New Ideas for Basketball Review Games in the Classroom

Recently, a reader emailed me to ask about one of the first lesson ideas I ever shared on the blog:

I am hoping you won’t mind sharing some info with me.  I love the basketball hoop in your blog picture.  I’m going with a “slam dunk seventh” theme this year and would love to get one for my classroom.  I’ve seen a lot of little tykes and fisher price versions on craig’s list, but those look weak for seventh graders.  Who makes yours?

Best,
Melissa

The hoop in question, which is the basis for Idea #9 from my book Ten Cheap Lessons, is this Monster Basketball Set.

Unfortunately, it seems to no longer be available for $20 as it was back in 2007.  I think that's alright, however, because what I learned after trying to reuse it a couple of times is that it tends to spring leaks that are nearly impossible to find and patch.  The best part about it was that it is huge, colorful and bouncy, which strangely enough why it works with older students (even high schoolers).  It is way over the top visually, and kids immediately think it will be easy to shoot baskets (it's not).  I haven't found a suitable replacement yet, but I also hadn't been actively looking for one.

Now that I'm returning to the classroom full-time after a couple years away, I want to find something similar but better.  $100 for something that can only be used once or twice is not worth it, no matter how ideal it looks in the photo.

After some online searching, I like this humungous Super Hoop, but it's too big for inside the classroom--we'd have to take class outside, which is okay.  It is also a bit pricey (just under $200), but if it can hold up for multiple uses, it might be worth it.  A cheaper alternative would be to get this inflatable hoop designed for swimming pools and put it on top of a desk or table, but it's not quite the same.

As I've reflected on this idea over the past few weeks, I wonder if I should adapt technology for the same purpose: why not use a Wii or Kinect-based basketball game, projected on the big screen?  There's a 3-point shooting contest inside Wii Sports Resort, along with bowling, archery, watersports and more.  That one game could provide just enough variety to allow you to revisit the same basic team-based review again and again (see the original Basketball Review Game post for a primer) without losing the novelty.

Have you seen any basketball hoops or other types of games that you could use for review inside the classroom (the cheaper and easier to set up the better)?  Know of any Wii or Kinect titles that would serve the same purpose using engaging technology?  Share your resources, ideas and questions in the comments.

How to Turn Jenga Into an Awesome Test Prep Tool

At one of my favorite local haunts, patrons play a lot of Jenga.  Recently, people have started to deface (some might say enhance) the ubiquitous wooden blocks with all sorts of messages.  There are directions you might give to someone for a dare ("Kiss the person to your right!"), analog Twitter updates ("Johnny wuz here 1-25-10"), and grammatically questionable declarations of love ("Cap'n -n- Tennille 4 eva").  As usual, I saw an immediate, easy application to the classroom.

Let's use this idea to make a fun review for standardized test and end-of-year exams.  Cover the top and bottom of each block with vocabulary, short problems, clues for a larger puzzle, etc.  You can even make them into "flash" blocks, with a term or picture on one side and a concise definition on the opposite side.

Students play the game as they normally would, with one notable difference: when they remove a block, they have to do something with whatever is on it.  For example:

• In an algebra class, each block could contain linear and quadratic equations.  Students could write down each equation and work with them after the game ends--each student would have a random and (mostly) different set of problems to work with.  They could alternately quickly name some key piece of information about the given function, like the slope and y-intercept of the linear functions, before placing the blocks on top of the stack.
• In a social studies class, each block could contain vocabulary words that students would have to write down.  After the game, students would define and illustrate the key terms, then share them within their groups to build a complete study guide.
• In a chemistry class, each block could contain individual elements or reactions that students have to explain and/or solve.
• In an English/language arts class, blocks could contain the elements of a story that students could later put together into an original story.  Each piece could instead have authors and works studied during the year, and the kids would have to identify key information, write reflections, etc.

The possibilities are truly endless.  If you could get several Jenga sets, each one could cover a different objective or focus on things in a different way, so that you might have to rotate the sets around so that each group of students would be exposed to everything.

If you had an extra untouched Jenga set available, I would love to see students create their own educational Jenga game.  In a perfect world, you could get funding so that each group of students would work on such a project, but this is not the case.  What you could do is have one extra set available and reward students who did the best work on the earlier game to create a new version that would help other kids.

Why Jenga?  Like Uno, students can't help but being fully engrossed in this simple yet addictive game.  Even if you don't see yourself using this idea, Jenga is a game that should be in every classroom.  I also must insist that you buy only real Jenga sets.  The generic knock-offs are pure crap: the blocks aren't even the same size, and they don't fit together tightly the way the original does.  In this case, it's worth the extra couple bucks to get the name brand.

Have you tried or seen anything like this using Jenga before?  Do you have some ideas for your subject or grade level?  Are you wondering how to pull this off in your classroom?  Share your thoughts and questions in the comments.

History Week, Day 4: Five Fun Review Games

Although the content has changed, I have always tried to review for quizzes and tests with games whenever possible. These are some of the more interesting ones I found in my records.

First, two BINGO games using Steve Mashburn's template.

1. Reform Movements BINGO - Vocabulary from the abolitionist, women's rights and temperance movements.
2. Industrial Revolution BINGO - Major themes and key vocabulary from this era.

