How can a game like Concentration be repurposed to enhance learning?

The ways are literally infinite. And this is where the fun and a pack of white index cards comes in. Suppose I introduce vocabulary words each Monday to my class and expect my students to learn the words and pass an assessment the following Friday. Simply throwing a list of words at my students and leaving it on them and their parents to drill the words may ensure short term retention, but more work will have to be done if I expect my students to retain those words long term for a quarterly comprehensive assessment.

By creating the cards and playing games, students repeatedly see the words and their meanings and remind themselves several times of which words go with which meanings. Physically finding pairs and placing them together, adds a new level of connection to the memory. I encourage teachers to try using this strategy for a year and then calculate the difference in vocabulary scores from the previous year, when only word lists had been provided to the students.

Making cards also works well when students need to remember sequences of events or concepts such as the cycles of photosynthesis. The point is to have the students active in making the cards and then using them. The more they interact with the content they are expected to remember, the more likely they will remember it.