Enlivening Vocabulary Review with Vocabulary Gladiators

I wanted students to review vocabulary and was trying to determine the right way to engage them, so they wouldn’t view it as the same-old-same-old.

What started as a one-class activity, transformed into two. Students started in groups of three and wrote contextual sentences with the terms.  After sharing out, individuals wrote several more sentences. Each student then chose the best one whether it was created by the group or the individual student.

A tournament bracket was rolled out, and students’ attention was aroused. I placed each student in the bracket. Each would face off head-to-head with another. The winner was determined by an anonymous vote. (Students were reminded of what they should look/listen for in a quality contextual sentence.)  Students worked through the bracket until we had a class champ. Students who were eliminated were still exposed to the vocabulary and spent time evaluating the quality of their peers’ work. High energy permeated each class as they competed.

I spun the energy into day two. 

No one questioned the desks arranged in a circle but quite a few eyebrows were raised at the props in the middle of the circle.

They started class by adding more contextual sentences to their list from the previous day. Again, I had them mark the best one, whether from this or the previous class.

We celebrated the champion from the previous class, and I announced vocabulary gladiators.  Donning the fake shields and swords and helmets, any challengers could face the champ in a one-to-one showdown. Each student’s sentence would be shared, and again, there would be an anonymous vote.

There was a moment of hesitation as the students processed what I said.  Then, students quickly looked over their sentences and shot their hands up.

Between being a gladiator dressed in battle gear, competing with their peers, and watching their bolder peers take to the center ring, all students were engaged. Even those who did not enter the ring to challenge as a gladiator were evaluating and considering their sentences.  Some who did not volunteer to challenge toward the beginning did so by the end. They had listened to the others’ sentences, evaluated their own, and gained enough confidence in their revisions that they took the risk to stand before their peers.

The activity was simple but fun. Students were engaged, processed the information, and gained from the experience. One change I might make is for the sentences to be presented anonymously, especially during the bracket. I felt, at times, some students would through their support behind a weaker sentence to support a friend.

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If you have strategies to engage students with vocabulary or to use play for learning, or, if this post has generated some thoughts of your own, please share in the comments. I would appreciate hearing from you.

Using a Simple Game To Engage Students

Always looking for ways to engage my students, I have been trying to incorporate more games in my teaching. I stumbled across Boom Blast Stix on Twitter via John Meehan. They are a quirky, simple game in which players stack the triangular-shaped pieces. If the pieces don’t quite stack right they explode scattering through the air.

To spice up a review activity, students were put into teams. Individuals from each team were mixed into different groups. In these groups, they took turns answering the review questions. If someone answered the question incorrectly, they had to approach Boom Blast Stix and place a piece. The team whose member placed the piece that caused the stix to explode earned a point for their team. (The goal was to have the least points - like golf.)

Students’ anticipation was high and there was a collective catch of breath once several stix were placed and someone was about to place the next one. The slight twist on reviewing made it more enjoyable for the students. There was a positive energy in the room.

As I circulated the room, their engagement with the task seemed heightened, too. Part of that, I think, was the structure of the game. By giving the point to whoever caused the stix to explode, those students who might not fare as well were more at ease. Someone who put only one piece on to the stack could be the one to cause the explosion. This resulted in an even distribution of students who caused their team to get a point. The students who might get the most items incorrect didn’t cause any more points for their teams than those who got the fewest incorrect.

Everyone had a chance in this game.  No individual was put into a situation feeling so far behind that quitting seemed an option.

As I continue to look for ways to incorporate games into the classroom, I’ll keep this structure in mind.

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If you have used games to help engage students, or, if this post has generated some thoughts of your own, please share in the comments. I would appreciate hearing from you.

Meeting My Goal With a Dangerous Writing Prompt

The reasons I have this blog are to allow me a place to reflect and to help keep me more accountable for what I want to do.

By having a blog, I force myself to think about what I'm doing (mostly in my classroom). It gives me the opportunity - in a more formal way - to think about what's going well, what's not going so well, and what I'd like to try.

I also feel the blog makes me more accountable for my own goals.  If I set out a goal in a blog post, then I am declaring it to the world. Sharing the goal makes it more real and makes it more pressing to achieve that goal.  Sure, few, if any, people may read the blog posts, but the internet is live, public and forever.  This puts my goals out for everyone to see. Instead of keeping them private and being accountable to only myself, I have the sense that others could be looking over my shoulder, checking in on me.

So, as a result of this reflection, I’m recommitting myself to this blog.  This time, I’m giving myself a specific schedule. Expect a new post every Tuesday (there’s that goal made public). Today is Tuesday; so far, so good.

I also know that I can often have writer’s block, not knowing what to reflect upon or share. Consequently, I’m giving myself permission to be brief - a few paragraphs will be okay.  Also, to help break any blocks, I will use The Most Dangerous Writing Prompts. Game-like, the site has the writer keep working for a certain amount of time. If no progress is made after a certain interval, the program starts warning the writer, then the screen turns red, and you can no longer type (It does allow you to save work even if not finished.).

Not knowing what I would write for this post, I used The Most Dangerous Writing Prompts, set to three minutes. (I found it was a low expectation.)  I produced a few paragraphs in that time, then moved over to a word processor to finish up. I envision using the site with my students for activities like warm-ups or brain dumps in order to build their writing stamina and writing readiness. I am hopeful that they can see it as a tool that encourages improvement. 

I am optimistic that the schedule and the site will make my blogging goal manageable and attainable.

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If you have strategies to be a consistent blogger or to help develop students’ writing stamina, or, if this post has generated some thoughts of your own, please share in the comments. I would appreciate hearing from you.