Students Create Review Games in Small Groups Lesson

Students Create Review Games in Small Groups Lesson
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Making Review Games

Small groups or teams of students can create review games for other students in the class to use a review tool. During the class time

that students use to make the game, they are reviewing too. The games they create are a fun review for others in the class.

Materials Needed: Poster board, markers, construction paper, crossword program or use of Internet, and/or game pieces

Preparation: Students should have review sheets or unit of study material from which they can make their questions.

It is best if this activity is graded by a rubric. Criteria for the rubric could be accurate content; game can be played with written directions; ease of use (game is not too complicated to play); teamwork; creativity and neatness. Make sure to tell how many game cards or questions each team needs to create to receive a certain score (Tip: 25 is great).

Steps for Lesson

Step 1 – Tell students that they will be creating review games for a unit of study. The review games will be graded by the students who play the games and by the teacher using the rubric.

Break Students into Small Groups

Step 2 – Break students into teams or small groups of two or three students. For ideas of how to break students into groups, see Part 1 of the lessons in this series.

Create Review Games

Step 3 – Give students ideas of the types of games that they can create. There are crossword makers on the Internet. Or, students can create board games and use favorite games as an inspiration.

Make Clear to Students:

  • Students must use cards with questions over the material to move the game pieces forward.
  • The directions are clear enough that students can play the game without asking the game maker questions.
  • The game is not too complicated. Remind them to keep it simple.

Step 4 – Devote at least two-to-three class periods to making these games.

Step 5 -- Devote one class period so that teams can “play” another team’s game. Each team should then assess the game it played using the rubric. The final grade should come from the teacher after the teacher has consulted with the all of the teams.

This is a fun way to review. Now, the students should be ready to take a unit exam or test.