Next, two Jeopardy style games.

1. Colonial Jeopardy - Questions about geography, the New England and Southern colonies, and some major political ideas of the early 1700s. I made this when I was only a second year teacher, and I'm not that thrilled with it, but it's a good starting point.
2. American Revolution Jeopardy
   

Finally, the last game comes from a retired teacher who worked at Philadelphia's National Constitution Center. It's a game designed to teach how the Electoral College works while reviewing any other U.S. history facts you're studying. I was lucky enough to play this with other museum visitors and then take the idea back to Texas to use with my students. You need:

• A deck of cards containing the 50 states and their respective electoral vote totals
  
• Dice (preferably the giant novelty kind)
• A large U.S. map you can write on or mark off
• A list of U.S. history trivia questions.

The group is split into two teams, blue and red (or Democrats and Republicans if you can pull that off without incident). In each round, a team will roll the die, take that many state cards from the deck, and then answer a trivia question. If they answer correctly, they get all of the electoral votes for those states. If not, you could give the other team the chance to answer (if you want to up the ante). Otherwise, the other team follows the same procedure.

Play continues until all of states have been won. When I played this game in class, it was around the time of the 2004 Presidential election, which means we were still in the very early part of the school year. This list of trivia questions covers only the first couple of months of 8th grade U.S. history content:

Electoral College game questions

All of these games use vocabulary and wording from TAKS released tests for 8th grade U.S. History. Some question and answers don't make a whole lot of sense, but neither does much of the TAKS. Many of these terms appear again on the 11th grade TAKS, so it should be useful for those teachers as well. As always, please share your best resources in the comments or via email.

2 New Factoring Bingo Games

Jacqui, an Algebra I teacher in New Hampshire, created two new factoring games using Steve Mashburn's BINGO template and has been gracious enough to share them with us:

Factoring BINGO - Jacqui says: "The first is for a Pre-Algebra class. Each problem is a quadratic trinomial that they have to factor. I will read out the factored form. I intend to give them 20 minutes or so with a partner to factor all the problems prior to playing BINGO."

Zero Product Property BINGO - "The second is equations that need to be solved using the zero product property. Again, I intend to give them time the first half of the block to solve, then play BINGO."

If your students are really into BINGO, you can find more ready made games here, here, and here.

Three Fun Probability Games and Projects

I did a lot of research on probability lesson plans this past year, but I really didn't like a lot of what I found. I found that most of them they just weren't any fun, which in my mind seems to go hand in hand with probability. So here's two new resources I found, an old idea worth revisiting, and advice about setting up your students for success on this topic.

1. Mathwire.com One-Die Toss Activities - This site has a bunch of dice-based probability games. I recommend Pig, Skunk and the Cheerios Experiment (which really should be named after a more unhealthy, toy-promoting cereal), as all of them were successful in class.
2. Design Your Own Game Project [Word doc] - Students design their own carnival-style game, calculate the probabilities involved and reflect on what they learned and created. It's simple to explain but will push your students to really think about probability in this kind of context. The document includes a rubric as well. My students really enjoyed doing this, both in Algebra I & II. If you have the time and resources, you could even have a "Carnival Day" where students would play each other's games. This game was found online and the link had been dead for a long time, but I found a copy in my records.
3. Probability Using "Deal or No Deal" - This is arguably my most popular lesson plan idea ever, but I actually want to make sure you read the opening coin-flipping activity I used before starting the game. Even if you don't use the game itself, you should absolutely open any probability unit with that fun activity.

Setting students up for success with probability

Unlike in the Rio Grande Valley, many students in Boston didn't know the basics of a regular deck of cards. I would imagine that is the case in many areas these days, as kids move farther and farther away from the traditional games you and I might have played in our youth. First, it might help to post this in the room somewhere for your entire unit:

A regular deck of cards has:
52 cards total
26 red (13 diamonds, 13 hearts) and 26 black (13 spades, 13 clubs)
Each of the 4 groups has the cards 2-10, J, Q, K, and A

Probability questions involving playing cards are one of the most common asked on standardized testing in both Massachusetts and Texas (and we all know how much influence the latter has, for better or worse). Your students need to be ready for them, and I think it will make other probability questions easier as well.

You can ask simple questions as a review and check to make sure they're simplifying each fraction, then move on to asking them about independent and dependent events. Your textbook and supplemental material is probably full of these types of questions as well.

Finally, some students will need an actual deck of cards in front of them to understand the questions, which is another good reason to make sure you always have one in your classroom!

On Success, Part 2: New Games & Projects

This is part of a two-week series on my five biggest successes and failures as a teacher this year. This week is focused solely on success.

I'll be the first to admit that I abandoned many successful elements of my past classrooms this year. I also didn't have much experience teaching Algebra II beyond a stint at an alternative school, so I didn't have the wealth of resources as I did for Algebra I. Yet despite these setbacks, I've created a number of new lesson ideas, games and projects this year in both courses.

