Testing - End of Year (Game Websites)

We are currently reviewing for our state end of year testing (PASS test) in science. I put together several online review games, i.e. Jeopardy and Who Wants to be a Millionaire, for students. These are linked on my website so students can play at home as well as in school.

Students like the Jeopardy games and I prefer the Who Wants to be a Millionaire game because you get four choices and you have to find the right answer (which is how our PASS test is set up).

Next week is our last week of review and I booked the computer lab for each of my classes. Students will be able to bring in their science notebook to the computer lab to help them out. My higher kids don't use the notebooks but some of my struggling students will use it as a reference.

The three sites I used to make games were:

www.superteachertools.com
www.classtools.net (I used primarily for vocabulary games)
www.jeopardylab.com

Many of these games can be played whole class. When I play in class each table group is a team. I rotate between people at the table for answering. If they can't get it they can consult with their table mates. Sometimes I will just play half the game and tell students they should finish play at home and challenge their siblings and parents (that heads off competitive behavior between groups and the need to give a prize to the winning table...which generally leads to whining behavior from the other tables despite talking about good sportsmanship before hand...sigh!).

Another thing I do is look for existing online games. Many teachers and organizations have posted games on the web that are excellent reviews. In a Google search I might type in "astronomy games for children", or variations thereof, and look to see what might be best linked to our standards.

For this PASS review I really want students to focus on very specific games so I linked them all under a "PASS REVIEW" tab of my website. When we go to the computer lab next week students will not be allowed to go anywhere on my website except that tab to keep them focused.

If you choose to do this make sure you have a backup plan in case the internet is down, it goes down, or slows down. I have a couple of Bill Nye videos I did not get a chance to show during the year and I have them on standby for such occasions :)

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