How to Design a Board Game for Language Arts Class
If you want an entertaining way to review for a test in language arts, consider creating a board game. As your students work their way through the game, you'll be able to quickly determine what elements in your unit need some additional emphasis. You can design board games for many language arts areas, including grammar, spelling, usage, literature and poetry terminology. Although creating board games may take some time, you can reuse the games from year to year. These directions explain how to make one game board. Ideally, you would make one for every six students.
Things You'll Need
- Card stock sheets in several colors
- Small boxes to hold game cards
- Foam core board
- Pencil
- Black permanent marker
- Various colored markers
- Cardboard discs
- Play game money (optional)
- Timer (optional)
Instructions
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Review the objectives for unit and generate a list of the questions and terms that you expect students to know. For example, for a unit on usage, students learned the difference between "desert" and "dessert." During a short story unit, students studied story elements such as "theme," "plot" and "setting." You probably also expected them to know the names of the authors of each story. Once you have come up with a comprehensive list of what students need to know, type the material up in three columns, four items to a column, and print them out on card stock. Cut these apart to form game cards, using different categories of questions on different colors.
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Create game boards. Use a game board you have on hand for a model or create your own design for the path. Draw the design onto the foam core board with a pencil first; then go over the lines with a permanent black marker. Label some of the squares with directions such as "lose one turn" or "go back three spaces." On the majority of the squares use markers to draw circles matching the game card colors. Label "go" for the first square and in the last square draw a circle and write "Winner! You deserve an A." Alternately, you can make each question worth a particular amount of money, and, in this case, the player or team with the most money wins.
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Gather various materials for game play. You will need markers for each student; while explaining the rules of the game, you might let students create their own game piece by decorating cardboard discs. Use play money from other board games or design some yourself and print out on green copy paper. Find small boxes to hold game cards of each color and another one for holding the cards that have already been used. A timer from another game is useful for keeping the game moving along.
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Create rules for the board game. You might want students to play in pairs or groups of three. All students must agree an answer is correct before the player can take a move or collect money. You, of course, will be the final arbitrator. You might want to include rules governing whether or not a correct answer deserves another turn and whether or not the game will continue after one person has reached the winner's circle.
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Take a practice run playing the board game. Ask your colleagues or some family members to try out the game with you---although you might have to provide the answers for those unfamiliar with the material. Watch for elements of the game that are confusing or just don't work, and adjust the game rules, questions or board accordingly.
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