Keystone Assignment: Lesson Plan, Reflections on the Project Implementation

Lesson Plan - ELA Practice Through Jeopardy

Reflections on the Project Implementation

Integrating technology into a classroom lesson was a very engaging task that required some creativity, a comfort level with software, and technological skills.  The creation of this lesson started with defining a relevant and meaningful learning objective and determining ways I can assess the students’ understanding.  I then considered which platform I could utilize to reach that objective given the available classroom technology and skill level of the students.   Another consideration was to create a vehicle that can be versatile, transferable and reusable to increase its value as an educational tool.  I also wanted to maximize but also control the level of student engagement as they reach the learning objective.

During my observations of a third grade class, the importance of quality English language arts skills was very evident when the students were writing personal narrative essays.  The range of writing quality varied widely depending on the students’ skills including their knowledge and use of proper spelling and vocabulary. These essential skills are reinforced daily through instruction, classwork and homework.  However, the students are presented with a new set of 25 spelling words each Monday which then become the focus of ELA activities for that week.   Despite such exposure to these skills, I felt that a good learning objective would be further practice of recent spelling words to reinforce phonics, vocabulary and spelling skills.  By utilizing words they learned recently but not currently practicing, I also hoped to impart on the students the importance of retaining past knowledge.

With this relevant and meaningful learning objective, I then considered how I can assess their knowledge utilizing the available classroom technology.  The idea of an interactive SMART Board game show came to mind as a good way to assess students’ knowledge in an engaging way that capitalizes on their competitive spirits.  With its long history and enduring popularity¹,  Jeopardy is almost synonymous with trivia game shows.  Given the simple rules and familiar format, I also felt this could be easily adapted for future use with other spelling words and for almost any other subject like math, science and social studies.

With a proficiency in Powerpoint gained through experience in my corporate marketing career, I customized a previously-designed Jeopardy game file for this third grade class.  To simplify scorekeeping for these young students, I replaced the multiple point values generally found on Jeopardy gameboards with letters and added colors for each column of clues.  I used large, clear fonts in bold white lettering on a solid blue background to maximize visibility of the clues for students who may have vision impairment.  I also included sounds for each clue and answer to further engage the students.

I worked with the classroom teacher, Mrs. Moeller, to determine the content of the clues.  She provided me with the spelling words from each of the previous nine school weeks. With each set of weekly spelling words grouped by a phonics sound pattern, I selected four (long “a”, long “e”, short “e”, short “u”) for the Jeopardy game and added a column of “No Excuse Words” which are included with each weekly set of words.  I then selected five spelling words from each category partly based on the relative commonality of each word as determined by Google Books Ngram Viewer². 

I created clues using a mix of sentence completion and definition clues because both are commonly used in summative assessments.  I designed the clues to be meaningful and relevant to the third grade students even including their teacher and teacher aides as subjects.  To introduce interdisciplinary skills, I included a few clues that called upon the students’ math and foreign language skills (the class has a weekly Spanish period.)  I made the Final Jeopardy clue specifically for the teacher to conclude the game.

After several rounds of testing and revising clues with my own family including my 4^th and 7^th grade children, I finalized the game board to present to the students. 

When I presented the game, objectives and rules to the students, they were quite excited even though the clues were going to engage their spelling, vocabulary and phonics skills.  Gameplay on the SMART Board went smoothly with just a few unexpected but minor technical glitches.  I had brought my laptop in case of major technical issues.  Having a backup plan to such a technology-dependent activity is highly recommended. Quick thinking helps, too.  For one student, the answer appeared instead of the clue.  Not wanting to skip this opportunity, I asked the student to identify the part of speech and to use the word in a sentence to demonstrate comprehension.

After students provided answers, I would highlight key strategies to help identify, pronounce and spell words correctly.  To differentiate instruction, I gave extra time and clues to certain students. For example, I had to remind a few students of the phonics sound pattern that should be represented in their answers.  The twenty students were constantly engaged as the game progressed steadily through the 26 clues.  The Final Jeopardy question was an interdisciplinary clue and the only answer that was not one of their weekly spelling words.  It was actually a word that I helped Mrs. Moeller pronounce and spell correctly several times during my observation.

When the Jeopardy game concluded, I asked the students to share how such a fun activity helps them learn.  Their responses hit all the salient points including using phonics, spelling patterns, and context clues to come up with the correctly spelled and pronounced answers.  The students enjoyed the relevancy and challenge of the clues and were appreciative that the game was customized just for their class.  Several interested students asked me how I was able to do that.  I encouraged them to come up with their own game to serve an educational purpose even if it’s just for their own benefit.  In the future, I may produce a brief video to show how I created this particular game to further educate students and engage their own creativity. 

The Jeopardy game fulfilled the learning objective in a fun, engaging way in the planned 40 minute class period.  The students were excited that they were able to apply their previous knowledge and several literacy strategies to come up with answers to the clues.  This activity triggered their excitement to learn and the students look forward to similar opportunities to apply what they know.

References

1 Syndicated TV Ratings for Week Ending November 17, 2013,

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/11/26/syndicated-tv-ratings-judge-judy-is-number-1-in-households-wheel-of-fortune-wins-total-viewers-dr-phil-top-talker-for-week-ending-november-17-2013/218112/

2  Google Books Ngram Viewer, https://books.google.com/ngrams