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FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
General1
The name - a SMART WAY to Learn is a double entendre and has two meanings. The first meaning is taken at face value: this project is a smart way to learn. Second, the lowercase [a] shows respect for other learning systems; SMART represents SMART Notebook software; and the lesson-planning model and resources are presented. WAY is an acronym; it stands for Who Are You. WAY represents the gamification of education.
The WAY Game is many things; foremost, it helps students learn. The WAY Game is an information processing system that develops technical and creative skills. WAY is designed to create an awareness of one's gifts and talents. WAY is a team-building activity. WAY helps develop healthy relationships while learning how to learn. The tools and techniques associated with the WAY Game take time to implement. Students must do and learn a few things before they can play; I spent September slowly building the tools and techniques that needed to be in place. Including parents in the WAY Game is important. Invite parents into your class to watch students play way.
CAP Notes are graphic organizers that students use to summarize daily lessons and draft Questions & Activities for the WAY Game. Teachers use CAP Notes to plan lessons. Parents may use CAP Notes to check their child's daily progress. CAP Notes come in a standard paper format and appear on SMART Lesson Planning Templates. CAP Notes have evolved into CAP Notebooks for Parents and Players.
A Game Card is the size of an index card, four by six inches; the front side is for graphics that represent what was taught in school that week. The back side is for Questions and Activities, with 21 representing key ideas from the week's lessons. Game Cards summarize, in creative ways, lessons and important personal experiences and should be treasured for what they are: a history of you. Game Cards are works of art and science. Students become producers of learning content when they create and share their Game Cards with classmates.
WAY Cards come in four per sheet and are printed on card stock. Make three class sets: one for the WAY Game, one for the teacher's desk, and one as a backup. WAY Cards require a picture of students, names, year, game preferences, and checkboxes for tracking things; for example, B for Bathroom {frequent 'flyers' need to see this}. Y/N/A = when asking questions: Yes, No, Attempted. WAY Cards are used. Teachers use WAY Cards whenever they call on a student for any reason. Randomly selecting students is fair; it keeps students on their toes.
Support for playing the WAY Game comes in two formats: paper and digital. Paper: Judges Cards, Captain's Job, Yellow Card, Red Card, Card Boards, Place Cards, Weekly Planner, Game Card Templates, 7 Games, Pathfinder Clues, Game Card Rubric, CAP Note Rubric/Key, and Prizes. You will need 2 Captain's Binders to keep a list of the team's players and a Pathfinder Response sheet. Digital: Widgets = Timer, spinners, dice, Weekly WAY Games, Game Selection Tool, Clue Selection Tool, Student Selection, scoring, CAP Note Templates, Background Pictures.
The WAY Game helps teachers create a classroom students love. The WAY Game was designed to motivate students to learn their lessons through play. WAY is a game that helps students discover who they are and what they stand for. A game that develops relationships where students become producers and distributors of Game Cards. Students rule; they create Q&As for the WAY Game based on their weekly lessons. We play a full round of WAY on Friday afternoons. A complete game takes about an hour, and then we evaluate Game Cards, which takes another half hour or so. The Game's objective is to win clues to uncover the secret identity of the Mystery Kid. Each team captain is given a blank Pathfinder Response Sheet to highlight the clues the team won. Keep this sheet safe and secret in the Captain's Binder. The teacher will use the MK's Pathfinder Response Sheet to secretly present clues to their identity. {This is an extension of the Student of the Day activity where students share information from Pathfinder about themselves with their classmates.} The WAY Game was initially designed as a game students played as a class in school. You can adapt it for any number of students, in class or remotely. Ideally, pairs of students randomly selected using WAY Cards are put in Place Cards by the Judge. Shuffle a class set of WAY Cards; the top card will be the Mystery Kid. The teacher will keep this a secret, and the following three cards will be the Judges. Take the remaining cards and divide them into two teams. The top card in each pile will be the team captain, and the second card will be the assistant captain. Once the captain and assistant have recorded the teams, deal the team's cards and place them in the 7 Place Card pockets. Deal the 7 Games Cards similarly; put them face down, one Game per pocket. Always play with a partner when possible. You have two teams of 14 players each [some students may play two games if a partner is missing or there aren't enough students for two teams of 14 players]. Play 2 on 2, turn over one of the seven games, and select the Q & A using WAY Game Notebook Templates. Q & A's have been chosen from the class's weekly Game Cards. The teacher/volunteer selects the best Q & A's from the class's weekly Game Cards and enters the Q or A on specially designed Pull Tabs for each of the seven games. Once all seven games are played, the students may try to guess the identity of the Mystery Kid.For a more complete understanding of how the WAY Game is played, watch the videos on this site.
