Spanish teacher Molly Guadiamos has been using Quizlet for over 10 years. Quizlet is a review website that transforms long lists of Spanish vocabulary words into bite-sized packets. It is now the core of her Spanish curriculum.
“We found Quizlet to be especially helpful for students who don't feel comfortable using lists on their own,” Guadiamos says. “We found it improved everyone's overall knowledge and have been using it steadily ever since.”
Classroom games have been an integral part of the MVHS curriculum for many years, serving as a useful tool for memorizing concepts and information. Some of the most popular games include Kahoot, Gimkit, and Quizlet. Many of his MVHS language teachers, including his Chinese language teacher I-Chu Chang, find these games to be useful tools for review.
“With Kahoot, I use it as a summary and review activity because I can enter more text, select the correct answer, and do more reading comprehension questions,” Chan said. I did. “Interpreting which words fit better, rather than just identifying terms, makes you understand a little bit more after you've already learned something.”
Also a seniorRidhika Sharma claims that Kahoots not only helps in reviewing various concepts and vocabulary, but also brings fun into the classroom through competition and enhances the learning experience.
“At the moment in government we do a lot of Kahoots for memorization, but I think it's really fun because when you play the game you're competing with other people. It forces you to learn at the same time. But there is,” Sharma said. . “We have a fun learning environment.”
As the digital age continues to enhance education, teachers are increasingly striving to utilize classroom games as a method for community engagement among students. Chang found that these games, especially the team-based modes, create a collaborative environment where students use competitive motivation to lift each other up.
“Team mode allows teams to earn higher scores because they can help strangers and ask each other, 'How can I read?'” said Chan. “Students can teach and learn from each other.”
In contrast to the review games used in language arts at MVHS, literature teacher Megan Choate is using video games instead as a form of academic relief from the lectures and reading that often consume her students' day. I'm using.
“It brings good variety to the class. Sometimes it's nice to be focused and doing heavy academic stuff during game breaks,” Choate said. “At World Studies, we meet with students every day, so if we've had a really long week, we sometimes have a Friday afternoon for some team bonding within our group.”
These games can create an environment in class where students can take a more active role in their learning. For literature teacher Randy Holladay, games provide a more hands-on approach to the content being taught. Here, we use games that we play in our free time, such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, in the classroom.
“I was teaching American literature three or four years ago and we did 'Into the Wild,' where you go out into nature and experience the world,” Holladay said. “It was like, 'What's it like to experience digital nature?' Two years from now, students will be saying, 'Oh my gosh, remember when we played Zelda in class?' Even if it's just for one day. This provides extremely high engagement in a way I've never seen in practice. ”
Holladay, along with fellow literature teachers like Choate, is spearheading a movement to bring video games into the classroom, providing personal video game consoles for students to use. He believes games should be chosen with students in mind, and singles out “The Stanley Parable” in particular. This is a game I chose to add to my AP Literature curriculum to bring some fun to my students' learning.
“The biggest barrier to entry into video games is learning how to play,” Holladay says. “Can every student, even those who aren't familiar with video games, be able to pick up a controller and get what they want from it? Stanley Parable is literally just a joystick to move around, but it still has very high engagement. So the barrier to entry is very low and any student can play.”
Choate echoes Holaday's sentiments, saying how choosing the right video game for a learning environment is critical to its successful implementation. Here, she echoes Holaday's care in selecting games, explaining that games often strike a balance between effectiveness in learning and the outlet for fun they provide. Masu.
“The challenge may just be making sure all the students are in the game and balancing the lines,” Choate said. “I love high energy in games, but I'm careful not to go too high-energy, but it still reminds me of a classroom setting.”
Ultimately, Holaday believes these video games, which continue to grow in popularity, especially among young people, are the future of curriculum. As student demographics and their interests continue to change, he believes the curriculum must also evolve to meet the needs of today's students.
“Video games are an entire genre that our curriculum ignores,” Holladay said. “So, in addition to the engaging elements of this book, it seems like this book will be very responsive to our students in that we always try to make the book relevant to their lives.” .”
