4. Middle Schoolers Want to Play

This we believe (NMSA, 2010)

*Educators use multiple learning and teaching strategies. Learning Approaches

I was teaching sixth graders in a southern city. It was March and one of my students came up to me and said, "We just want to play," in a desperate drone so common with middle school voices. Friday my 8th graders came in and said, "Are we playing BINGO?" I said, "Yes, do you like it?" The first response was, "Old people games!" followed by, "Yes. I hope I win! What do we get?"  We played BINGO for about twenty minutes. It served as a review.

I love the honesty of middle school students. We played a game that allowed them to practice their knowledge of expressions, equations, slopes, and functions. They used white boards to complete their work and find their answers. I had the answers written out on the back of each 3x5 card so I could turn the card over using the document camera.

I have found that my students like to sing; they like to dance; they like to color; they love drawing on the whiteboards. We need to find more ways to celebrate our content with song, dance, art, and movement.

Advice

1) Students like to play games. Games are good for students' social skills, their academic as well as their problem solving skills. There are resources on line for making games that match such traditional games as Jeopardy, Bingo, Charades, Concentration.

2) Two of my colleagues shared their experiences with Flocabulary.com which is a website that has resources for content set to songs and video. The following is a summary from my teammate.

There are many different areas to take note of when checking out the site.

Once you have viewed the videos there are several tabs at the top of the page that you can click on that will lead to much more information on the subject you have chosen to view.  For example, the Interactive Lyrics, when you open the links in the lyrics it will open a new window with facts that go with the "rhyme" for that line of the song.  

The purpose of the song is to link the rhyme with a set of facts that will trigger their memory of an event (in Social Studies).

There are also interactive quizzes or quizzes that can be printed and used, activities and other teacher resources. I am not sure how closely it relates to the Essential Standards of the 7th and 8th grade Social Studies curriculum, but the 6th grade is covered by at least 80%. The kids last year loved it and it was a great way to get them motivated to learn!

I have not looked much at the Language Arts or Science but I have looked at the Math and used it when I taught at the lower level. I just wanted to give you a little more info on this really great resource!

3) Students like to make games. Be sure to give them the opportunity to create their own games as part of lesson assessment.