As educators and parents, we are always looking for ways to engage our students and our children with the classroom topic. Our lessons are not “work” to us , and we certainly don’t want them to be “work” to our students. We want our students to want to know more about the topic, to become vested in their own learning experience connecting their own dots and experiencing their own ideas.
The twenty-five games in this blog bring students into the learning arena. Each game has a playful feature that intrigues students and transforms them into players who interact with the game format. Once involved in the play of the game, each player actively interacts with the topic and also demonstrates skills in problem solving, creativity, and group dynamics. These games are powerful tools that extend the invitation to all players to “come on in, the learning’s fine.”
GAMES AND INDIVIDUAL LEARNING STYLES
Each student has a personal preference for how she receives, interprets, and understands information. Michael Grinder, in his book Righting the Education Conveyor Belt, divides learners into three main types—visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. As educators we hope to successfully address all three types of learners each day and with each lesson. Games are an amicable way for an educator to present material and assess material learned, in a way that appeals to all her students. Games also help you maximize each student’s learning potential. Games help everyone win.
Here are the learning types and the ways games satisfy each type:
- Visual learners. Reflective of our visual age, many of our students are visual learners, reacting favorably to reading assignments, pictures, wall charts, overheads, videos, worksheets, game sheets, and other visual media. To these students the props, game sheets, and visual sequences enacted during a game create a visual experience that can be recalled to reinforce the items or concepts covered in the activity.
- Auditory learners. Many students react favorably to music, oral stories, reading aloud, class sing alongs, sounds, class discussions, and ongoing dialogue. For these students the oral directions in games, repeated episodes of question-and-response, and ongoing discussions create a memorable experience.
- Kinesthetic learners. Many students prefer to be involved in the learning experience through touch and interaction, as occurs during game play. They like tactile experiences, such as touching ordinary game items like game sheets, pencils, and markers, and may especially enjoy touching special game props, such as balloons, trash balls, chips, letter cards, question cards, and so forth. The actual physical movement involved in certain games is also important for these learners. They will enjoy the out-of the- chair games. These students especially enjoy interacting with the other students during the socialization required in a competitive game environment. Students become players, and players become teams during the surge of energy and adrenaline that occurs during game play. Learning types can also be expressed as internal and external styles.
- Internal learners. These learners prefer working alone to create a product or solution—they enjoy reflecting and then working out the solutions in their heads before presenting an answer. Games encourage and reward the type of reflection and thought that is needed to provide the best answers.
- External learners. These learners are very social and thrive on group collaboration and interaction. They work well with others and are natural leaders. Games give these students a way to socialize, yet still remain on task with their learning goals. Games also provide an opportunity for these students to test out their leadership skills in a safe environment.
