I believe today's class will be devoted to a presentation of your history/social studies games. If so, post your game here. I'll move it over later to the "Gluing Students to Their Seats" blog.
For my game, I had the class play a three round version of Family Feud, called "Washington Feud."
In the first round, contestants were to name 6 Vice-Presidents since 1950. The team got it after thinking hard about the answers.
The second round was to name 6 of the 15 Cabinet Positions of the Executive Branch.
The final round, which carried double the points, was to name 8 of the 26 Senators who have served South Dakota. The first team got six of them, but also had two strikes. The other team was able to steal the round by naming two senators.
Overall, I thought the game went well. The crowd got a little rowdy at times but was well-mannered. I was able to keep the crowd interested in the game for the most part.
I thought that this class period was very educational and showed the creativity of the class. There was many different games that were demostrated that I have never seen before and I hope I can use all the games in my future classroom.
I did an eraser slide game along with pictionary to answer questions about the Great Depression. If I would get to do the game over again I would had questions to go along with the pictures that I had them draw. I would have also let each team keep track of their own points beacause it was a hard task for me to do alone. The students enjoyed my game and many of the college students liked the new eraser slide game. I got the idea of the eraser slide game from my high school and we all liked it in high school.
This class period was interesting for us to pick up some good games to play with our classes but we also got a chance to see what kind of things to avoid. One thing I noticed to try and avoid is teams that are too big because it becomes easy for the teacher to lose control of the class. My game was Who Wants to be a Millionaire? I set this up as a review game to do right before the test with questions about the American Revolution. I set it up so the whole class was on the same team with one representative to make the final decisions. Just like the real game, I set it up so the questions got progressively harder as the game went on. The students got the $250,000 question wrong in my game. I like how Mrs. Gehrts had actual students come in to play our games because it make the games a lot more interesting and gave us more of a chance to learn from this class period.
I really enjoyed the games, there were quite a few that I have never heard of or seen before. I think they are a valuable tool for review, but not always necessary. As a teacher you have to know when and how to use them and make sure the class is learning in the meanwhile.
My game was a betting game. Each group was allotted a certain amount of money and then they could bet before the question was asked and if they got it right they would gain however much money they bet. If they got it wrong they would lose that much money. Each group was allowed five Double Downs where after they heard the question they could Double Down and bet twice the money they orginally bet. If they got below five dollars or in the negative they could only bet five dollars at a time. First team to Five Hundred dollars won.
The game I played with the Central students was a little basketball throwing activity. Students were broken into 2-3 teams. Each team picked a name and each team.
Then I would ask each team a question(Over some history topic).Whichever team raised their hand first and answered correctly, was able to throw a ball into a basket to recieve points. I had 5 notecards spread out around the room and used a garbage can as the basket.They are able to pick which amount of points they would like to try for. Each note card was marked 1-5. That hardest shot was obviously the #5 notecard. SO they can either chose to get at least a point with the #1 card, or try the more difficult shots.
I had a game/activity that could be done as a long-term project for a government class. This activity was similar to one my high school government class did my senior year.
Exercises in Parliamentary Procedure – SD State Legislature
Depending on the size and the structure of the class(es), divide the students into groups. One group will be the House and one will be the Senate.
Have these group divide into two groups representing fictional parties. Each group will choose its leaders.
Each student will be assigned to committees. Each committee will select a chair to run the committee.
Each student will research a topic and craft together a bill for their fellow students to consider.
After the bills are proofread and improved via group discussion (improving grammar and readability of the bill) each bill will be assigned to a committee, where they will be considered.
The committees will vote to either give the bill a Do Pass recommendation, a Do Not Pass Recommendation, to table the bill (kill it) or Referred it to the 41st Day (kill it).
NOTE: If the bill gets a Do Not Pass Recommendation, the bill will be considered by the whole body but the body must vote to strip the Not recommendation
ALSO NOTE: If the bill is tabled or Referred to the 41st Day, the student has the option to either a Smoke-out (Debating the bill by the whole body) or a Hoghouse (rewriting it to gain passage).
The Body of Origin will debate the bill. If passed by a majority, it goes to the other body, where the bill will be considered by a committee, debated, and voted on by the other body.
If the bill passes both bodies of the legislatures, it goes to the governor (either a teacher or a student selected by the class). If the governor signs it, it becomes law and the student gets points for passage of his bill.
If the governor vetoes it, it goes back to the legislature, where it must gain a 2/3 majority to overcome a veto.