Algebra I
I'm a near-perfectionist. That is, I am rarely satisfied with my ideas and tweak them every year, no matter how successful they might have been before. Of course, I still go forward and use my unfinished strategies to teach out of necessity. I'm happy that not only did I improve many good lessons, I created new ones to cover a wide range of topics:

1. New Version of "Students Become The Teacher", 9/27/08 (Idea #8 in my book Ten Cheap Lessons)
2. How to Improve the Combining Like Terms Game, 9/27/08
3. 2008 version of the Math in the Real World project, 10/9/08 (Idea #4 from TCL)
4. Basic Geometry Formula Book project, 10/26/08
5. Coordinate Plane Battleship Game: 2008 edition, 11/21/08
6. Linear Functions Mini-Poster project, 12/14/08 (Remix of Idea #1 from TCL)
   
7. Linear Equations Formula Book project, 1/12/09
   
8. Multiplying Polynomials and FOIL review games, 3/4/09

Algebra II
I had a much harder time coming up with ideas for Algebra II, as I have not deconstructed and planned out the clearest explanations for the much more complex concepts I have to teach. I'm starting to feel comfortable in breaking things down now, and building interesting projects and games around the topics.

1. See #1 & #3 above.
2. Transformations of Exponential and Logarithmic Functions project, 1/27/09
3. Transforming Logarithmic Functions Bingo, 2/8/09
4. Straightforward Example Posters, 3/10/09

There's still much more to come in both subjects, as I feel my creative juices are flowing quite well these days. I get so much satisfaction when I hear from readers that they used my idea in class or that it inspired them to create something.

In a Sentence
Keep improving your teaching, no matter how long you've been doing it.

Four Fun Ways to Review Factoring Trinomials

This week in Algebra I, we're studying how to factor trinomials. The kids have done really well so far, so I just want to review tomorrow and build their knowledge and confidence heading into a quiz on Friday.

I thought about revisiting my FOIL bingo game from two weeks ago, which the kids found difficult at the time because I was really asking them to un-FOIL. Their bingo cards contained factors, and the call sheet contained the trinomials, so if they had known then what they know now, it would've been a breeze. I'm leaning towards not using it so as not to wear out the novelty of the game. I'd like to have it in my arsenal for later in the year.

Instead, a little online research turned up four fun review games for factoring trinomials:

1. Factoring Cut-Out (PDF) - Students cut up a sheet of sixteen cards that have a mix of factors and trinomials (and a few other polynomials) written on all four sides. They have to rearrange the cards so that each trinomial lines up with its correct factor. The coefficient of "a" is one for all of the trinomials, so this should be fairly easy. I'm definitely using this one tomorrow!
2. "I Have... Who Has...?" Factoring (Word) - Essentially a matching game, students would have to work cooperatively in a large group in order to match each trinomial to its factor. You could adapt this by deleting "I Have" and "Who Has" from each card and making this a straightforward matching game, or by having small groups play a "Go Fish" type of card game.
3. Algebra Connect Factoring Game (PDF) - It looks simple enough to set up and play, but you would need several pairs of dice.
4. Factoring Puzzle (PDF) - This is similar to Factoring Cut-Out, but there are two different versions to play. There's a ton of related materials on the Henrico County Public Schools Algebra 1 website.

The first three games are from ILoveMath.org, a math lesson database that I explored for the first time today. The site has a small but seemingly high quality collection of free resources and activities all uploaded by teachers. One warning: I found the site's built-in search completely useless--I couldn't even find the activities listed above when searching for their exact titles! Instead, search the site via Google by adding "site:ilovemath.org" before your desired terms.

Share links to your best resources in the comments!

Two Review Games: Multiplying Polynomials and FOIL

Last week while lesson planning, I realized that the material we were covering (multiplying polynomials) lent itself well to some of my favorite learning games. I used two review/teaching games in the same 70 minute period: one covers FOIL and the other contains most other types of multiplication problems:

1. FOIL Bingo - I like that this challenges students to problem solve and figure out ways to work backwards, since I give the "answer" (the resulting polynomial) and they have the "question" (the binomials to be multiplied) on their bingo cards. This was a little difficult for some of them, but if you give them the bingo cards ahead of time, have them multiply the problems out and then start the game, it will be much easier. This is actually a repurposed version of my factoring polynomials bingo game for Algebra II, which shows how you can use this game for a lot of different things. You can plug pretty much anything in there and create a game quickly and easily.
2. Multiplying Polynomials Matching Game - The kids enjoyed this much more than bingo and completed it more quickly than I anticipated. It contains problems where they distribute a monomial or binomial and a couple of monomial multiplication problems (the last part being a sort of spiral review). After doing it in class though, now I'm thinking that you could fold the FOIL problems into this game and have it work much better as one large game. This PDF contains the two sets of cards and a key on page 3.

Getting the Most Out of These Games In Your Classroom

This was our review the day before a quiz. I told my students that I was going to take most of the questions from the two games--something I told them ahead of time to motivate them to participate and take it seriously. I think it helped keep them involved. I put up 10 points on the quiz as a prize for the winner (first done correctly) for each game.

Since we finished early, I asked students to multiply out all of the FOIL problems we hadn't gotten to yet during our bingo game (there were about 10 out of 24 left) for additional credit. This is a good way to follow up any time you go through a round of bingo quickly. Alternately, you can always continue playing and award something to the runner up.

For those of you with a 45-55 minute period, these two games could easily keep students engaged (and working against the clock) for the whole period or be expanded and split into two.

