Build a Game: A Super Easy Way to Include Student-Led Learning in Your Classroom

If you are like me, you are constantly looking for ways for students to prove that they understand a concept or skill.  To me, a test does not provide true understanding of a skill.  I like to have some kind of Project Based Learning to accompany a topic or skill that they have learned.  That's where Build A Game comes into play!  

What's Build A Game?

Build A Game is a super easy way for students, and you, to create a project that shows their knowledge. Students create the game cards based on a subject you assign or a subject they are studying, maybe in Genius Hour.  Students must design all the parts to the game-from the rules to the questions.  It is completely designed by them!  

How Does it Work?

In my class, I assigned the skill for the Build A Game activity.  Students then worked alone to design their game. They met with friends to run through the game and make decisions about what worked and what didn't.  Then they took their game to final product.  This is where the rubric truly comes into play.  This product includes a rubric that can show students exactly what is expected.  Students should refer to the rubric each time they work, but especially when working on the final product.  This way students know the expectations as they work into their final product.

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Let Them Struggle!

Build A Game is an uncharted territory for most kids. They may or may not have played a lot of board games in their life.  I do have my games available to them during this time to look at and think about rules, etc.  But, I don't provide a ton of support in these areas.  Students will learn more about problem solving when creating something like this than if I were to answer all of their questions.  Students will also seek out other students who are being more successful with designing these games, naturally creating leaders in this area.  That is one of the wonderful side effects of an activity like this-and, for you, as the teacher, it is then easy to discover strengths and weaknesses in students in general in an area that is new and different for them!  It's a win-win!  

So, give it a try!  After all, you never know where Build A Game will take you and your students!  You just might have an amazing time together as a class!  I'd love to hear what you think too!  Leave me a comment with your thoughts!  AND don't forget to follow my over at Facebook and Instagram to follow my classroom journey!  I'd love to have you!

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Chew on This: Student Inquiry with Dr. Larry Chew

Bonus round has begun!!  As I have shared, I'm on a quest to discover more and more about student-led Learning!  Today was an excellent discovery and it was FREE!  Awhile back my district had sign-ups for a free summer institute in science!  I jumped right in and I was accepted for the class!  Little did I know it would align perfectly with my goals for the year and that I would get to hear a great speaker too-Dr. Larry Chew!  

Dr. Chew's background was an aerospace professor who now presents nation wide!  How does an aerospace professor go from teaching college students complex engineering principles to reaching the hearts of teachers-it started with fear!  Fear that he was unable to prepare his own children for real life.  He was a great professor who's tests scores just didn't line up to prove that.  Instead of staying at "Oh well!" he went on the path to discover why!  Through this, he discovered that background knowledge and exploration were missing in his classroom!  So, he worked to develop an answer, and discovered inquiry based discussions that put the student in the role of discussion guider and questioner!  

This method is brilliant!  Purely brilliant!  It builds both background knowledge through exploration and student based discussions, allowing students to figure it out!  Let's face it, he's right when he shares that 2/3 of the student in our classrooms can't tell us the why.  But the reality is, no one is out there teaching us how to get them to be able to do it!  Chew points to the fact that it is up to us, the teachers, to get out of the way and allow the kids to do it, with a carefully planned classroom environment and the training needed to ask the questions themselves.  And, it's super easy!

I say "super easy" right now.  He explains that it will take lots of time and practice, and MANIPULATION!  That's right, he says that we must become master manipulators-to teach students how to go in the right direction with questioning and how to get them to "discover" the answer for themselves.  So, let's dive in!

First, it starts with the benchmarks.  If you don't know the benchmarks, you are dead in the water!  Plus, you do have to know the science or concept you are going to present.  He can, literally, in minutes provide a basic lesson idea.  He did it, multiple times, with multiple subjects!  From the benchmark, you develop a content statement-the thing kids are to take away, to remember, to LEARN from the whole lesson!  Next, find a quick activity that will take all of 5-7 minutes of time!  And, you are ready!  

Next, you present your students with the benchmark or whatever else you are required to do in less than 5 minutes.  DO NOT share the content statement!  Complete the activity and, then, have them write on a whiteboard (one per table in teams of 3) whatever your learning goal might bring.  The experiment we did is we wrote words to describe what we saw in the experiment.  Then he asked us to divide them into two columns.  Easy right.  What we DIDN'T see is Dr. Chew checking white boards for a key word-physical!  This is where the manipulation on the teacher's part is taking place. He is targeting 2 or 3 table groups (never students-tables!) to call on who have the right words and ideas as the start of the conversation!  And, what a conversation!  

Here's how it works! The process is called Add, Ask, and Challenge/Comment!  Dr. Chew modeled this over and over.  He asks the first question and chooses one of those 2-3 students who had the right concept, your concept statement goal, on their white board!  Simple right.  Here's where it gets good!  Dr. Chew then only calls on student names.  The student called on MUST ask a question of the TABLE (once someone talks, it goes to the next table member).  Once that is answered, the next student called on MUST CHALLENGE or  COMMENT  on what was said.  And it keeps going like this.  If a table doesn't know, it is up to the tables around them to help out and keep the conversation going.  You do this for about 10 minutes, without teacher input.  You can plant questions and you can thank someone who is misdirecting a comment, but you don't fix anything, even misconceptions.  But you listen carefully and take note of what you do need to fix when time is up!  Yep, and it is all kid based. Sounds too easy right!  Even Dr. Chew says we are working to hard at that perfect classroom.  If it messes up, refocus and try again.  If a table isn't involved, maybe tomorrow they will be!  It just takes time and practice!  

So, what happens when it is over?  Then it is teaching time. You present what you need to present, fix misconceptions, and focus them completely on the content statement!  You have manipulated them into believing they figured it out on their own!  BRILLIANT!  

There is also the closing activities-practice the content statement 3 times silently and then tell your team member-each taking a turn!  And that's IT!  Simple, easy, and BRILLIANT!  Check out more over at TommyC.org, Dr. Chew's homepage!  Be sure to check out the handouts and more!  

Personally, I can't wait to try out this method in my classroom.  It allows students more control, it allows me to teach with the students in mind, it provides more hands on in Science (but it can be used in any subject), and fit perfectly with my philosophy and where I'm headed!  

Let me know what you think in the comments section!  Can't wait to hear what you have to say!