It's So EASY When You Put It That Way

My 6th grade math class isn't as ready to be fully entrenched in the #gamification, but we still play plenty of games.  We just don't do the leaderboard, experience, or player character aspects - there are no NPCs (Non-player characters), and they don't collect items.

I haven't ruled out doing this later in the year, however.  In fact I have penciled in a quest where the 7th graders have to rely on sixth graders for important information.

Today I introduced the concept of combining integers.  Amazingly, I did it with a game.  Shocking, I know.   Students logged on to an interactive number line maker (there are many, I used this one) and let students play around for a bit.  After they became comfortable using the page I instructed them to create a number line from -20 to 20 that counted by ones.  I then had them move their circles to zero.

Students were organized into teams and they saw that I had spread out a deck of cards on the front table.  I explained that I removed the face cards from this deck, and so that the card values of two through ten were available.

I then explained the rules of the game.  Each student would be chosen, one at a time, to pick a face card.  Black cards represented positive numbers and red cards represented negative numbers.  We reviewed that positive numbers were on the right and negative were to the left.  They quickly made the connection that if they pick a black card, the number would move right, and a red card would move them left.

The first team to positive 20 points wins the game.

Students came up one at a time, picking their team's starting card.  From there they moved their virtual number line to their starting place.  As more cards were picked students realized black cards were always good and red cards were always bad (in this game anyway. I hinted in a future game they may want the negative cards!)

What they didn't realize is they were learning how to add integers.  I specifically instructed them to not use words like "adding" and "subtracting."   Later in the week when I introduced the vocabulary and concept, they were blown away how easy adding integers was.  We talked about how this was addition (even though negative cards "subtracted" the value" because we were always adding cards to their collection.  Later in the week I gave students a check-out (formative) assignment and nearly the whole class scored 85% or higher.

When I get back from AMLE 2016, I plan on introducing subtracting integers with a similar game - students will start with cards and get to discard to get to a target number.

I'm off to Austin tomorrow for AMLE!  'll be arriving on Sunday and my session, Building Simultaneous Engagement, will be on Wednesday at 11:30 am!  Hope to see many of you there!

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!)