Jeopardy in the Classroom

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/CIOComputerTermsJeopardyGameIdea610.htm

This lesson plan chosen to analyze is entitled “Computer Terminology Jeopardy Review Game.” It was submitted online by Leslie Allen intended for grades six through ten. It is intended to be a fun and effective source of review of subject material using a well known television game. It incorporates essential concepts learned in Educational Psychology and shows them at work in a classroom setting.

Peer modeling is an aspect in this lesson plan in the way that they are trying to exemplify the positive behaviors of their peers by correctly demonstrating their use of learned knowledge during the review game. Within a classroom setting, students are constantly looking to other peers for confirmation of intelligence. A sense of social desirability comes into play when being called upon and expected to know the correct answer. Answering a question wrong can lead to a feeling of inferiority. Therefore, concentration and peer modeling come into focus. If student A wants to be like student B, student A is going to try their best to make a favorable impression. Excelling in a lesson in front of classmates boosts the individuals self-efficacy and makes them want to continue on and learn more. On the contrary, if the student fails in front of a classmate, their self-efficacy is diminished because they feel as though they are looked down upon by their peers for being less knowledgeable. This will also decrease their desire to contribute to the class for fear that they will fail again.

Another concept at play here is information processing. With hundreds of ideas entering our minds each day, we need a way to store what we need to recall at a later time. As a teacher, it is a duty to help students retain important information and skills. By using the visual aid of a chalkboard and the jeopardy game board, students can store the image in their head of where an answer or question was. When the time comes for a test, retrieval will be easier if the student can think back to where they saw the question before and then hopefully remember the answer that followed. Giving information a home in our memory makes recalling the facts much easier.

Visual imagery gives our memory something with a foundation to come back to at a later point. Remembering who answered what question or why a certain answer was not correct helps students in eliminating possible answers. It is a way of coding the information. Imagery engages the student’s minds and stimulates thought more often than just sitting at a desk listening to a lecture.

Advance organization also is a part of the jeopardy lesson plan. By using a game technique that the students are familiar with, implementing new information with previously learned material makes comprehension easier. Advance organizers set the stage for new concepts. Using the layout form of the popular game, student have a sense of confidence going into the game, already knowing how to play the game, the new interesting part will be what type of questions will be revealed. This keeps the students alert and ready for any possible question that might come their way. Presenting the information in a new format, not written on the board, but in a new dimensional way reinforces comprehension.

Association is also another method that this review game uses. The students can associate the information that is used under the different categories and use those cues as a type of organizer to better provide stimuli in order to recall the information more easily. Another association the students can make is the song that plays when they are trying to come up with an answer in their teams. During the test the song can provide an extra stimulus for the student to help retrieve the answer to a question. By using prior knowledge and experience, the students can connect the information to a personal experience they had with the game of jeopardy or with the sounds and images associated with the game.

This lesson plan also uses the method of quizzing. While playing the game, the students are being quizzed on previously learned information which helps them to better retain the information. They use more active rehearsal while working with their peers in an interesting game which provides an easier way of retaining the information because the game is fun and therefore may create stronger associations by providing more meaningful stimuli. It also makes the information easier to recall later because of the strong associations it builds.

In the review game of jeopardy, rehearsal is a prominent method of learning. The students are rehearsing previously learned information through the repetition of the material that they need to know for a test, therefore increasing the likelihood that they will store the information in long term memory. Chances are the students have already been exposed to the information on several occasions and using the game as a final review. This strengthens the information using the repetitions and therefore stores the material more solidly with stimuli that make it easier to retrieve.

This lesson plan also utilizes the method of outlining. The questions in jeopardy are already organized into their specific topics with fun names as the headings. The headings provide better means for chunking information and summarizing main ideas in order to increase the chances of the student retaining the information. It organizes the material into categories that simplify the information and break it up into larger pieces of information so that the brain can better process them and store them. However, the fun names also provide more meaningful stimuli that help provide more associations in order to store the information in long term memory. The humorous titles and puns that are used in the category names tend to be something that students recall easier than simple titles. Therefore, the associations made with the categorization of the information helps to better store the information in a way that the students can easily access it when it comes time to take the test.

Perhaps the most desirable part of the lesson plan for the students is the concept of reinforcement. At the end of the jeopardy game, the person with the most money wins a prize. Instead of a real cash prize, the student is rewarded with something most desirable to them in the classroom context. Receiving ten extra points on the next quiz, a day of no homework makes wining and succeeding in the lesson worthwhile. This extrinsic reinforcement promotes the positive behavior and work effort that the students have put forth.

When using extrinsic motivation in this way, the students are being rewarded with a point system, which in this particular game is fake money. The money will then be used later to receive such as free homework passes or extra credit on the test. This motivates the students in a way that typically undermines the effectiveness of intrinsic motivation. The students will want to succeed in order to receive the prizes or reinforcement, instead of the praise of doing well or the self-reward of getting a good grade on the test. It also encourages the students to not want to perform well in future games if the extrinsic rewards are taken away. Therefore, using this method may not be the best way to provide reinforcement, however, it may be more beneficial to use reinforcement that involves praise or an option to design the next review game.

Many methods that have been discussed in class are present in the Jeopardy Game lesson plan. Overall, this lesson plan is effective and will propel the learning of students in order to prepare for an exam. With the use of peer modeling, information processing, advance organizers, reinforcement, association, quizzing, rehearsal, outlining, and extrinsic reinforcement, the student will better retain the information they are reviewing and store it in long-term memory so that they can better and more easily recall it in the future, such as on the exam.