge

Think – Pair – Share

Interaction Sequence

Yes-No-Why

Fist to Five

Base Group

Response Boards

Who Am I?

Taboo

American Holidays

Thanksgiving

4th of July

Fathers Day

Mothers Day

Veteran’s Day

Columbus Day

Martin Luther King Day

Parts of Speech

Noun

Verb

Adjective

Preposition

Conjunction

Adverb

Pronoun

Name That Category

Things that happened in the 1970’s

Types of government

Things Albert Einstein would

say

Liquids Titles of plays

Battles

200 POINTS

100 POINTS 100 POINTS

50 POINTS 50 POINTS 50 POINTS

Things you find on the moon

Types of music

Things a shark would say

Nursery Rhymes

Planets Presidents

200 POINTS

100 POINTS 100 POINTS

50 POINTS 50 POINTS 50 POINTS

Things you find in China

Kinds of fish

Things a tree would say

Soda Pop

Flavors

Cities Vegetables

200 POINTS

100 POINTS 100 POINTS

50 POINTS 50 POINTS 50 POINTS

Summary

• How can academic games help students learn?

• What games do you want to try?

• Talk a Mile a Minute, Name that Category and a Jeopardy power point are posted on the ESU 6 Craft Knowledge wiki at http://esu6craftknowledge.wikispaces.com/