Law #4 Repurpose Worksheets Into Games

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If you learn to repurpose your worksheets into games, it can help you overcome a pretty crappy part of being a math teacher. If you are not a math teacher, this law still can apply to your course. Trust and believe you have a fan club of students that also hate your class subject also.

As mentioned before teaching math can be pretty crappy part. What makes it so crappy? It is knowing that 90% of your students already hate your class, the moment they walk in. Sure, you are able to build relationships and use other tactics to get them to like you, the teacher. However, they will state hate math, the class. If you teach another subject, I am sure you know of several reasons why students tend to not like your course as well.

Unfortunately, some teachers long before you planted, watered, and grew those student’s seeds of disdain for your class. Majority of the time you are not teaching them how to solve a problem, or how to interpret the text. Oh, no, no, no. You are usually begging, or attempting to bully them into solving the problems you assigned, or into reading the text you assigned.

If you teach a subject other than math, I know the struggle is real for you too. Students don’t want to read the text or passage. They say they read it, but can’t answer even one question right about it. Math or not, it takes tons of energy to fight with students to get them to work. More energy than I think most teachers realize.

2 Ways to Repurpose worksheets into Games

Do everyone involved a favor, and turn those worksheets into games or activities. I have 2 ways to repurpose your worksheets into games. Most of my suggestions require students to work in groups of 2-4. Three is ideal only because it is a little more difficult for students to sit back and “hide” while the others do the work. For more details on how to set up groups for collaboration games, view my post, The Rules to Rule Playing Games in Small Groups

Repurpose worksheets Game 1:

Let Them Wager

For this you will need an answer key with all problems for the worksheet solved/answered.

• Give each group the desired worksheet.
• Tell them that they can do the questions in any order (or force them to go in order if you need more consistency in your room).
• Groups can wager up to 100 points for the problem they are working on.
• Record each team’s question number and wager on one of the boards in your room.
  • If a group gets it correct on their first attempt, they win the entire amount they wagered. If they get it correct on their second attempt, they only earn half of the amount they wagered. If they get it correct on their third attempt, they break even, they won’t earn or lose points.
  • If it takes them 4 or more attempts, they go in the hole the entire amount they wagered.
• You would also keep track of how many times each group has come to you for that problem. This will help you to know how many points to award or deduct.
• *You may modify the penalties if you are using multiple choice questions*

Each time a group comes to you to check their answer, you can provide hints when they have made an error.

Why this works?

It fosters a growth mindset as students don’t have to be anxious about getting the problem correct their first try. Also, the group can wager as little or as much as they want based on their confidence. This helps to avoid large scores in the negative. Since every group can see the points all other teams have, it will entice them to wager based on strategy. If they are trying to catch up to or pull away from another group that is close in points. The motivation is there to keep trying as the competitor comes out in everyone.

Repurpose Worksheets game 2

Mystery Word

For this you will need an answer key with all problems for the worksheet solved. Also, have a few words that you want the students to try to guess. I tend to Google Wheel of Fortune Puzzles and use them. As this is basically hangman…without hanging a man, and Wheel of Fortune, without the spinning wheel.

• Keep score on the board of your choice.
• Put the category and the blanks for the puzzle on the board
• Post all letters A-Z on the board, and mark them off as groups select each letter. This helps to avoid repeats
• Every time a group gets a problem correct, they can guess 2 consonants, “buy” 1 vowel, or solve the puzzle.
• Each time the letter shows up in the answer, they earn 100 points for each occurrence.
  • To pick a vowel they must have points on the board, and will lose 50 points each time they “buy” a vowel.
• Fill in the letters in the puzzle, as teams guess correctly
• Each team can only guess the answer to the puzzle once and if they are incorrect, they must continue playing, but cannot solve again until a new puzzle has been started
• The team that correctly solves the puzzle earns 500 points extra.

When you repurpose worksheets into games, why does this work? Groups are intrigued by the blanks, the letters they can see, and the category. Naturally, they want to be the team to solve the puzzle, so they work harder at solving the math problem. Or at answer the question if you teach a different subject.

The closer they think they are to being correct, the more intensely they work. The mere fact that there is an unlimited amount of puzzles that can be gone through during a period, means, unlimited chances to make a come back. All groups will be engaged, as there are multiple opportunities to score points.

Conclusion

You can decide based on your classroom materials, how you want your students to show their work and answers. If you will have your groups work on white boards, laptops/tablets, on paper, or write on a plastic sleeve over the worksheet.

I work with high school students. One would like to believe that such simple games would bore them, but in fact the opposite is true. Kids like to be kids, and kids like to play, kids like to win, and kids like to feel “smart.” These games take the focus off of their fear of failure, and flips it to a positive as they fear losing the game. Ultimately urging them to work more diligently at the questions in front of them.

If you happen to be a secondary math teacher and you are looking for some self-check, color-changing activities for your students. Check out my Virtually I’mPossible Store on this site. Or my Teachers Pay Teachers store

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