• Give students a break from the books by playing interactive games.student image by Ivanna Buldakova from Fotolia.com
  
  Games provide an excellent vehicle for reviewing skills while engaging students in the content area. Secondary students can enjoy classroom games as much as younger kids attending school. By using interactive classroom games, the teacher can immediately gauge the students' level of knowledge. A study conducted by Jacqueline M. Ritzko and Sherry Robinson at Pennsylvania State University points out that, "the immediacy of games provides the instructor and student with an assessment tool whereby allowing each group to be able to focus on what is necessary for teaching and learning."
  
  

Dictionary Game

• The dictionary game provides an opportunity for students to practice using a dictionary while learning the different components of an individual entry. This game works best when played in groups of four to eight students. Each student should have a dictionary. The dictionaries should all be the same. Call out a word. Whoever finds the word first will get a point. You can add in other skills, such as asking the student to also pronounce the word correctly by using the pronunciation guide, or identify the part of speech or the word origin. Once a student gets a point, ask him to sit out for one round. This keeps the game fun, as you're likely to have at least one dictionary whiz in your group who will win more frequently than the others. Whoever has the most points when you decide to stop the game wins. Try playing it with seniors to review difficult words that may be on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT).
  
  

Team Trivia

• Develop a set of 40 to 50 questions about the content you have been teaching. This game works well for economics, chemistry, theater or any other subject. You may want to use questions that will make a good review for a test, or questions addressing material covered earlier in the year. Put students into groups of four or five. Let each group select a team name. Take turns asking each team a question. The team must arrive at a correct answer by consensus within a time limit you have specified. Once they have done so, every hand must be raised. If the group answers the question correctly, they get a point. If not, the question moves to the next group.
  
  

Bingo

• Make Bingo cards that have answers to math questions instead of the standard letter/number grid. You can also put vocabulary words on the cards, or symbols from the periodic table of elements. Every student should have a different card. Pass out markers (beans work well) and explain that filling a row going across, down or diagonal will win the game. Proceed to call out math questions, word definitions or chemical properties---whatever you want students to learn---and enjoy the enthusiasm that students will show during an exciting review.
  
  

Categories

• Buy a plain die without dots or numbers and use a permanent marker to write commonly used letters on the sides. Ask students to take out a sheet of paper. Set a timer for 30 seconds to a minute and tell students the category is "currencies," "exports" or something else related to your curriculum. Roll the die and call out the letter it lands on. Start the timer. Students will have the allotted time to brainstorm and write down as many words as they can think of. The winner is the person who has the most words that are correct. Instruct students not to use answers that use adjectives, such as "green trees" for the letter "G" and the category "plants."
  
  

Hangman

• Hangman is the perfect game for when you need to fill up a spare five or 10 minutes at the end of a class period. Use it as a quick review for content vocabulary. Tell students that the words will all be heads of state, calculus terms or whatever you are studying. Draw the "gallows" and the number of blanks representing the letters in the word. Simply go down the rows, letting each student have a turn guessing a letter until someone gets it right. Decide beforehand if she can then guess another letter or if a neighboring student guesses next. This game can also be played in pairs for vocabulary review.