Students will get points for involvement in committee work, attendance, debating the bill when it comes to the whole Body, voting for bills, and for successful passage of their particular bill.
Points can also be rewarded for using parliamentary tactics to delay others’ bills, overcome obstacles and objections to their bills, and gaining a grasp of the legislature process.
Points will be deducted for attempted filibusters, insults, and general rudeness toward others during debates.
For my game, I had the students throw a chalkboard eraser at the board that had a jeopardy board on it. This was just a little variation from the real jeopardy game in that the questions that they had to answer was based on their throwing accuracy. I had questions relating to the Civil War that they had to answer. I think that they game went pretty well although the students had not studied the Civil War yet so they did miss quite a few questions. I do think that the students enjoyed the throwing aspect of the game. I had fun with it anyway.
For may class game, I had the class play historical football. I used questions pertaining to the Cold War and the counter culture movement in the US.
I divided the class into two teams, and then I flipped a coin to determine which team started with the ball.
The difficulty of the questions I asked corresponded to the amount of yardage they received.
Overall, the game could have went better. If I could have been more organized the flow would have been smoother, and I did not have a stable control of the class, which led to confusion.
Since I was in Rapid City when the games were presented, I showed my this past Thursday.
It was a "bomb shelter" game. It involved interpersonal, intrapersonal, and lingustic skills.
Each "student" recieved a paper from me with a list of 20 individuals ranging from a 55 year old male Bio-chemist who recently immigrated from Iraq, to a 45 year old police officer and proud memeber of the KKK, to a 10 year old girl. Then I explained how the nuclear holicost was upon us (use this game when doing cold war unit).
The students then had to list in order 1-20 who they felt should go in the shelter, with 1 being the most important and 20 being the least.
Once that was done they had to divide into groups of two to three and decide as a group the 13 that would go into the shelter, after I explained to them that although twenty people were named, the Defense Department only made room for thirteen, with the expectation that those thirteen would reproduce and repopulate the world.
Once the group had decided their 13, the presented to the class who they chose.
I purposefully included controversial figures in the list. For example a 24 year old gay male architect. I expected there to be debate over who would be chosen since I added several debateable people. However, I did not expect the disscussion to continue so long. Even after we ended the game, people were stilling asking eachother, "Why did you / didn't you include this person?"
I believe today's class will be devoted to a presentation of your history/social studies games. If so, post your game here. I'll move it over later to the "Gluing Students to Their Seats" blog.
9 comments:
For my game, I had the class play a three round version of Family Feud, called "Washington Feud."
In the first round, contestants were to name 6 Vice-Presidents since 1950. The team got it after thinking hard about the answers.
The second round was to name 6 of the 15 Cabinet Positions of the Executive Branch.
The final round, which carried double the points, was to name 8 of the 26 Senators who have served South Dakota. The first team got six of them, but also had two strikes. The other team was able to steal the round by naming two senators.
Overall, I thought the game went well. The crowd got a little rowdy at times but was well-mannered. I was able to keep the crowd interested in the game for the most part.
I thought that this class period was very educational and showed the creativity of the class. There was many different games that were demostrated that I have never seen before and I hope I can use all the games in my future classroom.
I did an eraser slide game along with pictionary to answer questions about the Great Depression. If I would get to do the game over again I would had questions to go along with the pictures that I had them draw. I would have also let each team keep track of their own points beacause it was a hard task for me to do alone. The students enjoyed my game and many of the college students liked the new eraser slide game. I got the idea of the eraser slide game from my high school and we all liked it in high school.
This class period was interesting for us to pick up some good games to play with our classes but we also got a chance to see what kind of things to avoid. One thing I noticed to try and avoid is teams that are too big because it becomes easy for the teacher to lose control of the class.
My game was Who Wants to be a Millionaire? I set this up as a review game to do right before the test with questions about the American Revolution. I set it up so the whole class was on the same team with one representative to make the final decisions. Just like the real game, I set it up so the questions got progressively harder as the game went on. The students got the $250,000 question wrong in my game.
I like how Mrs. Gehrts had actual students come in to play our games because it make the games a lot more interesting and gave us more of a chance to learn from this class period.
I really enjoyed the games, there were quite a few that I have never heard of or seen before. I think they are a valuable tool for review, but not always necessary. As a teacher you have to know when and how to use them and make sure the class is learning in the meanwhile.
My game was a betting game. Each group was allotted a certain amount of money and then they could bet before the question was asked and if they got it right they would gain however much money they bet. If they got it wrong they would lose that much money. Each group was allowed five Double Downs where after they heard the question they could Double Down and bet twice the money they orginally bet. If they got below five dollars or in the negative they could only bet five dollars at a time. First team to Five Hundred dollars won.
