Games, Challenges & English 11

Danielle Crossley

Context
- English Language Arts 11
- Novi High School, Novi, MI
- Unit: Narrative Non-Fiction
- Text: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Inquiry Question
Will incorporating games and
survival challenges, per
student feedback, increase
student engagement
throughout our narrative nonfiction unit centered around
the book Into the Wild by Jon
Krakauer?

More than Reading

During this unit, the students not
only looked forward to the next
challenge, but they kept up with
class reading due to the fact that
they never knew what the
challenge would require.
The class environment proved to
gain comradery and excitement
throughout the unit.

TE 804

03/2015

Inquiry Timeline and Process

1. Students completed a survey using
surveymonkey.com asking for feedback on
first semester regarding engagement.
2. Upon finding that many students felt most
engaged at the beginning or end of a unit
and during activities like games or group
work, I decided to use this feedback and
construct the next unit around it.
3. The students were split into groups of four.
4. Students participated in many games and
challenges. Pre- Reading Activity: Survival
Challenge, During Reading Activities:
Reading Comprehension Race, Web
Hunts, Participation Points, Survivor Sand
Challenge, Comprehension Check
Crosswords, Post-Reading Activity: Last
Man Standing Review Game

Resources
1. Readicide by Kelly Gallagher
2. Teaching for Literacy
Engagement by John Guthrie
3. To Help Students Learn,
Appeal to What They Value
by Heidi Olinger

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Findings & Reflections

Initial Results (56 students)
o Question 1: Rate your daily (average) level of engagement in the
previous unit? 6 students answered very engaged, 27 answered mostly
engaged, 19 answered somewhat engaged, and 4 answered rarely
engaged.
o Question 2: What types of lessons do you find most engaging? 37
students answered discussions and group work, 10 answered individual
work, 6 answered teacher led, and 3 selected more than one option.
o Question 3: What aspects of my teaching (or your previous teachers)
from first semester best held your attention? (Specific lessons, or types of
lessons) Active lessons, Lessons that get us excited like competitions with
prizes, Working with classmates, Activities where we are participating,
Hands on, Full class lessons, Letting us work together

Final Results & Reflections (56 students)

o Post Unit Data Collection- Discussion & Debrief Notebook Entry
o The students had many different perspectives on how the challenges increased their
engagement. Many students expressed the fact that working in a group increased their
motivation to make the reading deadlines because of their desire to complete the tasks and to
not let their group members down.
o I was a bit apprehensive to implement games throughout the unit because I did not want the
focus to completely shift from the narrative non-fiction book and to solely relying on the
challenges. Upon reflection, I found the games to be an incentive and to improve class
discussions and overall comprehension of the book and its themes because of the repeated
practice with these concepts.
o Some of the initial feedback expressed the fact that in their previous units, teachers seemed to
begin and end units with engaging lessons, but throughout the unit the lessons lacked that
excitement. The identification of this problem is what led me to pursue this inquiry question
and I think that including the survival challenges and games proved to be a valid, original way
to increase engagement, comradery and create a more communal environment in the
classroom.

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