Feel free to ask questions and ideas in the comments!

Transforming Logarithmic Functions Bingo

Here's an Algebra II bingo game I built with Steve Mashburn's BINGO Master template for transforming logarithmic functions. Student bingo cards contain several transformations from the function log(x + 2), and the call sheet contains descriptions of the transformations students need to make. For example:

Call sheet: Reflected over the x-axis
On student bingo cards: -log(x + 2)

When I thought of using this review, I originally wanted to turn this game on its head, doing the same thing with exponential functions (as we were studying them together). Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to get the template to print any exponents on the bingo cards, which rendered it unusable for that.

I didn't have time to switch the call sheet and bingo cards either, giving students the logarithms and having them find the transformations on their cards, but this would be an excellent addition to this activity.

You should do a quick review of the types of transformations, and allow students to use well-organized notes as well. I didn't do this well enough before playing the game, and it didn't go quite as smoothly as I would have hoped.

More info:

• Create a Custom BINGO Review Game Easily
• BINGO templates and games (via the TeachForever Notebook)

Create a Custom BINGO Review Game Easily

The BINGO Master template is probably my most tried-and-true, favorite review game for classroom use. I've used it since my first year of teaching, and it's always been successful, even with the most difficult classrooms. It's also painfully simple.

Steve Mashburn, Coordinator of Online Education for Forsyth County Schools in Georgia, created this spreadsheet in 2001. You type in 25 vocabulary words and definitions, and then click the "Print Bingo Cards" button. Within seconds, 30 different bingo cards and a call sheet are generated and ready to print.

Vocabulary, of course, is not the only way to use BINGO Master. I used it for end-of-quarter Algebra I & II review recently. Algebra I students solved one and two-step equations and found the answers on their bingo cards, with numerical answers appearing on their cards and the equations on the call sheet. I would write them out, doing an example here and there to guide them along. Algebra II students factored polynomials in their version of the game.

In previous years, we played basic operations bingo--operations on integers, evaluating expressions and order of operations problems. This would be ideal for the first week or two of Algebra I and for pre-algebra lessons in earlier grades.

Make sure your spreadsheet program has macros enabled in order for it to work. Otherwise, this is about as flexible and easy to use as anything in your teaching arsenal.

Original BINGO Master template
Solving Equations BINGO
Factoring Polynomials BINGO
Basic Operations BINGO

For more flexible, easy ideas, check out my book Ten Cheap Lessons: Easy, Engaging Ideas for Every Secondary Classroom.

The Best of 2008 So Far

Today is the first day of July, which means we've crossed the halfway mark for 2008. Many of you just wrapped up the school year, and many are gearing up for summer school as I am. In any case, I am so happy about the great growth of this blog throughout the first half of 2008 and wanted to share some of my best work that you might have missed in this busy semester:

5. Turn Graphing Linear Equations into a Game: Games are a great way to engage students, and this was one of many. Basically, students match linear equations and their graphs without a calculator, honing their skills at applying slope and y-intercept. Like the ideas in my book, it's simple, cheap and works wonders.

4. Graph BINGO Review Game: I had more fun with this in class and during Saturday academies than anything else I can remember. Bingo is the game, but the card is made up of various types of graphs (linear, non-linear, scatter plots, etc). The call sheet describes the graphs (i.e. "the linear parent function" or "Mr. D drives to school, stays there for a little while, then drives home [distance vs. time]").

3. Lesson Idea: Hands-On Volume and Surface Area: Here's another topic my students have continually struggled with, but I think we made some great progress this year using a lot of modeling, measuring and using hands-on 3D objects. We followed this lesson up with a major project where students applied the skills we had modeled in class (see Project Idea: Measurement, Volume and Surface Area).

2. 165th Carnival of Education (Testing Season Edition): During the first week of April I had the opportunity to host the Carnival of Education, which brought visitors from a number of excellent edublogs here to I Want to Teach Forever. I organized the links around the topics I write about most often, and I think it all came together pretty well. The vast majority of the links are still a great read and haven't lost their significance. In fact, it may be a good excuse to go back and reflect on your progress since then.

1. Lesson Idea: Probability Using Deal or No Deal: By far this has been the most popular and inspired the most emails and comments. Based on the hit NBC game show, I turned a card game version into a game-based lesson on probability. It's fun, it's easy to do, and it will work with almost any grade level studying this commonly tested topic.

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If you've only recently discovered my website, you might want to check out the Best of 2007, which is a good a place as any to start.

Extending the Graph BINGO Review Game

Today during Saturday tutoring, I played my Graph BINGO Review Game with an entirely new set of students. These were 9th and 10th graders, none of whom were my students, and they enjoyed the game and learned as much as my students had a few weeks ago.

While I was preparing I had an idea for an extension. I erased all of the graphs and created a blank bingo card with plenty of space in each box. I thought that if the game didn't last very long, I could ask students to create their own bingo card and call sheet with various types of graphs. Then we could copy the best one and play a brand new game as a whole group.

