The Blog of Ms. Mercer

Presenter: Arlene Anderson, Desiree Spang

Preview: The Spang Gang website is a compilation of grade level, standards based, curriculum area links to some of the best games on the Internet. No more time consuming searches!

Has a long name, so look up her page by google search.

The site is color coded by level (do the orange activities). Web portal to link to games, but it’s coded for subject/skill and level. It’s being used for intervention students.

It’s very similar to Larry Ferlazzo’s site but meant for kids to guide themselves through. The colors are quite lurid (reminds me of CoolMath4Kids) but I’m sure interesting for students. The clickability of the site is not fantastic, but the thought and effort and attention to making it engaging for students makes up for that.

Money quote: “I don’t know if you know this about kids, but kids don’t care what standard their working on.”

She set up survivor game to hit standards, but not hit kids over the head with the standard itself.

Set goals for the students (double your score), because that is the gaming world that they live in. They train the kids on the games and monitor their progress. They are tracked and rewarded for improvement. Set up expectation about not leaving assignment site.

spang gang - Google Search

Who Said Games Don’t Teach? (Anderson, Arlene with Desiree Spang) - The CUE Community

Mrs. Spang’s Class