A while back, I came across the concept of cooperative games through the popular board game Pandemic. Since then, my family and I have purchased several more including Forbidden Island and Outfoxed. Watching my kids play without sibling rivalry, and seeing how they really wanted each other to succeed, I wondered how I could harness this in my classroom. This post is a reflection on that journey. I suggest some easy tweaks to well-known games you may already play, and you can download a free cooperative game board to get started immediately.
What Are Cooperative Games?
Essentially, cooperative games are ones in which all players work together to achieve a goal. Ultimately, everyone is playing against the game itself. In a competitive game, you can only win if someone else loses – this dynamic is removed in cooperative games where everyone wins or loses together. In cooperative games, nobody is banished – the only banishment is the need to beat others.
Ice-breakers often use this concept. Think of the Human Knot game, escape rooms, or team scavenger hunts. In all of these examples, people work together and there is no other person or group to ‘beat’. Instead, success depends on cooperation and a desire for everyone to succeed. No trash talk, no gloating, no feelings of superiority – what’s not to love?
My students love these games and when we finish, I often see them laughing together, clapping each other on the back, and thanking each other as they leave the activity. The added bonus is that it gives students who are new to each other something to reflect on and chat about together because, inevitably, there will be mistakes that they own and find humour in together.
Why Use Cooperative Games In The Classroom?
Competition games can be fun. However, they don’t necessarily promote positive relationships and can even encourage unkind behaviours if not managed well. Students, especially those with noticeable differences, may be left out, feel confused, or be at a disadvantage because of their profile. For example, think of students who are just beginning to learn English trying to navigate unfamiliar game instructions by themselves, or a newly-arrived student hearing trash-talk from a classmate.
Getting students to work together toward a common goal is much more conducive to positive relationships and an inclusive classroom community than traditional games where players are pitched against each other. In fact, this small-scale study suggested that preceding a team task with a cooperative game can increase participation. Although further research is needed to confirm these findings, it seems reasonable to think that students who work together to complete a fun activity may have a better chance of successful cooperation in a subsequent academic task.
From Competitive to Cooperative Games
If you are interested in bringing the concept of cooperative games to your classroom, here are three classics you can tweak for any age or content:
- Hangman – everyone works together to solve the word puzzle; you can find an alternative version of the game that avoids the possibly problematic ‘hanging’ theme here
- Crosswords – if done collaboratively, there is no rival other than the challenge itself; make your own online and printable crossword puzzles here
- Pictionary – played in teams, students can try to solve a target number of puzzles within a time limit; the terms used can be from any content area you choose
- Reverse Charades – for this, I invite any number of student volunteers to be the ‘actors’ together, and we rotate each round; the remaining classmates try to guess what’s being acted out and we aim for a minimum number of correct guesses within a time limit for the class to win together – this one is a great physical energiser when your class is a bit sluggish and it results in a lot of laughter!
Cooperative Board Games For The Classroom
I have never used pre-published cooperative board games in the classroom, simply because they are too expensive to provide enough copies for a whole class. Added to that, the knowledge involved in existing games (if any is required at all) doesn’t match my learners’ needs or our content. All the same, I do greatly value review, so here are a couple of inexpensive games I’ve tried with success.
Gorgon Quest
This is a Greek-mythology-themed cooperative board game (pictured above) that can be used to review any content. I’ve had students from ages 10-17 play this game and tell me they loved it. Students team up to answer questions and gather the items needed to defeat Medusa. In the past, I used it only with these Greek Mythology Quiz Cards. Now that I’ve changed my unit to be more culturally-responsive, this needs to be supplemented with questions from other cultural mythologies. To encourage as much processing of the unit information as possible, I have students work in pairs to create question sets from our current and past topics, and then we either assign a ‘quizzer’ to ask the questions, or print off quiz cards for students to play in teams. Mixed age/ability teams can play together with multiple-choice questions making things a little easier for those who need it.
Race the Game
This game comes in 4 formats, and is simple yet challenging. Unlike Gorgon Quest which takes at least a full class period to play the first time, Race the Game can be played in as little as 5-10 minutes. It can also take up to a class period depending on the version you choose or the difficulty of the questions.
In one version, there is a race between 2 parties – your class (or smaller teams) and the game. Students answer questions to move forward toward the finish line. For each incorrect answer, the game gets to progress one step on its shorter track. Whichever party reaches the finishing line first wins.
Like Gorgon Quest, Race the Game can be used to review any topic content. Added bonus – it can be used for distance learning or simply use it online to save paper and prep.
Get Started
Convinced that cooperative games are worth a try? Let me help you get started with a freebie of Race the Game.
Here, I’ve provided a few ideas for getting started with cooperative games in the classroom. There’ll be more to come! In the words of a wise woman…
We’ve got this!