Since we reviewed slope, intercepts and graphing linear equations, it would make sense to adapt this game for solely this objective. Indeed, you could replace the different types of graphs with specific sets: linear functions, quadratics, or linear inequalities for example. Instead of using verbal descriptions for the call sheet, you could gear it more towards the connections they will have to make to answer various word problems. For example, if you were doing linear functions, your clues could be:

• equations in slope-intercept form
• a slope and y-intercept
• x and y intercepts
• only slopes (or only y-intercepts)
• equations in standard and non-standard form
• non-functions (x = 3 for example)
  

You could also practice negative statements, the kind they love to frustrate students with on standardized tests, like "which graph does NOT have a positive y-intercept?"

The problem with any game or activity like this, of course, is that you can't keep using it again and again. The novelty of any good idea wears off quickly. In fact, bingo will probably be retired for the rest of the school year, only to rise again triumphantly for 2008-2009.

Graph BINGO Review Game

Last Friday was the last day before Spring Break, so I had to pull out all the stops to keep my students engaged and maybe, just maybe, actually teach them something. We needed to wrap up our review of Objective 1 & 2, incorporating a lot of different ideas and tying them together:

• linear equations and inequalities
• what is an isn't a function
• quadratic functions
  
• parent functions
• connecting word problems to graphs
• identifying all of the above visually

So I decided we'd play BINGO, using a board made up entirely of graphs. There are plenty of resources available online to create bingo cards for free, but I couldn't find one that did what I wanted it to do (the closest was this picture bingo card maker at ESLactivities.com). I was cutting and pasting from the PDF files to a Word document, not creating individual image files, so I had to make it myself.


All of the graphs were pulled from TAKS released tests from Grade 8, 9, 10 and 11 and the 9th grade TAKS Study Guide. The graphs are informally grouped together, and I manually moved graphs and columns around to create 20 different cards.

The game is played like regular bingo, 5 in a row across, down or diagonally with a "free" space in the middle. The call sheet contains each graph and a verbal descriptions of it. I wrote each description on my document camera (the 21st century overhead projector) and repeated it verbally as well, and then students worked alone or in groups of 2-3 to identify the correct graph.

Instead of yelling out "BINGO!" students yelled "GRAPH!" and I verified their results. We were able to play 2 games in 45 minutes. I guided students as much as possible through the first game, but then left them on their own for the second. They enjoyed it, were engaged (even with Spring Break looming) and most importantly had a clear grasp of the material.

I used highlighters as markers, which means the boards couldn't be reused. This was a pain, but better than the alternative. I've done different versions of bingo in class for years, and no matter what I used for markers--actual bingo chips, pinto beans, candy--students would throw them at each other, steal them and create a huge mess. By having them work in small groups, there were enough cards left over that I only needed to print the 20 for each class.

GRAPH bingo call sheet

20 GRAPH bingo cards

For more games and good ideas, check out my book!

Ten Cheap Lessons: Downloads and Extras!

[Update 9/17/09]

A revised, expanded Ten Cheap Lessons: Second Edition is now available exclusively on Lulu.com! Click here for more information.

Ten Cheap Lessons: Easy, Engaging Ideas for Every Secondary Classroom, is not your ordinary teacher resource book. One of the best advantages of having this website is that I can offer downloads and extras to make the book more valuable. Almost all of the sample lessons plans include supplemental materials, but of course they are much more useful as fully editable documents.

Downloads

Here are the ten ideas from the book and their accompanying documents. Note that some documents may differ from how they were published as quite a bit of editing was done and conversion between formats.

1. Idea #1: The Mini-Poster - Independent vs. Dependent Variables poster directions
2. Idea #2: Using a Word Wall in the Secondary Classroom - Word Wall Project
3. Idea #3: Card Games - Like Terms directions, score sheet
4. Idea #4: Finding Jobs in the Real World - Using Math in the Real World project
   
5. Idea #5: Use Labs Outside of Science Class - Math Lab
6. Idea #6: Newspaper Activities - Newspaper Mini-Project, Newspaper Review
   
7. Idea #7: Songs and Music - The Domain and Range Song
8. Idea #8: Students Become the Teachers - Slope-Intercept Study Guide, Slope-Intercept Project, Teacher for a Day project
9. Idea #9: A Basketball Review Game (That Doesn't Involved Crumpled Paper Thrown in the Wastebasket) - Photo of classroom setup, Sportscraft Monster Basketball Set used for the game
10. Idea #10: Preparing for the Test Without Teaching to the Test - The supplemental materials you need are your own benchmark and diagnostic tests. For example, I used this idea to have my students fix a benchmark test.
    

Contact Information

Email me at teachforeverATgmailDOTcom to inquire about Ten Cheap Lessons or to book me for interviews, speaking events, workshops, conferences or classes.

You can reach me via voicemail at (956) 278-0007.

Where to Order

• Lulu.com - Second Edition* [spiral-bound or ebook] or first edition [paperback or ebook]
• Amazon.com [Kindle Edition also available!]
• Barnes & Noble
• Books-A-Million
• Find more sellers via Google Product Search
• Teach For America Corps Members & Alumni: The digital edition of Ten Cheap Lessons is the most downloaded FREE resource on the Resource Exchange. You can find it here (you must have a TFAnet account though). If you do download a copy, I look forward to your feedback. Thanks!

