The FunTeaching Way™
Goals for the teacher:
a. First, provide you with a software paper-management tool for club and/or Cooperative Job Placement.
b. Teach you about the versatility the games can offer by incorporating it into your normal monthly plans.
b. Ideas on how to maintain control while the students are so excited about playing the game.
c. Ways to play so that ALL students participate--not just the smartest and quickest kids.
d. Provide you with two easy plans for when you need to call in a substitute teacher.
e. Inform you of how valuable the "print options" feature can be to you in each game.
f. Motivate your students to learn by creating a fun and stimulating environment.
Goals for the students:
a. The FunTeaching Way provides a fun and easy way to learn vocabulary, facts, and other lessons that your teacher wants you to know in order to get good grades in their class.
b. Besides studying, doing worksheets, doing other assignments your teacher gives you, and besides taking tests, your learning will take place through repetition by playing the computer game with the class or alone and by playing Bingo with the class. You'll learn because it doesn't feel like you are learning or working or studying--its fun!
TEACHER NECESSITIES:
1. Buy D.O.R.O.T.H.Y. to keep you organized and allow you to do what you really want to be doing . . .TEACHING.
2. Buy, at the least, one of the FunTeaching games to help your students learn YOUR material. If you have purchased an empty game, you must first create your categories, questions and answers and enter them into the game.
3. Buy 20 handheld whiteboards or chalkboards (4 boards for The FunTeaching Game, Marketing Madness or the DECA Quiz Bowl) and 20 WIDE tip markers. A stack of printer paper or copy paper can be substituted for the boards.
4. Take one day a week out of YOUR one-month lesson plan in order to apply The FunTeaching Way. Hopefully, you will find that is is easy to replace some things you are already doing with the following steps. Chances are that you will be accomplishing the SAME objectives, but in a DIFFERENT way. Consequently, the four days you give up won't put you behind in your lesson.
5. Go to the print options screen and print a comprehensive study guide of all 50 terms. Make copies for all students. (These study guides will print questions and answers alphabetical by answer.)
6. On the first day of your lesson, hand out the study guide to each student to study for homework. Let them know you will be playing the game on Friday. You could even give them a few minutes of study time at the end of or during class everyday. They should study using their study guides during this study time. Also, incorporate your own ideas or lessons into this study time.
7. Before Friday, organize the students into teams of two or three based on your class size. (NOTE: If you have 20 students or less in any given class, you do not have to form teams because you can track 20 different scores with the games--except for The FunTeaching Game or Marketing Madness. Those games must have larger teams because these games only track 4 different scores--not 20 different scores.
8. Collect the teams and go back into the software and name the teams on the "Point Screen". NOTE: You can duplicate the folder after you have created the game and name the folder by periods. Then, you can open each folder and name ALL class teams ahead of time.
BEGINNING TO PLAY:
Week One: Study and Play the Game
1. On game day, have them sit with their teammates.
2. Handout to each team one handheld boards or a stack of paper and the wide markers.
3. Play the game by having the students take turns selecting categories and point values. You will get through most of the 50 questions in one normal 50 minute period. WARNING: They tend to really think about which category they want to select and this DOES take-up valuable class time; consequently, you may decide you want to be the one in control of selecting.
4. Click on a point value. That will take you to the "Question Screen". Read it aloud and YOU choose the time you want to give ALL teams to discuss and write down their answers.
5. Say, "Boards Up!". After all boards are up, tell students to keep them up. Click to the "Answer Screen". Read the answer aloud.
6. Go to the "Point Screen" and click a plus for EVERY team the was correct. These scores will remain until you reset them. (Decide ahead of time if you want to click minuses for wrong answers and/or for teams that don't even try to answer.)
PLAY BLACKOUT BINGO (Fill up the whole card) (Click here for a bingo card)
Week Two: This is an Easy Plan to leave for a substitute.
1. Cut all the Questions and Answers from one of the comprehensive study guides into strips. (Keep the question and answer together. You will end up with 50 strips.) Put them in an envelope.
2. Hand out A Bingo card with 24 empty boxes--except for the free space (5 squares X5 squares). If you don't have a bingo card, you can print one at www.FunTeaching.Com.
3. Have the students get out the comprehensive study guide you previously passed out to them. Have them write down 24 of the 50 "answers" off the study guide and put them onto the Bingo card--complete all boxes on the card with answers. (Keep them moving them along. Several tend to take their time doing this.)
4. Draw one cut-up strip from the envelope and read the "Question" aloud. As a group let the students call out the "Answer" to the question. If you prefer to have them raise their hand, go for it!
5. Set each strip out flat for you to refer back to.
6. Play this until someone fills their whole card. It takes the whole hour, and you will not have more than 2 or 3 Blackout at once. Quit after the first blackout. Check their card against the strips you have read.
WORKSHEET
Week Three: Another easy Sub plan
1. Print out a comprehensive test of all 50--call it a worksheet. Make copies and pass them out. Tests print in a NEW random order every time you print them go from the "print options" screen to the "Comprehensive test" screen.
2. Have the students use their Comprehensive Study Guide to cross-reference questions and answers in order to complete the worksheet. NOTE: Some students can finish this in 25 minutes, so you need to have something to fill their time. Other students may need to take it home for homework. Collect it, immediately, from the ones that finish so they don't let other students copy their work.
FUN! FUN!
Week Four (Preferably Thursday)
1. Play the game again. Follow the instructions under week one.
EVALUATION TIME
Week Four (Preferably Friday)
1. Print out another comprehensive test. You can choose to only test on 25 or 33 of the 50 words if you wish. (This helps with time spent grading it.)
2. Also, print out the "Answer Choices:" You may want to print all 50 answer choices to make the test a little harder--especially if you are only making the test a 25 question test. Make copies and pass both out.
3. Give the test. (NOTE: It is easy to print a 2nd make-up test in a different order, to avoid cheating, once you pass back the test and absent students have not taken it, yet.)
MAKE A NEW GAME FOR YOUR NEXT UNIT. START OVER BY PRINTING A NEW COMPREHENSIVE STUDY GUIDE FOR THE NEW UNIT.