VOA教育报道2022--Teachers Use Games for More Enjoyable Learning

Teachers Use Games for More Enjoyable Learning¹

Wordle has become one of the most popular online games in the United² States since it came out last October.

Players get six chances to guess and learn a five-letter word for the day. Many are sharing their game results on social media³, adding more interest in the game.

Gamifying the classroom

Creative teachers have long found games could make their classes more enjoyable for students. During the pandemic, many have looked for new ways or games to help their students learn. It is part of a learning theory called "gamification" to keep students' interest.

Beyond Wordle, here are other games that help learners with different subjects.

Mathematics⁴

British data scientist Richard Mann of London was talking with his daughter about the popularity⁵ of Wordle. He thought there should be a game for people who like mathematics and developed Nerdle. It is a daily game in which a player has six tries to guess a math solution.

Does it sound familiar? Math teachers note that a Nerdle player uses logic⁶, a careful way of thinking about something, to solve a math problem. It is similar to how a Wordle player applies logic to guess a word.

Geography

Do not confuse Wordle with Worldle. There is an extra letter ‘l" in Worldle. French video game developer Antoine Teuf said he invented Worldle in honor⁷ of that word game, Wordle.

Players guess a country based on its shape. They get six tries to guess a country based on information about the country. Teuf first shared the game on January 22. He said there are two million visits a day to the game's page a month later.

Other games, online services

Teachers of English see word games as a way for students to learn new words. Other word games include Blooket and Flippity.

Teachers create quizzes⁹ in Blooket similar to the kinds of games students play on mobile¹⁰ devices¹¹. They can look at results and see areas that students can improve.

In Flippity, teachers can create flash cards, rewards¹³, spelling quizzes, memory games and word searches from a simple Google spreadsheet. It is also a good tool for students to create their own projects.

There are several online services that teachers could use to "gamify" learning. They include Kahoot!, Quizlet, Quizziz and Nearpod. All of them "gamify" learning by creating competition among learners while reviewing the content presented by teachers.

Teaching¹⁴ without a computer?

In many places, teachers and students do not have a computer. So, English language teacher Larry Ferlazzo asked them to share their language-learning games. Ferlazzo wrote about them in his blog. Here are two of the games that teachers suggested:

Danielle Horne teaches at Helena College in Glen Forrest, Western Australia. She said one of the games that her students love playing is "hot or cold."

In "hot or cold," students hide something in the classroom while a student, or searcher, is waiting outside. The students then say a word, phrase¹⁵, or sentence. They get louder when the searcher gets nearer to the object and softer when the searcher is more distant. Horne said to be prepared for quite a bit of noise though!

Eva Pors is a Danish high school teacher. Her students play "questions and answers" to learn new words or vocabulary.

Pors write words or phrases¹⁶ on small pieces of paper and divides students into groups of four. Within a group, student A picks a piece of paper with a word or phrase on it and asks questions that will make student B say the exact word or phrase on the paper.

For example, with the word "milk," Student A would ask, "What do you put on your cereal¹⁷ in the morning?" Student B has one minute to try to answer as many words or phrases as possible. The other two students in the group will then take over for one minute. And the team with the most correct guesses wins the game.

Words in This Story

guess – v. to give an answer or opinion about something without having all the facts

gamification– n. the practice of making activities more like games in order to make them more interesting or enjoyable:

confuse – v.to mix up someone's mind or ideas, or to make something difficult to understand

reward¹² – n. something given in exchange for good behavior or good work

quiz⁸ – n. a game or competition in which you answer questions

spreadsheet – n. a computer program that helps make calculations¹⁸ and store information

cereal – n. a food that is made from grain and eaten with milk, especially in the morning

1 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

2 united   

adj.和谐的；团结的；联合的，统一的

参考例句：

• The whole nation is closely united.全国人民紧密团结。
• The two men were united by community of interests.共同的利益使两个人结合在一起。

3 media   

n.(medium的复数)媒体，新闻媒介，传播媒介

参考例句：

• The local media reported rioting across the country.当地媒体报道了全国范围的骚乱。
• His latest movie is being hyped up by the media.他新近的电影正被媒体大肆炒作。