* Second Edition is available exclusively at Lulu.com

Extras

• Book Review: Rutgers Alumni eNewsletter column "Off The Shelf"
  

Lesson Idea: Probability using Deal or No Deal

No matter what I'm doing or where I am, I'm constantly making literal and mental notes of ideas I can use to improve my teaching. Sometime last year, while wandering around an educational toy store in the mall for just this reason, I mentioned to my friend Dave (a fellow teacher) how I thought the game show Deal or No Deal would be a great way to teach probability. At its heart, the show is about figuring out your chances of getting a better deal by playing on or taking the bank's offer--in other words, your probability of getting the better deal. Dave thought this was a great idea, and we returned to our perusing.

Several weeks later, Dave told me he had shared the idea with math teachers at his school, who used it in class to great success. It was apparently a huge hit. While I'm all about sharing my ideas and helping students beyond my classroom, I was a little miffed, because I hadn't actually used the idea with my students! I had forgotten all about it until Dave's reminder, and so I made a resolution to reap the benefits of my own idea this year.

Building Background

The first thing I did was introduce probability the day before the game. I started with a question: "Every time I flip a coin, I have a 50/50 chance of landing on heads or tails. So if I flip it 50 times, I should get 25 heads and 25 tails, right?" This kicks off a discussion about theoretical probability, which we then tested. Small groups flipped a coin 50 times and tallied heads and tails. Then we came back together and compared their data (experimental probability) to our theoretical probability. I also used a deck of cards to show several examples of probability (especially the idea of replacement) as well as compound probability. This would provide a foundation for our game the next day.

Adapting the Game

I already had an idea of how to adapt the game for my purposes, but I thought I would buy the Deal or No Deal card game that I had seen severely discounted at local Target stores (about $7). I thought it would give me some ideas and at the very least neat prop (the briefcase) to use, but basically everything I needed was there in the game. The only thing I needed to add was a graphic organizer where we would calculate the probability of getting a better deal by saying "no deal" after each bank offer.

The card game has a 4 decks:

1. Briefcase cards are numbered 1-26
   
2. Round cards show how many briefcases to open each round (why they couldn't just write it down as a list is a mystery)
3. Bank offer cards to provide a random offer each round
   
4. Cash cards to hide under the Briefcase cards

The game play is simple:

1. Take one briefcase to hold onto which could be yours at the end of the game.
   
2. Each round, players open a diminishing number of briefcases, starting with six in Round One and ending with one in Round Nine.
3. After the briefcases are opened, the bank makes an offer, and the player can accept it (deal) and the game is over, or reject it (no deal) and keep playing.
4. If the player rejects all bank offers, they will be left with their briefcase and one other, and choose which they will open. Whatever they choose is the amount they win.

As I said, I only needed to add students finding the probability of getting a better deal if they rejected the bank offer. So I created a simple graphic organizer combining the enclosed game sheets and a table that looked like this:

Students would write in the results of each round, like so:

Round	Bank Offer	# of briefcases left with more money than Bank Offer	Probability of winning more than Bank Offer	Deal or No Deal?
1	$100,000	5	5/20 = .25 = 25%	No Deal

I used magnets to hold the briefcase cards and cash cards underneath on the board (you could also use a hanging pocket display with clear pockets, the kind you often see in elementary classrooms). I would play Howie (I considered, but did not purchase, a bald cap), there wouldn't be any models to open the cases, and the class would play as a whole group.

Playing the Game

After picking a student to start us off by claiming "our" case, I had students pick each other "popcorn style" to choose the briefcases to open each round. When it came time for the bank offer, I pretended to get calls and text messages from the bank on my cell phone. We would figure out the probability, fill in the graphic organizer like the example above, and decide whether to take the deal. Most classes wanted to play at least a few rounds no matter what before they started to argue over taking the deal or not (especially once the million dollars came off the board). In those cases, we voted.

The game took about 40 minutes to play through, and in a couple of classes we had enough time for an extremely rushed second game. Students only needed their graphic organizers and a calculator to help convert fractions to decimals and percents (since probability is shown in all three ways).

It was exciting to see the kids really get into it--the roars of disappointment when the big money came off the board, or the huge cheers when $0.01 or $25 came off. They laughed at my phony conversation with the bankers, and nearly everyone was engaged all day. It was a rousing success.

Thinking Ahead

I would have liked to give them maybe five probability word problems for homework as an informal assessment. We are working on the measurement project I posted earlier this week, and their focus should be on that. Instead, we will have an alternative assessment on Monday. In keeping with my no-multiple-choice-test policy, I am thinking we will create mini-posters (Idea #1 in my book Ten Cheap Lessons) for this and the rest of this unit.

If we had more time, I would like have students create their own probability game, or adapt an existing game to include probability calculations. This would encourage higher order thinking and make it more memorable for the long term, as well as provide a game they could later play for review.

As I look to next year, I'm also looking for ways to incorporate compound probability into our game or post-game follow up, since those questions often pop up on standardized tests.

If you like this idea and the others posted here on I Want to Teach Forever, please check out my new book, Ten Cheap Lessons: Easy, Engaging Ideas for Every Secondary Classroom. It's available now at Lulu.com and coming soon to bookstores everywhere. As always, please contact me with your feedback and questions. Thank you!

I just published my first book: Ten Cheap Lessons!!

