![]() The winner came up with fifty or so questions about the night’s reading, and the class took a good leap in the right direction. They could ask clarifying questions, questions connecting the text to other works, to current events, to pop culture, questions relating to themes and writing style, questions asking their classmates to relate to the events of the text. The contest was a good spark to show them the many angles they could use when generating questions. They would each write as many as they could about the reading as homework, and I would award not only eternal honor and glory to the winner, but a giant homemade brownie. But since Harkness is meant to be led by the students, I just had to wait.įinally one day I thought of a way to show them how easy it can be to come up with more questions. And expand.ĭuring each silence dozens of question ideas would pop into my head. We would be humming along in a Harkness discussion, chatting about whatever topic I had launched at the beginning of class, and then the pause would come. ![]() I once had a class of juniors that simply did not know how to ask a question during a discussion. I like to offer a small prize for a bingo, and a larger one for a fully blacked out card. You can also create genre cards if you want students to branch out. Looking to push students to experiment with new titles in your independent reading library? Make up some fun Bingo cards with titles you recommend and offer a little prize for completion. But really, everyone wins because their vocabulary review will be a lot more fun and memorable than just sitting in their chairs and staring at the words. When you call time, the team with the most points wins.Ĭonsider letting winners play winners and crowning a class team champion. Whichever team guesses the vocabulary word first gets a point. One member of each team will look at the same card, then call “go” and begin to draw. Give everyone paper, pencils and cards and explain how Pictionary works. Put students into groups, then let the groups divide into teams. Simply cut up your lists so you have piles of words. If you are pushing through list after list of SAT words this year, take time every few weeks to review with your students by playing vocabulary Pictionary. We ELA teachers are constantly tasked with increasing our students’ vocabularies. Here are ten fun ways to incorporate games into your ELA classroom with a clear goal in mind. As long as we keep the purpose of the activities clear. Yet clearly, incorporating the excitement of games into learning boosts student engagement. We bought my son a one-year subscription to the early learning game, “ABC Mouse.” He soon tired of the reading exercises and spent all his time watching his virtual pet hamster play with the toys he had purchased with the tickets he won doing math and reading games. How can we get our students more interested in learning by introducing gaming elements to their work?Īnd how can we keep the work from getting lost in the game? Spellcheck says it’s not a word, but it’s so hot right now in education.
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