I can still remember the faded, chipped blue print of my childhood game of Memory. The thick cardboard squares we flipped in search of pairs, thrilled when we found a match, frustrated when we accidentally revealed a match to our opponent.
I’ve played a million games now as a parent too, watching my children’s eyes light up when they rack up more matches than I do, which is pretty much every time. I think my daughter was beating me consistently by the time she was four.
The memory game seems to stick in our game culture like no other. I see a new twist on it everywhere, most recently National Parks memory when I stepped into the store at Sequoia National Park last week.
So how can we use this go-to in the classroom to gamify ELA? Well, in a million ways. Let’s talk about how you can make your own memory game, with pretty much any material you want to cover.
A Quick Rundown of How Memory Works
So first off, in the extremely unlikely chance that you’ve never played before, let’s talk about what a memory game is.
It’s a set of cards with matching pairs.
If you’re playing, for example, wild bird memory (which we have at our cabin), you might see a female Bluejay on one card in the pair, the male Bluebird on the other. Then you might see a pair of Flamingos, eagles, loons, Goldfinches, woodpeckers, etc. You shuffle and flip over the cards in a grid on your table, then take turns turning over just two cards. Everyone looks at your two cards, then you flip them back over. When you get a match, you collect them and you get to go again. Play continues until all the cards have been matched and collected.
The game can be played with partners, or groups of 3 or 4. I suppose you could keep adding people, but I think 2-4 is the sweet spot.
Using Memory to Gamify ELA Review
So let’s start imagining how this could work in the classroom.
I’ve created one set of cards that have a literary device on one half of the pair, and an example of that device on the other half.
Or maybe you want to partner:
- Latin or Greek roots on one card with their definition and on the partner card a word that is an example of the root
- a vocabulary word and its synonym
- a poetic device and a line of poetry that uses it
- a literary period and a description of it
- a type of source to be cited and the correct citation format for that source
You’re getting the idea now, I’m sure! Anytime you have information you want students to review that easily lends itself to matching, you can gamify it in this simple, fun way, adding an element of play to the process of reviewing for retention.
Making your ELA Memory Deck
So how will you actually make the cards to gamify ELA concepts?
Easy! Just open a Canva doc or a Google Slide and drop rectangles across your page. I’d suggest matching your pair with the color of their borders or some matching symbol that’s on each card as well as with the content of the cards, so students definitely know when they’ve got a correct match.
In my literary devices example (below), you’ll see that I put matching colors around the definition of the literary device and the example on the partnered card. Students won’t be left wondering if the example pairs with any other device, so there’s no need for an answer key and no chance of an argument.
I’d suggest you print your decks on card stock, maybe in a fun color. If you’ve got the option, you could also laminate them so you can easily use them year after year.
That’s it! Once you have your memory cards ready to go, you can play them anytime to gamify review of an ELA concept, providing a handy option when a small group finishes early or a lesson wraps up before you expected it to, as well as anytime you want to schedule gamified review as part of your full class plan.
Want more Ideas like this?
Check out the post, “Engaging Games for ELA” or my board games for rhetorical analysis and citation format.
