Picture This: Using Pictionary and other Games to Help Students Actively Learn

Image Source: Shutterstock

I need to see and do things to remember them; another way of saying I am a visual and kinesthetic learner. You can talk at me all you want, and I may remember your point. However, if you show me a picture, map, or any sort of visual example, I'm right there with you. And if I participate in some kind of physical activity, this further carves a groove into my brain and activates a pretty solid memory. For example: in 5th grade we memorized the U.S. states and their capitals. The teacher lined us up in two groups, she called out a capital, we had to rush to the front and place a pin on the state whose capital it was, competing against the kid doing the same in the other line. I have never forgotten the capitals.

Thus I have a lot of empathy for the book club students who face me in the library classroom, some groups sleepy after lunch, some hungry right before, no one really wanting a lecture. Starting in September they come once or twice a week, gearing up for a Chicago Public School-wide Battle of the Books competition in the spring. They do most of their work outside of our meetings--each person must read at least 5 of 20 books. How, then, to help them remember characters, plot, setting, vocabulary words, and other details? How to go beyond memorizing and glean deeper lessons and meanings from the books?

Enter: active learning. I never knew it was called that, I only knew I wanted to step outside the box and use our 45 minutes per meeting in a fun, energizing way that would also help them get ready for competition. According to the article "What is Active Learning? Benefits & How to Apply It", active learning "involves students in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing." Kids go from listening to and observing the teacher to actively engaging with the material. Besides this being a more energizing way to teach, how does it benefit students? According to Nicole Zumpano's 2020 Prezi, students will both remember more and be able to analyze better if they participate actively in lessons:

Image Source: Zumpano Prezi 2020

This is pretty compelling. As the pyramid shows, students are likely to remember 70% of what they say and write and a whopping 90% of what they do! Moreover, by saying, writing, or doing students cross into those higher order ways of thinking--into analysis and critical thinking.

I practice active learning with my book club students primarily through games. One game I use is a version of Pictionary. In our version, we divide into teams of two, grouped around the white board at the front. One student either draws a card with concepts, plot points, setting, or characters from the books we are reading or they come up with their own ideas from the books. Each team takes turns sending a teammate up to draw the concept (which only he or she has seen) and the team which presses the buzzer first (they love buzzers), gets to guess what the person is drawing. It's fun, loud, and memorable! To make it even more tactile, I forgo the white board and have the kids create characters and items from the books out of play dough; something the middle school students especially like (enjoying the nostalgia).

Another game we play is "Guess Who?".  I take the actual board game, complete with 2 sets of flip-up  characters and cards, and customize it, creating character images to suit the books we are reading. The teams guess which character card the other team has drawn through a series of filtering questions. The flip board looks like this:

Image Source: author's

In the front slot is the character card the red team has drawn: in this case, Raymond from the book How to Stay Invisible by Maggie C. Rudd (2023).  The blue team will ask questions like, "Is the character human?" or "Does the character identify as non-binary?" and flip down those characters who do not fit the answers the red team gives until they've narrowed it down close enough to make a good guess. Here are some of my varsity (8th grade) students playing this game last winter:

Image Source: author's

In addition to Pictionary and Guess Who, we play online games such as Kahoot and Jeopardy, also great for review. While online games are popular, I really like to get the students moving and participating in hands-on, active games like the two above and also a version of "Pass the Chalk" as described in  Iowa State University's (ISU) 226 Active Learning Techniques.  When we play it, rather than a piece of chalk we use a stuffed animal or a beach ball. Students throw it to each other and have to answer a question about the books when they get the ball or toy. I call it Popcorn or Hot Potato, and, like Pictionary, it can be loud, crazy and, I hope, memorable.

I cannot wait to try some of the techniques suggested by ISU and the other sources we explored this week including role playing simulations, experiential learning, and beach ball bingo. Getting students up and out of their seats, playing games with a purpose, and just being loud and having fun--these are my goals as a coach this year, with the added benefit of learning thrown in for good measure.

Resources

226 active learning techniques | celt. (n.d.-a). https://www.celt.iastate.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/CELT226activelearningtechniques.pdf

4 types of learners in Education. Teaching Channel. (2023, August 10). https://blog.advancementcourses.com/articles/4-types-of-learners-in-education/

How can you incorporate active learning into your classroom? (n.d.-b). https://crlt.umich.edu/sites/default/files/resource_files/02_Active%20Learning%20Continuum.pdf

Rudd, M. (2024). How to stay invisible. Square Fish/Farrar Straus Giroux.

To learn, students need to do something. Cult of Pedagogy. (2022, March 17). https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/do-something/

What is active learning: Benefits and how to apply it. SC Training. (2024, June 26). https://training.safetyculture.com/blog/benefits-of-active-learning/