Print judges' cards on one sheet using Card Stock, a heavy grade of paper and/or laminate each of the three cards. You will need three break-away lanyards, one for each Judge to wear the card around their neck. Each card contains the Judge's responsibilities: SMART Board, Card Board, and Discipline Judge. The SMART Board Judge runs the SMART Board; the Card Judge manages WAY Cards & Place Cards. The Discipline Judge is the class 'cop.' They can take clues away from a team because a team member broke a rule.
Team Captains use A Captain's Job Graphic Organizer to record: 1. Penalties yellow/red cards, 2. Captain Challenges & 3. Player Swaps. A Captain speaks on behalf of the team when giving answers or speaking to Judges. If a Captain wants to challenge a student judge's decision, they issue a Captain's Challenge, and each judge takes a turn justifying their judgment to the class. The teacher has the final say on whether to overrule the Judges. After a win, the team receives a clue from the Mystery Kid's Pathfinder. A Captain receives and records Pathfinder clues won by teams and highlights clues on the Pathfinder Response Sheet while being supervised by the Discipline Judge.
The Discipline Judge uses the Yellow Card/Red Card sheet to record student infractions during a game. A Yellow Card is a warning; a Red Card means the team loses a clue. Minor talking disruptions earn a Yellow Card; if it continues, it becomes a Red Card. A Red Card can be issued for disrespectful behaviour and cheating, but ultimately, the Judge decides. One sheet covers six games. Print 2-sided.
Card Boards are folded to hold student Game Cards. They are used for peer evaluation of Game Cards. Card Boards are where Game Card scores are entered. Game Card grades are worth 10% of a student's grade. Students grade students for actual grades. They are hung on strings on a class Bulletin Board. Game Cards are due every Tuesday. Students are to deposit their three Game Cards in the Card Board Pockets. It's easy to see who has done their homework.
A Rubric is defined as a set of instructions or rules. Students use Rubrics to evaluate Game Cards. After assessment, students keep a card, give the teacher a copy, and a random student receives the third copy. Three points are awarded for each of the 21 Questions and Activities on a Game Card. Q & A's are worth 63%, and 37% is awarded for Design.
There are 9 Prizes: Bathroom Break. Choose & Give a Reward [ this acts as a wild card; you can turn it into any prize, but the catch is, you have to give it away]. Food Break [you can eat in class], Sit By a Friend [for a day, the student can move their desk right next to a friend], Best Chair for the Day [I have a nice chair as a spare that was used for this purpose. Otherwise, the teacher has to give up their chair]. Late Pass for assignment. There are 3 Add 10% prizes. Ten percent can be applied to any test or assignment, not including government tests.
Homework is necessary, but only if it is meaningful. Please keep it simple; put parents and students in charge. In my class, homework included working on long-term projects, studying for tests, making one set of Game Cards per week, and working on areas that needed improvement. I encouraged parents and students to define areas of need, like more math or more writing stories; the choice was based on defined goals and the learning resources at hand. Students were provided with a time management sheet, a page protector, and a non-permanent marker so the sheet could be reused weekly. Students plotted their outside commitments and when they planned to work, using abbreviations like ST study for the test or GC = Make Game Cards. Students can make their own words and symbols to plan their activities.
Except in rare cases, I would always use WAY Cards to determine where students sit. Using a class set of WAY Cards, you shuffle and draw the first card; that's where the student sits. Continue drawing cards and moving students. I would do a new seating arrangement once a term. That way, nobody is stuck in the back; we rotate desks once a week, so everyone moves up a space and the front person goes to the back row. This is fair. Do away with teacher-determined seating plans set in stone. I like a traditional desk arrangement, all facing the SMART Board.
Entrepreneurial Project-Based Learning. Let's encourage teachers to have a year-long project that students can learn from and look forward to. Students learn to run a small business or put on a show. Proceeds go to the class as school supplies, WAY Game Prizes, Parent Volunteer Gifts, and a raise for the teacher. Teacherpreneuring is completely optional. Teachers can run projects, or a small group of parent volunteers can help run the business.
Teachers want to invite parents into the learning process so they can see what happens in class because we have their children—reducing school-to-home problems caused by not knowing what to do, which can lead to frustration and failure. A class website with test reviews, project due dates, events, and more is available to parents 24/7. Daily CAP Notes report student focus and activities. Weekly Game Cards are another way to check in on student progress. Your class will be more transparent to your administration.
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