Today was a test day. Meaning all 4 of my classes had a history test. I don’t give them a test weekly because 1) That cuts into our learning and 2) I don’t think they have to be tested all the time on everything they learn. There. I said it. 
My history tests this year are open notebook anyway so the ONLY reason a student “should” make less than an A is if they were absent and didn’t get notes from someone. Which happens A LOT!
So today was a test day. Lately I have tried to play some kind of review game with them before the test. Today we used individual whiteboards to play a relay game. It was the 1st time I had tried it, and I LIKED it. This idea was given to me by my great and wonderful friends in twitterverse.
I divided the class into 3 teams-A, B, and C-which put about 5-7 students on each team.
They stood like this:
AAAAAAA
BBBBBBBB
CCCCCCCC
Everyone had an expo marker. The person at one end of each team had the small whiteboard.
I called out an event-like the Boston Massacre-and the end person had to write something, pass to next student and they added to it, pass, add to it, and so forth. By the other end of the team it should be a detailed explanation of the event. I told them to think about the 5W-who, what, where, when, and why.
They had 3 minutes. Then I read EACH description out loud and gave points accordingly. Started new round with new event.
Most of them enjoyed it. Unless they couldn’t read what someone had previously written. HA!
A couple of my classes had enough time to also play “Showdown”.
They sat at their desks each having a whiteboard of their own and marker. I called out the description of an event, etc. and they had to write the word for it and be the 1st to hold up their whiteboard. I didn’t give points-just called out the person’s name and their answer.
Loved it! Very fast paced.
One thing I would change about the relay game is to have less people on a team.
So what kind of review games do you play with your students? What is your favorite?
Oh Shannon – I LOVE the idea of the first game. I’m definitely going to try that one – building on answers is something we always have to practice!!!
Jen-
Some of my students said they liked another game better-where I have them in 2 lines, I call out question, they confer with team, and person at front of line calls out answer. They said the relay whiteboard game was hard. I laughed and said, yeah you have to think!
Boy some of them got ill because they couldn’t read a person’s handwriting or it didn’t make sense. It was hilarious to see them go through what I go through EVERYDAY!! HA! 