The game I played with the Central students was a little basketball throwing activity. Students were broken into 2-3 teams. Each team picked a name and each team.
Then I would ask each team a question(Over some history topic).Whichever team raised their hand first and answered correctly, was able to throw a ball into a basket to recieve points. I had 5 notecards spread out around the room and used a garbage can as the basket.They are able to pick which amount of points they would like to try for. Each note card was marked 1-5. That hardest shot was obviously the #5 notecard. SO they can either chose to get at least a point with the #1 card, or try the more difficult shots.
Its a pretty effective game, and is unique.
I had a game/activity that could be done as a long-term project for a government class. This activity was similar to one my high school government class did my senior year.
Exercises in Parliamentary Procedure – SD State Legislature
Depending on the size and the structure of the class(es), divide the students into groups. One group will be the House and one will be the Senate.
Have these group divide into two groups representing fictional parties. Each group will choose its leaders.
Each student will be assigned to committees. Each committee will select a chair to run the committee.
Each student will research a topic and craft together a bill for their fellow students to consider.
After the bills are proofread and improved via group discussion (improving grammar and readability of the bill) each bill will be assigned to a committee, where they will be considered.
The committees will vote to either give the bill a Do Pass recommendation, a Do Not Pass Recommendation, to table the bill (kill it) or Referred it to the 41st Day (kill it).
NOTE: If the bill gets a Do Not Pass Recommendation, the bill will be considered by the whole body but the body must vote to strip the Not recommendation
ALSO NOTE: If the bill is tabled or Referred to the 41st Day, the student has the option to either a Smoke-out (Debating the bill by the whole body) or a Hoghouse (rewriting it to gain passage).
The Body of Origin will debate the bill. If passed by a majority, it goes to the other body, where the bill will be considered by a committee, debated, and voted on by the other body.
If the bill passes both bodies of the legislatures, it goes to the governor (either a teacher or a student selected by the class). If the governor signs it, it becomes law and the student gets points for passage of his bill.
If the governor vetoes it, it goes back to the legislature, where it must gain a 2/3 majority to overcome a veto.
Students will get points for involvement in committee work, attendance, debating the bill when it comes to the whole Body, voting for bills, and for successful passage of their particular bill.
Points can also be rewarded for using parliamentary tactics to delay others’ bills, overcome obstacles and objections to their bills, and gaining a grasp of the legislature process.
Points will be deducted for attempted filibusters, insults, and general rudeness toward others during debates.
For my game, I had the students throw a chalkboard eraser at the board that had a jeopardy board on it. This was just a little variation from the real jeopardy game in that the questions that they had to answer was based on their throwing accuracy. I had questions relating to the Civil War that they had to answer. I think that they game went pretty well although the students had not studied the Civil War yet so they did miss quite a few questions. I do think that the students enjoyed the throwing aspect of the game. I had fun with it anyway.
For may class game, I had the class play historical football. I used questions pertaining to the Cold War and the counter culture movement in the US.
I divided the class into two teams, and then I flipped a coin to determine which team started with the ball.
The difficulty of the questions I asked corresponded to the amount of yardage they received.
Overall, the game could have went better. If I could have been more organized the flow would have been smoother, and I did not have a stable control of the class, which led to confusion.
Since I was in Rapid City when the games were presented, I showed my this past Thursday.
It was a "bomb shelter" game. It involved interpersonal, intrapersonal, and lingustic skills.
Each "student" recieved a paper from me with a list of 20 individuals ranging from a 55 year old male Bio-chemist who recently immigrated from Iraq, to a 45 year old police officer and proud memeber of the KKK, to a 10 year old girl. Then I explained how the nuclear holicost was upon us (use this game when doing cold war unit).
The students then had to list in order 1-20 who they felt should go in the shelter, with 1 being the most important and 20 being the least.
Once that was done they had to divide into groups of two to three and decide as a group the 13 that would go into the shelter, after I explained to them that although twenty people were named, the Defense Department only made room for thirteen, with the expectation that those thirteen would reproduce and repopulate the world.
Once the group had decided their 13, the presented to the class who they chose.
I purposefully included controversial figures in the list. For example a 24 year old gay male architect. I expected there to be debate over who would be chosen since I added several debateable people. However, I did not expect the disscussion to continue so long. Even after we ended the game, people were stilling asking eachother, "Why did you / didn't you include this person?"
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