Another Review Game, 80s game show style!

I hope everyone had an amazing winter break.  Things have been crazy here in Columbus - with Ohio State winning the first National Football College Championship and all.   That story actually has been a great anchor for teaching about growth vs fixed mindsets due to all the injuries that OSU had to endure, the changes the staff and team had to make, and the success they still earned.

This week I'm presenting a highly engaging review game that my students love playing.  It is 100% based on the 1980s game show "Card Sharks" featuring Bob Eubanks.

If you never experienced the 80s, this video will answer lots of questions...

... if you did experience the 80s, this video will give you bad flashbacks.

skip to 4:50 if you just want to see how the game is played :)

In this game students work as a team to review concepts taught.  This protocol is 100% adaptable for any age group or subject, and needs minimal preparation.

I have two versions of this game: one for smaller groups of sixteen or less that uses a standard deck of cards, and one for groups of more than twelve that uses a 20 sided die (twelve to sixteen students can effectively use either version.)  I'll be outlining the card version today and the dice version next week.

Title: Higher / Lower (or card sharks)

Quick Summary: Students will review various skills and practice probability

Materials needed: A deck of cards

Prep: Review questions for the class

Procedure:
1) Divide the students into small groups

2) Students take out their notebook.

3) Teacher puts a review problem on the board.

4) Students solve the problem as a team, completing work in their own notebook.  They may, of course, help their teammates.  During this time I'm usually walking the room monitoring behavior, tone (keying in on competitive students that may not be patient with others), and giving subtle hints.  I'm also usually reminding students they can only write in their own notebook.

5) Teacher chooses a random person from each group and checks that person's work, noting which groups got a correct or incorrect answer.

6) Review the answer as a class - any group that got a correct answer gets to play the board (see below.)  All students that got an incorrect answer should copy the correct procedure, making note of their errors, even if the group got a correct answer.

It is important during the review time that all students understand that even if most of the group gets a correct answer, you are only checking on one random person per group.  This builds concurrent engagement and accountability.  I'll roll a die to 'decide' the student I'm looking at.  Naturally I'm looking at everyone's work and making notes on my clipboard, but the illusion of picking a random student is there :)

How to "Play the board"

For smaller classes I set up a row of cards for each team.  I'll put six to eight cards in a row depending on how long I want the game to last.

The game is afoot!

Groups that have correct answers get to decide if the next card is higher or lower.  It is important to establish the order of the cards.  I write the card values from low to high on the front board so students have a visual of this number line.  If they are correct they can continue and risk their gains, or 'freeze' and guarantee their safety.  An incorrect answer knocks them back to the previous freeze point or the start if there was no freeze point.

I turn the card sideways to signify 'freeze'

The other groups then gets an opportunity to play (assuming that they had the correct answer to the review problem.)  In this version I play classic "card shark game show" style in the sense that players can choose to keep the frozen card or change it for the top card in the deck.  

I find this game provides lots of excitement, is a great review of probability (there was so much discussion on whether you should 'go for it' with a nine showing), and gets students imbedded into the review lesson.  

And of course it leads to situations that you couldn't really predict...

The 9 changes ... to a QUEEN!

"LOWER!"

Lower than a queen - A FOUR!

"HIGHER!" 

Higher than a four... another four... 

"Is ... that.. wait... NOOOOO!!!!!!"

Next week I will include how I've use this game with classes as big as forty-plus students!  I'll also be back later this week with a bonus blog (to make up for the one that I missed!)