Playing and Learning

An exam is usually used to measure scholarly knowledge, and the word “exam” is usually associated with stress. A few days ago, however, my Grade 12 Spanish class had the opportunity to test its academic acumen in a board game. For one challenging hour, students had fun testing their knowledge and being creative all at the same time. They played a Monopoly-like game, but in this case, every square had an activity to perform. The activities ranged from conjugating a verb to creating sentences based on a given picture and vocabulary words. Sometimes it was more complicated, such as for Ken, who had to repeat a sentence while jumping, or for Sarah, who had to conjugate a verb while taking her shoes on and off. Of course, everything had to be said in Spanish. Yes, there was pressure, but this time it was about winning a fun game.

Ayumu, Hokyun and Edward were ahead for most of the game, continually throwing high numbers on the dice, while Ken and Sarah threw only ones and twos. But Sarah and Ken kept advancing slowly and finally both teams were fighting for the finish line. I was satisfied to see my students having fun and being so engaged. By practising vocabulary, verbs, grammar, and expressions, they all are winners to me.