Games aren't just for reviewing!
If you've read anything from us before you know that we love using games in the classroom. Games give the kids a chance to have a little fun. Kahoot is basically a revamped multiple choice worksheet right? But of course they would rather play kahoot than fill in a scantron. But kahoot serves a much bigger purpose than just making Multiple choice worksheets fun. They get the kids asking why. When a scantron tells them they got number 5 wrong sometimes they just don't care. But when kahoot tells them they got bumped down to 6th place or they lost their answer streak, they want to know why! It also gives them that immediate feedback that is so important for learning. They can apply what they learned on question 5 to question 6 instead of waiting to get the answers back at the end. It also gives the teacher an idea of how much the class is understanding and gives an opportunity for explanation. Quizlet live and quizziz (and a new one I want to try out-quizalize) gives them a similar experience where they get immediate feedback and after the game is over teachers can explain commonly missed questions. When I first started using kahoot and quizlet live in the classroom it was on review day or after a homework assignment to practice a concept more. I did use quizlet live to help kids learn definitions of words in Spanish in order to play more games like catch phrase (see more in a post here) but it was still a review.
This year I read about blind kahoots and I realized that games can be instructional tools, not just fun methods of review. I applied the concept with quizlet live first. I create quizlet sets for each set of vocabulary and assign it for homework to study. We use the words in class to talk, read, write and listen in Spanish so it's important that they know the words. Before we do an activity, I get the kids to play quizlet live with the new vocab (which is usually no more than 15 words so we can play in one or two rounds). The first round it takes a while and they get a lot wrong. Then by the second and third round they are going super fast. They were very quickly learning the words because they made a guess, got it wrong, and didn't want to get it wrong now again! All because they wanted their team to win a game (I hardly ever give prizes for winning but when I do it's a simple piece of chocolate). This opened up a whole new window for discussion. I asked students how they were making guesses and yes, sometimes they were randomly picking because they had no idea but most of the time they were being very logical. They used root words they already knew and they used clues like “if I'm looking for a mirror, I know I am looking for a word with an article and not a verb because mirror is a noun”. Sometimes they were right and sometimes they were wrong but the thought process that happens is amazing! I told them that learning is all about guessing and using what you know to figure something new out. This takes about 5-10 minutes and then for the rest of class we use the words in context and it is much more successful than had I told them the words and moved on.
I loved the concept and saw how it was working with quizlet live so I looked more into blind kahoots. I watched the videos and played the example. I knew that I would be teaching my level 2s the imperfect soon so I started thinking about what a blind imperfect kahoot would look like. I structured the questions similarly to the example, added YouTube videos with songs for the endings and made a simple notes page for them to look at afterwards before sending them on their way to practice on their own (a simple goformative ”quiz”-see my post here about that amazing website). It was a hit! I warned the kids that it was an experiment and it would be totally new. I told them the point wasn't speed (like when they are reviewing) but they had time to think about the questions. They caught on really quickly to the patterns and in a survey after they overwhelmingly told me they preferred to learn that way instead of get notes and then practice.
I know that some of you are thinking this might be overwhelming to some anxious students. Trust me, I worried about that so much. However, they seemed to respond really well. The great thing about games is that students feel safe to fail, they feel that they can try something and because they get immediate feedback they are able to correct their misconceptions.
I also know that you might be thinking “wait, aren’t you guys all about proficiency, why are you doing grammar stuff”? Well you can read our post here about the time and place for grammar drills in the language classroom. Remember that we want them to learn the tenses in order to use them. It took about 30 min for us to get through the kahoot and the individual practice and then we started using it! We wrote sentences about what we used to do in the past, describing ourselves in the past and then comparing it to now. The next class we used our imperfect speaking conversation cards to practice speaking using the imperfect. Remember that in order for them to use it they need to learn it and they need to have it in their long-term memory. So, if a blind kahoot helps them learn a whole tense in 30 minutes, I’m in!
Here are my biggest takeaways from teaching with games like quizlet live and kahoot:
Students are more engaged: they are not distracted or bored and they are interacting with the lesson not just listening
Students are more invested in their answers: they want to be right and they want to know why they were wrong
Guessing (even when you are wrong) is a great way to create neural pathways to new material (especially when you get immediate feedback)--see chapter 2 of Small Teaching by James Lang for more information about this (or read my blog post about how this book changed my teaching)
Immediate feedback gives students a chance to correct their mistakes on future questions
