Teach Secondary Issue 14.3

PURPOSEFUL PLAY When minds start to wander during those low energy afternoon lessons, a well-chosen game can get students’ synapses firing while providing some useful retrieval practice, says Deborah Hayden ... I first began to appreciate the benefits of ‘gamification’ in lessons when, for several years, I taught a double Y11 history class on Friday afternoons – having clearly done something to upset the timetabler. It wasn’t just the students who needed to survive this timetabling quirk – I needed to find a way of surviving it myself. As it is, planning for a double lesson is very different than it is for two single lessons. And planning for a Friday afternoon double lesson with a Y11 class is a whole other level. Rules of 3 One thing I learnt very quickly was the need for movement in those lessons. Attention would get lost after 15 to 20 minutes of them sitting. Movement while learning is beneficial, since it ignites important areas of the brain and helps to improve neuron connections. We must be careful, however, to not include movement in lessons simply for the sake of it, and avoid falling down a rabbit hole of learning styles. For my Y11 class, any movement I incorporated would need to be combined with a learning strategy in line with popular research at the time – namely ‘Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve.’ And thus were born the following three activities, which I’ve since used with both KS3 and KS4 history classes, as well as a Y8 English class I’m teaching at the moment. AWhole 5 Steps This is a team game for helping to assess students’ knowledge confidence, in which students must identify a character, object, place or event fromfive clues that are gradually revealed to them one at a time. Place five cards, each numbered 1 to 5, in the middle of your classroom floor as ‘stepping stones’. Each team then nominates one of their members to act as their ‘playing piece’, who then stands on card number 5. The team proceed to receive one clue at a time in the form of PowerPoint slides, so that the whole class can see. If they correctly guess the answer from just this first clue, the team receives 5 points. If they need a further clue, the ‘playing piece’ steps forward to card number 4 and so on, with each clue they use losing the team a potential point. If they still guess incorrectly after receiving all 5 clues, then they’re out of the game and receive no points at all. Make sure you have enough rounds for all the teams. Lucky Number Amemory-based Q&A activity that also involves movement. It’s helpful to have a randomnumber generator to hand for this – the old-fashioned ‘pulling numbered lollipop sticks’ could also work. During the very first lesson in September, all of my students are given a number based on their place in the register, which they write on the front of their exercise books. We’ll use those numbers for various games over the course of year, so this helps save time. For the ‘Lucky Number’ game, you’ll need to write/ print questions related to the learning in this or last lesson on pieces of A4 card. Spread the question cards out, face down in the middle of your classroomfloor. Then use your randomnumber generator to select a student, who will proceed to pick up a card from the floor, read out the question written on it, and then hopefully follow that with the correct answer. If they’re unable to answer it, or if both you and the class agree that their answer was incorrect, they place the card back on the floor face down. If another student knows the answer, they’ll have to remember where the card is when their number is selected. This helps to keep all students engaged, even when it’s not their turn. Once a question card has been answered correctly, remove it from the game. This activity can be an “Ensure that anygames are basedon retrieval ofprior learning – thiswill help to identifymisconceptions and informyour future planning” 66 teachwire.net/secondary