Family Feud!

  1. Divide the class into two teams.
  2. One member of each team faces the other in a face-off as the SIL reads the question off the game board.
  3. The team that buzzed in with the correct answer receives control of the board and has the option of playing or passing control to the other team.
  4. The team that has the control tries to reveal all of the correct answers to the question before receiving three strikes.
  5. If the team receives three strikes without clearing the board, control is passed to the other team.
  6. The team that now has the control is able to give one answer in the hopes that it is found on the board.
  7. If it is, points are added to the team’s score. If not, the other team gets the points.
  8. Points are collected as each team finds its answers to the question on the board.
  9. Continue the game repeating steps two through seven.
  10. Each team tries to collect the most points. The team with the most points wins the game! (Click on Team 1 or Team 2 on the Score slide to move to the You’ve Won slide.) Modification Suggestions Add/change sound effects. Bring a bell or something similar to make noise to decide who answered the question first.

Find a Family Feud template to use here: https://www.iup.edu/teachingexcellence/reflective-practice/past-events/2008-09/sample-games-to-be-used-in-the-classroom/instructions-for-playing-family-feud/

Thanks to Devyn Tilley for finding this awesome resource!

Moving Multiple Choice

This is a variation of 4 Corners.

Materials Needed: A, B, C, and D letters (8.5 x 11) & Multiple Choice Questions

Preparation: Prepare a few multiple choice questions to use. They should be over concepts that the class was having a hard time with or that they will be tested on. The questions could also come from past class quizzes to review.

Activity:
1. Place the letters in four different parts of the classroom.
2. Ask a question from your list to the class, allow time for the students to move
around the classroom and stand beneath the letter response they think is
correct.
3. Once students have finished moving where they think the answer is, have a
discussion by asking students to explain why they chose that answer. After
all the groups have had a chance to discuss allow students to move again to
their final answer.
4. Now explain which letter was the correct answer that you or the professor
were looking for and see if there are any questions about the answer.
5. Continue through the questions on your list in the same manner.

from Utah State University

The Gallows

  1. Divide students into multiple teams.
  2. For each team, draw the “hangman” gallows on the board. As you ask teams questions, missed answers for the team mean another “body part” is added to their gallows.
  3. Continue until all but one team has added all the body parts.

Pro Tip: Determine the body parts to be added ahead of time, to avoid teams getting too “creative” so they never lose!

Variation: Have students write the questions you’ll ask, either earlier in the same session or in the session before. You can then review the questions and add in others if needed. 

from Baylor University

Jeopardy!

Use jeopardylabs.com for free templates.

1.Form teams and announce the rules: No books or notes. Add other rules if needed. If you want to make it authentic, be sure everyone’s answers are in the form of a question!

2. Decide which team will pick a question first (i.e. coin flip, pick a number, etc.)

2. Teammates should take turns answering the question, but can confer with others in their group.

3.If the question is missed, another team can steal. Teams keep control of the board when they answer correctly.

4. Optional: To make things more interesting, bring a prize for the winning team!

Alternative: Assign students to a group and assign them a Jeopardy! category. As a team, they come up with questions and determine if they are the $100, $200, etc. question. Collect the cards and use them to create your Jeopardy! review for the next session.

Make & Take Practice Quiz

  1. Ask each student to create a practice quiz. Be sure they also create an answer key for the quiz.They can utilize books, notes, and lecture slides, to ensure the questions/answers are correct. 
    1. Be sure to come up with a number of questions you’d like them to create.
    2. You can also specify the type of questions. For instance, if exams are typically multiple choice, it would be helpful for them to create multiple choice questions. If you are in a Math based course, ask them to create a few practice problems.
  2. After everyone has created a practice quiz, pair up students and ask them to exchange quizzes. 
  3. Students should take their partner’s quiz without using resources if possible.
  4. When finished, partners meet back up to walk through the answers and score their quizzes.
  5. Allow time for discussion after, for questions or confusions that may come up.

As a Warm Up: Ask students to create a 3-5 question quiz based on content from the last lecture. When students take the quiz, they’ll have an idea of what they understand well and what they don’t understand well going into the SI session.
As a Main Activity: Ask students to create somewhat longer quizzes over the material for the upcoming exam, specific chapters or lectures, or over everything from the class so far.
As a Cool Down: Ask students to create a 3-5 question quiz based on what they learned in the SI session today.

Pass the Problem

This strategy can work in small groups, pairs, or individually depending on the size of group and complexity of the practice problems.

  1. Generate a list of practice problems and assign each student a different problem.
  2. Have each student complete Step 1 of their assigned problem.
  3. After a minute have them pass their problem to the student on their right. The new student completes Step 2.
  4. Continue until all the problems are complete.
  5. After, review with the students. As a group discuss “What step(s) did you have to take to solve these problems? And why do those steps work?” 

Academic Speed Dating

Don’t let the name scare you off! This is a great activity to allow students to connect with multiple other students in your session and review material.

  1. Create a list of open-ended questions or prompts.
  2. Ask students to line up in two lines so they are facing a partner, as shown below. (If you are able to move the furniture in your classroom, you could set up chairs, instead of having students stand.)
  3. Read a question from the list and allow students to discuss the answer with their partner.
  4. Once finished, ask someone to share their answer & discuss.
  5. Students from one row then move, as shown below.
  6. Start over with new partners and new questions.
  7. Continue until everyone has been paired up or you’ve discussed all the questions.

2 lines of 5 people stand facing each other for activity set up

Flyswatter Game

On the board, write vocabulary words, terminology, formulas, and/or theories from class. Write them scattered around the board like this example shows. 

 

Divide students into two teams. Each team will send a representative to the board to grab a flyswatter. The SI Leader reads a definition or explanation aloud to the group. Representatives from the teams must find the correct term or formula on the board and hit it with the flyswatter. (Team members are welcomed and encouraged to shout hints or directions to their chosen representative.) Whichever team’s representative finds the answer first, earns a point for their team; then, new representatives are sent to the board for the next turn.

Prep Tip: SIL can write terms on the board which students are completing another activity, like their warm up.
Prep Tip 2: If you don’t want to write on the board, pre-write your terms on post-it notes and stick them around the board. This will save you some time during session.

Move Up Bloom’s Taxonomy: Want to involve more higher order thinking in this game? After teams find the answer, offer an additional point to the team if they can provide a real world application or example of the term just guessed. If they cannot, the representative from the losing team has a chance to earn the point.