The biggest challenge in modern classrooms is obtaining and maintaining students’ attention. Research from the American Psychological Association shows that the average American’s attention span is shrinking. As Dr. Gloria Mark points out, hardly any of us have gone a day without a distraction from our phones or computers. We are inundated with social media, news alerts, emails, text messages, and more. This attention span is worse for students.

In an age of TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, students struggle with videos or reels that are longer than a minute or two. If they do catch one that is longer, they often use the speed-up option to get through it faster. If they struggle to focus during their leisure time, how do we expect them to concentrate in class?

In addition to the lack of focus, we face a world of rewards and challenges. When we face challenges or a system of rewards, we tend to work better and more focused to achieve success. How can we gamify a lesson to motivate students to work towards success?

Take Boring Questions and Turn Them Into a Lottery

Tired of the old sit-and-get method of reading a passage and answering questions? You don’t want to deal with sharing answers or grading each student’s paper? Are you worried about students “cheating” by changing friends’ answers while they grade? Turn formative assessments into an answer lottery.

What You Need

1-100 Number Chart

The first thing I do is pull up a 1-100 numbers chart. You can find all of these online. You can save it, create a custom number chart, or print it. I personally love projecting it on the Smartboard so students can choose and see where their friends are, how many slots they have, etc. You can also use a larger numbers chart, but I’ve found that 1-100 works best for classes of 30 students or fewer.

Suggested Links:
1-1,000

Text with Questions (or Made Ones)

You could use any form of media as a text. It doesn’t have to be a passage for students. You could use a video clip, lyrics, a song, an audiobook, a podcast, a passage, a book being read in class, etc. To introduce this concept, I’m going to use a traditional passage with texts.

Suggested Links:
NewsELA
CommonLit
ReadWork
ReadWriteThink

Optional

An answer sheet allows the students to keep track of the questions and the responses. You can put the questions and answers on the same sheet for reference, or use an answer sheet.

Prizes are always motivating for students to do well and win. My students personally love Jolly Ranchers. I buy bulk Jolly Ranchers from Sam’s Club.

How It Works

Students will read the passage. You can do this the same day or on separate days. If you want a deeper analysis of the text, I suggest doing the deep reading one day and the lottery questions on another. Regardless of how you do it, do not introduce the questions until you are ready to move on.

This works best in partners, but you can do individual students or groups of 3. Anything above 3 gets a bit messy.

Provide the students with the questions and the answer sheet (I highly recommend short responses). Place these questions face down on their desks. Let the students know they shouldn’t flip their paper until you say so. If you catch them flipping the paper, they will be disqualified from the lottery and required to answer the questions individually.

Explain the rules. These rules can be modified as you see fit (as everything else in teaching):

1. You can answer any question. You do not have to go in order.
2. You must use the R.A.C.E. strategy.
   • Restate
   • Answer
   • Cite
   • Explain
3. Once you believe you have the answer, you raise your hand to check your answer.
   • Other Ways to Check:
     • Buzzers
     • Have them approach you
     • “Take a Number”
     • Online Response (with timestamps)
4. If your answer is correct, you and your partner can place your names on a number. If your answer is wrong, you must correct your answer before placing your name on the lottery board.
   • It is up to you whether both names go on the same number or on different numbers. This is why I say any more than 3 in a group can get messy. We know not every student pulls their weight in groups.
5. Only after they have listed their name on a number will they return and do the same for another question. Again, these questions do not have to be done in order.
6. For every correct answer, they will both place their name on the board. There is no limit on how many times their name can appear on the board.
   • This eliminated the stress of being the first one done, language barriers, etc. It allows students to participate and practice while relieving some stress and giving them a chance to win.
7. At the end of the questions, you spin, roll, or choose a random number selector to pick a winner.
   • You can have more than one winner. If you have more than one winner, it is up to you whether a group can win more than once. Having more than one winner gives those whose names aren’t on it a chance to win still. I’ve had students with their names on the lottery board just once, and still one, while others were on it 5 times and never won.

You cannot erase anyone else’s name. If you do, you will do the assignment on your own and receive an additional consequence.

Why This Works

Students love competition. If they can compete with each other to win something, it motivates them to work.

It encourages collaboration. This activity will allow students to work together and discuss their answers before writing anything down. This can help students process their answers before submitting.

You give immediate feedback. This allows students to know what is right and wrong before answering for a grade and/or others. It will enable instant correction while still allowing them to get their name on the board.

It is truly random, so there are no claims of favoritism. It provides equal opportunities for all learners to participate.

It gives students a mental reset after each question. They can physically stand to write their name on the board, which incorporates movement and allows their brain to refocus when they return to the next question.

It allows choice in their work. Because you are allowing students to complete questions in any order, they can review all the questions and pick the ones they are confident in before moving on to the more challenging ones. It still allows you to assess their ability to answer the questions before they move on. This will enable you to correct any mistakes so they do not get into the habit of poor responses.