Review Practices

What Review is and Is Not: 

Review for the test or final assessment is NOT giving the students the exact content and questions in the exact way that it will be formatted on the assessment. What it is, is practicing and working with the content in multiple ways to ensure that students can rely on their knowledge in novel situations. Below are some ideas to help you in your classroom. 

CLASSROOM IDEAS: 

Stump the Chump

• • • About: Review game to engage all students in the process. 

    • Objective: Student teams will ask questions of other teams in order to enhance their awareness about a topic

    • Materials: index cards, 10 per small group

    • Time needed: 30-45 minutes

    • Grouping suggestions: Teams of four to six - you'll need an even number of groups. 

    • Instructions:

      1. Groups generate a list of 10 questions from the class or text about material to which everyone has already been exposed. Questions should be of moderate difficulty, and the answers should be short (Encourage question stems beyond recall). Each group will assign one person to be the scribe to write these 10 questions on the 10 index cards, one question per card. 

      2. Students quiz each other in the group to ensure everyone knows the answers to the questions they designed. 

      3. Teachers ensure that every student has the opportunity to represent his or her group that each student has the opportunity to cheer the others on. It should be on a rotation basis. 

      4. Two groups come to the front of the class. The teacher divides the resto of the class in half temporarily so that each grop has its own cheering gallery.  Each group directs qeustions from their list of 10 questions to the leader ("chump") of the other group and tries to "stump" the leader. 

      5. Groups alternate questions. The group leaders get gallery cheers when they answer correctly. They can get a "lifeline" from their teammates if they wish.  

      6. When all 10 questions are answered from each group, two new students come up front. 

      7. Differentiation: Make questions more complex, no lifelines, or less time to prepare. Allow more support like poll the audience, add life lines, etc.)

• • Remember you might pick a student to be the emcee so that the two groups keep moving quickly.  Keep it light - it's a fun way to understand the content better as a review. 

  • CITED RESOURCE: Deeper Learning by Eric Jensen and LeAnn Nickelsen 

Ready to try something different and student centered? Try Review Stations. Here is a quick introduction to the idea and practice. 

ON-LINE QUIZ/EXIT TICKET CREATORS: 

Quizizz

Blooket

Kahoot

Socrative  

Riddle

Testmoz

Class Tools

Jeopardy Labs

Quizlet

Plicker

Answer Garden

Poll Everywhere

Classroom Games: 

Monopoly – For this review game, each student is on his own, there are no teams. Each student receives the same amount of Monopoly money. They are allowed to wager their money based on how confident they know the answer to the review question you ask. If they get the question correct, they keep the money, if they are wrong their money goes to the next person who gets the answer correct. At the end of the game they can cash their money in for prizes.

Family Feud – Divide students into two teams. One person from each team must go against one another to answer a review question. If they get it right their team gets a point. To engage the other students while they are playing, have the rest of the team write the answers to the questions in their journals.

The Hot Seat – For this review game, have one student sit facing the class. Write a vocabulary word on the board behind their seat. The audience raises their hands and the “Hot Seat” student can call on three students for clues to guess the word. Change the “Hot Seat” student if they don’t get the word correct.

Jeopardy! – This fun game can be done using the NewLine, Smartboard, PowerPoint, or just on the blackboard. You can find downloadable Jeopardy formats on the internet, or create your own. To begin, create questions and answers worth a specific amount of points. Divide the students into two teams and have each team choose a number. Their goal is to answer the question that is attached to the number they chose.

Pass the Chicken – You will need to purchase a rubber chicken for this fun review game. To begin, have students sit in a circle. Randomly ask one student a review question while the rubber chicken gets passed around the circle. If the rubber chicken arrives back at the student before he/she answers they must go to the middle (the pot) of the circle. The chicken is then passed to the next person, and so on. If the next student does not get the answer correct, then ask the students in the “Pot” if they know the answer. If they do, then they may get out of the pot and go back to the circle. Be sure to enlist a few safety rules, the students can tend to get rough with the rubber chicken.

Ping Pong – Divide students into two teams. Students work as a team to answer a review question. Then, if they answer it correctly, they get a chance to bounce a ball into one of three plastic cups to get a prize for their team. Prizes can be a homework pass, free time, extra computer time, lunch in the classroom, and so on.

Bingo – Review Bingo is another classroom favorite. To change it up a bit, use candy as the markers. Have students program their bingo cards with their vocabulary words and pull questions randomly.

Beach Ball – Purchase a white beach ball and write a variety of review questions on the ball. Then have students sit on top of their desks. The goal of this game is to play catch. When a student catches the ball, the must answer the question their right thumb is touching.

Headbands – A fun spin on the popular game headbands is to write a review term on a post-it note. Each student must stick the note to her forehead without looking at it. Their goal is to figure out what the term on the forehead is. For example, if one person had the word “Nectar” on his sticky note, their team members would give them clues, such as a sugar-rich liquid, it attracts pollinating animals, and so on.

Spin the Wheel – Create a wheel with a variety of review questions on it. Then randomly call upon students to come up and spin the wheel to see if they can answer the question correctly.