I have been known to make grand declarations of things I plan on doing, only to do just the opposite a short time later. After months of excuses and stalling, I made a new year's resolution to sit down and write a book. I had the idea for a teacher resource book a long time ago, and I thought it would be the easier of the two planned books I wanted to do (the other being a memoir of my time here in the RGV). It would prove to me (and future publishers) that I was up to the task, and was something I wanted to do anyway. When I wrote out self-imposed deadlines for the month of January, I didn't know if I would follow through. Indeed, I almost gave up in the first week, when the crushing exhaustion of going back to school after winter break was making an already monumental task seemingly impossible.

Yet I persevered, and the product of my months of work is Ten Cheap Lessons: Easy, Engaging Ideas for Every Secondary Classroom. It is available now, for about $12 for the paperback or $6 to download immediately. I have put my heart and soul into this, and I can't tell you what it would mean to me to know that my book could help me have a far-reaching effect on the education of children I've never met.

Regular readers of I Want to Teach Forever will see some ideas originally published here, as well as many I've been saving for Ten Cheap Lessons. I hope that the book and the website grow together, so that I can have the opportunity to meet more great teachers and collaborate on great new ideas with them. If you read the book and would be interested in having me present a workshop or speak at a conference, please email me, as I would love the opportunity. You know I'll do a good job--I couldn't live with myself if I didn't provide quality professional development.

Thank you to everyone who visits this website, and for all of the positive feedback I've gotten over the past six months. Stay tuned to teachforever.com for updates and opportunities to learn more about it. Enjoy:

Ten Cheap Lessons: Easy, Engaging Ideas for Every Secondary Classroom

FreeRice: Learn Vocabulary, Save the World

I want to help spread the word about amazing website, FreeRice. At FreeRice, you expand your vocabulary by trying to define increasingly challenging words. Every time you get a word right, FreeRice donates the money they earn from the advertising on the bottom of the screen to buy rice for the United Nations World Food Program.

The difficult of the vocabulary adjusts depending on how well (or how badly) you're doing. It is amazingly addictive. I had about 2,000 grains of rice in about 10 minutes of playing.

I couldn't help but think of how great this would be for teachers trying to get their students to expand their vocabulary, prepare them for college entrance exams, and help their understanding of text that's at a high reading level.

Please play today!

FreeRice

Adding and Subtracting Integers Card Game

Last year my students had their usual struggles with adding and subtracting integers at the beginning of the year (this is not just a middle school problem). So I used a game I found online called Twenty Five, where students would draw from a regular deck of cards and add them to a pile, trying to reach a target sum of 25. Red cards were negative and black cards were positive, and each new card would be added to all the ones put on the pile before it. Presumably students were writing down each addition problem they did. It was a waste of time: it was hard to monitor whether students were adding correctly during the game, and difficult for students to keep track of and add up 10, 15 or 20 numbers quickly.

Since then I have been laboring over an idea for my own game, since I believe this would help my students internalize an essential skill. I came up with a complete game, but it was too complicated for classroom use (based on my experience with Like Terms); too many rules and steps to get caught up in would leave the core activity lost in the fray. It could be suited for an advanced class, block schedule or playing at home. In a regular 45-55 minute class, things need to be simpler.

I actually eschewed any game this year and focused on the number line as a simpler tool for students to use to add and subtract integers correctly. What dawned on me last weekend was that the number line was the missing piece to the puzzle. Here now, for the first time ever, is Plus/Minus.

Materials

1. Standard 52-card deck of playing cards
2. Paper and pencils.
3. 2 objects to mark a goal and starting location

Setup

1. Students draw a number line on a piece of paper, at least from -10 to 10 with room for more.
2. Have 2 objects (maybe candy the winner can eat afterwards?) to mark the location of the goal and the current location of the players
3. No cards are dealt. There is a face down draw pile and face up pile for each card drawn.

Game Play

1. Flip the top card from the draw pile. This is the goal. Black card are positive whole numbers and red cards are negative (aces are 1 and all other face cards are 10). The starting point is zero.
2. Each student takes a turn flipping the next card from the draw pile. They add that number to 0 and move to the resulting location. If they reach the goal number, they win. If not, their turn is over and each player takes a turn moving back and forth on the number line until someone reaches the goal.
3. After one or several games (depending on time) , switch to subtracting all numbers.

While They Play

Students must write down each simple addition or subtraction problem they are doing throughout each game. This is what you can check and grade immediately as you are monitoring the game. Follow up with homework for practice.

Extension/Assessment

At the end of this lesson, use a mini-poster where students have to show an example, write out how to do it (what the rule is) and most importantly include the correct answer. Hang the best ones up on the wall (as you should always do with good examples of student work).

When To Play

This would be a good game to play after a day where you had introduced the concepts or when you were reteaching. I think that the number line makes this concept easy to understand with little upfront work, but that is an assumption on my part. Use it whenever you feel it is appropriate.

Combining Like Terms Card Game Revisited

The Like Terms card game has been the most popular idea posted here, accounting for half of this blog's traffic since its inception. The truth is though, like most good ideas, it still needs work. I have been wracking my brain to find ways to simplify the game after watching many of my students get caught up in the rules and procedures because they don't have experience playing traditional card games (like rummy, upon which Like Terms was originally based).

