Games in the Classroom

Another former student, Erin Owens, uses a popular television show to inspire her first-graders: Her students share a great deal and she has found that a microphone plays a key role in motivating them to produce high-quality work. First of all, they love the microphone, she says. At first, they say it is like “being on ‘American Idol.’” You can hear them more clearly and their voice is obviously amplified. This gains the attention of the audience more than traditional sharing. After the “glamour” wears off, students begin to realize they are showcasing their work each time they “step up to the microphone.” Owens began to see a major change in their motivation to produce the best work they were capable of to impress and entertain their peers. Notice how she capitalizes on her students’ desire to perform to help them refine the presentation of their work. 

In Texas, Karen Eliason livens up grammatical instruction with her ninth-graders by asking them to “create a play with nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc., as characters. It was memorable, creative, and much more effective than endless pages of drills in the textbook,” she says. As you can see, making learning fun is not limited to any particular subject or grade level. It’s not just about attitude. When you actively make learning fun, your students will have fun learning. 

Games can work with students at all levels, especially if you ask them to create their own games. Scott Bauserman, a teacher at Decatur Central High School in Indiana, asks his students to choose a topic from the social studies unit and design a game. The finished product must teach about the topic, use appropriate vocabulary and processes, and be fun to play. As he explains, “Students have to construct the game, the box, provide pieces and a board, and write the rules. I received a wide variety. One game I will always remember was about how a bill gets passed into law. We spent time [in class] talking about all the points where a bill in Congress or the state General Assembly could be killed, pigeonholed, or defeated. The student took a box the size of a cereal box, set up a pathway with appropriate steps along the way, constructed question/answer cards and found an array of tokens for game pieces. If players answered a question correctly, they would roll a dice and move along the path to passage. But the student had cut trapdoors at the points where a bill could be killed, and if a player landed on a trap door/bill stopper, the player to the right could pull a string, making that player’s token disappear from the board. The player would have to start over. Not a bad game from a student who has fetal alcohol syndrome and is still struggling to pass his classes.” 

Technology Options

There are also a variety of technology-based options for games. You’ll want to preview them to determine if they are best for your students, but here are several free options for gaming. 

Guidelines for Games in the Classroom 

When you are incorporating games in your classroom, you’ll want to think about how well they accomplish your instructional goal(s). Here’s a simple way to assess whether you should use a game in your lesson. 

G—does it match your goal for the lesson? 

A—does it ask students to demonstrate their learning? 

M—does it move beyond play to actual learning? 

E—does it engage students at a high level? 

A Final Note 

Games can enhance your classroom and engage your students, whether they are low-tech or high-tech. What’s important is to consider how they improve learning.