Every Game in One Place: The Dueling History Toolbox

My mother-in-law gave me a book called How to Teach Real Good. It was a joke. I keep it on the shelf anyway, because the title says the only thing I have ever been sure of: a class that is doing something remembers more than a class that is being told something.

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That is the whole argument behind these five games. Every one of them is free, runs in a browser, needs no login and no install, and — this is the part teachers ask about first — none of them is about my subject. You load your own terms, your own questions, your own clues. The game does not care whether it is the Missouri Compromise or the periodic table.

Here they all are in one place. Bookmark this post; I will keep it current as new ones go up.

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1. Rivet Your Attention

What it is: a matching game with a clock. Fifteen pink clue cards, fifteen white answer cards, all face up. Students pair them off, and every miss adds five seconds. Speed and accuracy in the same motion.

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What you supply: fifteen pairs. Terms and definitions, dates and events, quotations and speakers, graphs and equations. Build a board, save it, and hand out the link — each board has its own address, so students land straight on yours.

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