We have all played the game of Monopoly, a real-estate board game, in which the player’s goal is to remain financially solvent while forcing opponents into bankruptcy by buying and developing pieces of property. Players need to stay engaged and motivated because they need to purchase properties before someone else does and attempt to collect all the properties in a set and create a monopoly. The more monopolies a player has the more solvent they become. Much like in learning, the more "sets" of knowledge one gains, the more we see the big picture, the stronger foundation we have and the more connections we can make, thus solvency comes from our schema, our resiliency and our application of this new information. Bankruptcy can only occur when we choose to stop learning. We have to keep moving around the board, rolling the dice and adjust to the pitfalls that we are presented with. This is life. Competition, determination and data collection.
The real-estate in my classroom- knowledge. The board game- lessons. Hotels and houses are the activities. Like the deck of cards in Monopoly, these last few weeks offer suspense, set backs and situations. These are in random order and can be beneficial or can cause redirection. Chance or Community Chest: Either way there needs to be a contingency plan. It is inevitable that there will be detours, "Go Directly to Jail" cards, or "Move forward to Go and Collect $200" cards which cause us to have to alter our lesson plans. The game boards may be based on cities, sports, even television shows but the theme of the game remains the same- plan ahead, use strategies to stay in control in the game, and keep your bank full in case you land on another person's property. In other words, be prepared, stay focused and ultimately "own" as much knowledge as you can.Take charge and continue to play the game, "never give up." Board games might not be as popular as they once were, but they are still effective tools to use in any classroom.
A lesson is underway, students are "moving around the board" in an orderly fashion. Intentions are clear, each stage of the activity "marked" by a transition "roll of the die" sending them on a predictable course. In this case, reading the cards of others. Yet, the variety of strategies implemented keeps the game engaging. Curiosity as to what card they are holding to their forehead. The task is to match cards (term and definition) with someone in the room without speaking. Basically they hold the card on their forehead (placed without looking) and then they walk around the room, letting others guide them to their "match." I did a similar activity the first week of school but they had different small colored stickers on their foreheads (placed by me). It is definitely a task that needs your full attention. They only have ten minutes. The timer beeps and I have them check their accuracy. They are all correctly matched except two, we discuss the correct matching and they resort themselves accordingly.
Then we scramble all the cards and they see which table can unscramble their set the quickest. A fun way to reinforce the vocabulary. Finally, I have a sets of pictures of tissue, organs and organ systems in a pile in the middle of the desk- "properties" I call them. Each picture has a place on the board- each table has an over-sized paper with a Monopoly game board on it. Each space is one vocabulary word about our last unit. I tell them each of these pictures has at least one "partner" in its set. Some sets are of 3 and some of 4. For instance the properties of "senses" is a set of three and "Respiratory System" is a set of four. Once they get them sorted they need to place them on the board in the right order. They are in alphabetical order to help them make sense of the sequence.
This activity was all hands-on. No technology needed. Vocabulary learned. Monopoly achieved.
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