Increase Student Engagement During the "October Blues"

"We played Kahoot! in three classes this week."

"We always play Quizlet Live before a test."

It’s October. Students are getting restless, and that long holiday break is months away. This is the perfect time to add more engaging review activities to your lessons! 

Students have different learning styles. Some prefer working in groups, while others, individually. Some prefer team competitions, while others prefer self-paced activities. Students should also have options in the way they review. They need to see the content presented in multiple ways to best retain information.

Since the start of the school year, more teachers have used Quizizz and Flippity.
But have you tried Gimkit, Kubbu, or Cram.com games?

Gimkit is a game where students earn money by answering questions at their own pace, on their own devices. They use different strategies to increase their dollar amounts. The goal is to win as much money per question as possible. There are several game play modes and opportunities to gain advantages in the “Shop”. Students are able to see questions multiple times as they strategize to either: gain the most money, help their team gain the most money, or help the class meet their monetary goal—it all depends on the game play mode. So one game can be played multiple ways within one class period.

Kubbu offers a variety of learning activities:

• Match: Students can “familiarize” using flashcards, or “solve” by clicking matching tiles. There are also different types of matching.
• Divide: Drag the tiles, or “elements” to the correct categories (create up to four categories). 
• Slider: Answer multiple choice questions, multiple answer questions, or climb up (correct answers move you up a hill; incorrect answers send you back to the bottom of the hill).
• Composer: This is a quiz format. You can increase the level of difficulty to help with content mastery.
• Crossword: You have the choice of adding a timer and allowing a certain number of help letters.

Although it requires users to enable Flash, once allowed, students should be able to access the activity. Kubbu can be used as an individual assignment, or as a class activity when projected on the screen. With an interactive projector, it transforms into a hands-on learning experience. Unfortunately, because it requires Flash, it does not work on an iPad.

However, Cram.com works on all platforms. Similar to Quizlet, it is a website where teachers and students can find or create flashcards. There are two games that offer fun ways to study the flashcards: Jewels of Wisdom and Stellar Speller.

When sharing with students, always link both games so students have a choice in how they review.

Try incorporating these resources into an upcoming unit! 

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