To Jeopardy or Not to Jeopardy? That is the Question

Does playing a Jeopardy review game (in addition to their study guide) with my sixth grade social studies students prior to taking a test increase their test scores?

I will be conducting a formative evaluation in an attempt to answer the above question.

1. What are the benefits and limitations of an evaluation? A benefit is to determine whether or not playing a jeopardy review game before a test enhances the classes test results.  I am not a big fan of doing something if it isn't going to help you out in the long run. I am just very curious as to the impact playing a review game of jeopardy has on my student's test scores. If the results come back and there is a positive boost with playing the game then I will feel more confident that I have been doing has been time well spent. One limitation that I can think of is that I only have three small social studies classes and the sampling group may be too small. I will not let this limitation hold me down, we shall press onward and upward with our evaluation.

2. What factors ensure that an evaluation will be successful? I need to make sure that my sampling is random or in my case rotated. I will rotate through all three of my classes as to which group doesn’t have the opportunity to use a jeopardy game in addition to a study guide to help prepare for a test. With this in place, after three different tests have been completed, each of my three classes will have taken two tests with jeopardy in addition to a study guide and they all will have taken one test with only the study guide.

3. How might one use evaluation results? If I find that the two groups that use the jeopardy game throughout the study consistently score higher than the group that only uses a standard study guide then I will make sure I share this info with my colleagues and utilize the jeopardy game before every test. If there is little to no increase in scores between the two test groups (Jeopardy & Study Guide vs. Study Guide only), I may just alternate which activity I use to help students prepare for tests because it would appear to make no difference. I could also go back to the drawing board and come up with another plan of attack. If for some sad reason it turns out that the students score lower with jeopardy, I will be sending Alex Trebek away from Room 610 at Wester Middle School and locking the door (just kidding...as long as the results weren't too negative we may still play it from time to time because the students really enjoy it so much).