Making Math Test Prep Fun: Strategies for Incorporating Games and Assessments
Spice up your math test prep routine and make it more effective by incorporating games. Research has found that it takes approximately 400 repetitions to create a new synapse in the brain, but only 10 - 20 repetitions through play. Therefore, utilizing games for practice and review will be more effective than worksheets or other traditional review methods.
At the same time, teachers need an assessment to help them determine exactly what their students’ learning needs are. So how can you organize your test review to be the most effective?
First Use an Assessment
A benchmark test or other assessment provides valuable data on which skills students forgot or misunderstood, so teachers can target their review to cover those concepts.
Without this information, teachers might spend time reviewing concepts that students already understand instead of focusing on the gaps in their knowledge.
Determine and Plan Mini-Lessons
By analyzing the test data to determine which students need more support on the same skills, teachers can also create and deliver targeted small-group instruction.
An easy way to see the patterns in students’ responses is to create a tally sheet. Simply take a sheet of paper and number it with the number of problems on the assessment. Using the student assessment responses, go through each students’ answers and place a tally on your sheet every time a student has a wrong answer. By the end, you will have a clear picture of which questions were missed the most.
Look at those questions and determine what skill was assessed in those problems. Those are the skills that need the most review.
If a particular problem has a large number of wrong answers, the entire class would probably benefit from more instruction on that question.
If the problem was missed by a handful of students, then small-group instruction would be more effective.
To keep myself organized, I would create a spreadsheet of the mini-lessons needed and which students should be in that mini-lesson.
Elements of Effective Test Review
The rest of the class needs to be focused on another activity while the teacher works with a small group. These activities need to be effective and engaging, or the teacher will end up needing to constantly manage the rest of the class instead of focusing on the mini-lesson.
I recommend splitting the class into centers or stations with review games. Generally, I find that 2-3 students is best, but 4 kids at a center can also work.
In order for gameplay to be effective, students must be actively engaged in the learning. Unless students are thinking about and processing the information, they will not see the benefits of learning through play. Therefore, your test review should include:
Movement
Interaction
Student Choice
Low-Risk
All of these traits will encourage students to participate by eliminating the barriers that often cause them to disengage.
As always, model, model, model each center activity before expecting students to work independently.
Test Review Activity Ideas
A lot of test review games involve the teacher leading the activity. Those activities are great - but not if the teacher wants to work with a small group.
Students need to be able to play the games independently, as well as get feedback on their answers - or they will run to the teacher every time they disagree about an answer.
A few ideas for activities:
Computer Games - these would probably be single-player activities, which is fine. That is a good option for students who need a little quiet time, and they allow the teacher to differentiate review topics for students.
Interactive Worksheet - Not just a plain worksheet, but one where students cut and glue or color. Something that makes it more interesting than a packet of worksheets. There are some great self-checking printable activities, too.
Card Games - In my experience, card games can be quick to play and easier to learn the rules than a board game. If your students do not have a lot of experience playing card or board games, it is much easier to start them with a fast card game.
Board Games - When I say board games, I am including any game that has physical pieces to set up, although they may not have a board. I love board games, but you do need to pick carefully. If you only have 15-minute centers, students will not have time to set up and play a game such as Monopoly. Fortunately, there are a lot of fast games that will also review basic math skills, such as Yahtzy.
Organizing the Centers
Teachers can either create a rotation chart for the review activities or allow students to self-choose. Granted, if students are expected to work through all of the activities in order to review all the different skills, then teachers should create something like a BINGO card that students check off as they complete each station.
Self-choice can help increase student engagement, but it can be tricky to implement if there are many small groups to pull. Students always do better if they know what to expect, so I recommend “publishing” the small-group groups at the beginning of center time. This will help avoid students from getting upset about attending a mini-lesson because they planned to do an activity with a friend.
Assessing the Effectiveness of the Review
After a round (or a few rounds) of review, the teacher should reassess students’ knowledge. You need to know whether or not the students now understand the concepts or if you need to continue to review.
So, in reality, review is a “rinse-and-repeat” activity. If it is worked in as a regular activity throughout the year, teachers will be able to more effectively target the knowledge gaps and misconceptions by spiraling instruction. This method is more effective than cramming in a quick review before a test.
An end-of-the-year review is always a good idea - after all, we all forget things - but it’s better to attack the knowledge gaps on a regular basis.
Ready-Made Math Test Prep
If you are looking for some done-for-you math test prep activities, I have grade-level bundles for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. Each grade level has an end-of-the-year assessment and four games that review the grade-level math standards. Resources are available individually or at a savings in a grade-level bundle.