4 mathematics   

n.（用作单）数学；（用作单或复）计算(能力）

参考例句：

• He has come out in front in the study of mathematics.他在数学方面已名列前茅。
• She is working at a difficult problem in mathematics.她在做一道数学难题。

5 popularity   

n.普及，流行，名望，受欢迎

参考例句：

• The story had an extensive popularity among American readers.这本小说在美国读者中赢得广泛的声望。
• Our product enjoys popularity throughout the world.我们的产品饮誉全球。

6 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

7 honor   

n.光荣；敬意；荣幸；vt.给…以荣誉；尊敬

参考例句：

• I take your visit as a great honor.您的来访是我莫大的光荣。
• It is a great honor to receive that prize.能拿到那个奖是无上的光荣。

8 quiz   

n.智力竞赛；测验，小型考试

参考例句：

• They are having a quiz now.他们正进行小测验。
• He took part in a television quiz and won a prize.他参加了一个电视知识竞赛并得了奖。

9 quizzes   

n.问答比赛（游戏）( quiz的名词复数 )；小测验

参考例句：

• Quizzes (lecture and take-home) must be turned in on time. 测验（报告和课外）必须一次交上。 来自互联网
• Students can take quizzes with the software to evaluate the learning effect. 学生可以用软件中的一些测验来评估他们的学习效果。 来自互联网

10 mobile   

adj.可移动的，易变的，机动的；n.运动物体

参考例句：

• The old lady sits on a mobile chair every morning.那位老妇人每天上午坐在一把可携带使用的椅子上。
• She's much more mobile now that she's bought a car.自从她买了汽车后，活动量就大多了。

11 devices   

n.设备；装置( device的名词复数 )；花招；（为实现某种目的的）计划；手段

参考例句：

• electrical labour-saving devices around the home 节省劳力的各种家用电器
• modern labour-saving devices such as washing machines and dishwashers 诸如洗衣机和洗碗机之类的现代化省力设备

12 reward   

n.报酬，酬谢，赏金；vt.奖赏，酬谢，报应

参考例句：

• He will expect some reward after working so hard.他工作很努力，会得到报偿的。
• I didn't do it for reward;I did it for love.我做这件事不是为了报酬，而是出于爱好。

13 rewards   

n.报酬( reward的名词复数 )；报答；赏金；酬金v.酬谢，奖赏( reward的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They are now reaping the rewards of all their hard work. 现在，他们的全部辛劳都得到了回报。
• He harvested rewards in fame and wealth for his successful experiment. 他因试验成功而名利双收。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 teaching   

n.教学，执教，任教，讲授；(复数)教诲

参考例句：

• We all agree in adopting the new teaching method. 我们一致同意采取新的教学方法。
• He created a new system of teaching foreign languages.他创造了一种新的外语教学体系。

15 phrase   

n.短语，词组；成语，习语

参考例句：

• The phrase was caught on and immediately became popular.这个短语被采用后很快就流行了。
• That's exactly the phrase I was looking for.这就是我一直找的那个短语。

16 phrases   

n.短语( phrase的名词复数 )；成语；说法；乐句

参考例句：

• Sports commentators repeat the same phrases ad nauseam. 体育解说员翻来覆去说着同样的词语，真叫人腻烦。
• Television sports commentators repeat the same phrases ad nauseam. 电视体育解说员说来说去就是那么几句话，令人厌烦。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 cereal   

n.谷类，五谷，禾谷

参考例句：

• I have hot cereal every day for breakfast.我每天早餐吃热麦片粥。
• Soybeans are handled differently from cereal grains.大豆的加工处理与谷类的加工处理不同。

18 calculations   

n.计算( calculation的名词复数 )；盘算；自私的打算；推断

参考例句：

• We can exclude the possibility of total loss from our calculations. 我们可以在预测中把彻底失败的可能性排除在外。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He scored out both calculations and did them again. 他把两个计算结果都划掉，又把它们计算了一遍。 来自《简明英汉词典》