My solution is to cut out all but the essential parts: the deck of "Like Terms" cards, having students create groups of 3-4 like terms, and adding or subtracting them (simplifying) when the game is over.

Simplified Rules for Like Terms

1. Deal 7 cards.
2. Players lay out their hand face up in front of them for all to see and arrange them into groups of like terms.
3. Each player draws one card and tries to make a set of 3-4 like terms.
4. Repeat until one player has a group of complete sets.
5. The winner adds all of their terms together, but the losers add complete sets and subtract incomplete ones.

This setup also allows you to add a few new cards to the deck to create some new twists:

1. "Killer" cards - Add cards that don't have any like terms in the rest of the deck, essentially ending a player's chances of winning since you can't complete a set. Maybe there's two like terms, but a third or fourth matching card doesn't exist (i.e. z², x²y², a⁴, etc)
2. Skip, reverse and wild cards - My students may not know rummy, but they do know Uno, so you could add these to the deck as well.
3. "Steal" cards - Action cards that allow players to steal one card from any other player that they need to complete a group, making the game a bit more competitive.

I think the original score sheet would actually work better with this version of the game as well.

If you have tried the original Like Terms card game in class or try out this new version, please email me or leave a comment. I want to continually improve the ideas posted on this site and I need your feedback to help me and the other teachers reading teachforever.com!

Basketball review game

I have always used games to review for tests and quizzes--they make the often painful work of reviewing fun, easy and memorable, they help break up a sometimes boring routine, and they can make your students excited about coming to class. Last year, I developed a version of the common basketball review game. The setup and rules are simple (see the picture below as well):

1. The desks are arranged into two groups (3 desks deep) facing a wide center aisle. The hoop is at the end of the aisle.
   
2. The class is split into two teams (one side vs. the other).
   
3. One student from each team comes to the board to complete a question, whoever answers it correctly first gets a shot for their team.

The twist I added to the versions I've read about is that I thought it would be fun to use one of those giant inflatable basketball hoops, such as the Sportscraft Monster Basketball Set you see in this picture from last year. I can't stand the idea of using a garbage can as a "hoop" and wads of paper as a "ball" as this basketball review game (via About.com) calls for--my students would be insulted if I tried to pull that trick. I wanted it to be as authentic as possible without leaving the room.

I looked around at the local big-box retailer and saw many versions of giant outdoor hoops. The one I actually preferred, which looked like those round ones that you usually see floating in pools, was $60. I have been trying to cut back on the whole spend-thousands-out-of-pocket thing and this was simply too much for something I could only use sparingly. When I found the Monster Basketball Set for $20, I picked it up immediately. It's a little over 6' tall and the ball is 16" in diameter, big enough to make an impression but small enough to fit in the room.

Students took shots from the front of the room (near the first row of chairs), which made the shot difficult but not impossible (due to the ceiling, you had to throw it straight or underhand in order to make it). When we played last year, the games were always low scoring (2 or 3 points total) even when we plowed through a lot of questions and the students took a lot of shots.

I just ran this game again this year, and this is my advice for running it smoothly in your classroom:

• Make sure that while the two (or more) students are competing for a shot up at the board that everyone else is doing the same work. The easiest way to do this is to inform your kids you'll be collecting all of the work on all of the problems we did a the end of class, and since you would review each answer there would be little excuse for students not having complete work and answers for each problem.
• The game play allows consistent opportunities for the teacher to explain common mistakes and reteach difficult items by design. I usually confirm a winner, let them take their shot, and then discuss what the winner did right and what (if any) mistakes the other player had made.
• This game is ideal for easier content that only requires memorization (the lower levels of Bloom's Taxonomy), although it can be used for concepts that require multiple steps and require higher order thinking (it just may take longer and you won't be able to complete as many questions).
• Depending on your students' level of confidence on the topic being reviewed, you can choose to give them the problem first with a chance for them to work on it before coming to the board (which I did today for the challenging topic of solving two-step equations and inequalities) or keeping the questions a surprise until they are already waiting at the board (which I did last year when I was trying to get them to visualize and sketch linear equations without a calculator). The latter is better when you are focused on the type of easy material I described above.
• As with any game, you need very good classroom management in order to keep everything under control. If you have problems with vandalism, or don't believe your students can handle this without hitting things or each other with the ball, don't even think about using this game.

The game keeps the kids engaged and while they can easily get overexcited, in a well-managed classroom you should be able to tell them the alternative will be the most boring thing you can think of, and the mere idea of that will keep them focused.

Unfortunately, my hoop did spring a leak after repeated uses last year and being stuffed into a box over the summer this year. I couldn't patch it (I didn't keep any of the patching material included with the game) even with a ton of duct tape and spent too much time inflating it repeatedly throughout the day. Alas, this game will have to go on hiatus until I can get another (or better) hoop.

I am extremely happy to report that the grades on today's weekly quiz, covering all the material reviewed yesterday in the game, are excellent. My students made a huge jump in comprehension and retention this week compared to how they did on similar quizzes the last 2 weeks.

[Update 4/21/10: This idea and many others are part of my recently updated book Ten Cheap Lessons: Second Edition ($9.95 paperback, $2.50 digital).]