InClass

The Super Bowl doesn’t have to be an American tradition reserved for the weekend. Learn how teachers can use the entire production as a teaching tool.

We’re convinced the Super Bowl can prompt some fun and engaging classroom tasks. You have a little less than a week to strategize, so grab your planner and get ready for a learning-focused extravaganza — you’ll have students wishing it was an event that happened more than once a year.

Analyze commercials: Make English Language Arts more engaging by integrating the multimillion dollar advertisements in the classroom (you may want to view them first to choose the most appropriate content). Ask students to analyze the intended audience and messaging, playing close attention to the senses that might be evoked by the viewer. In the end, conduct a survey to see which advertisement was most worth the investment and effective.

Math challenge: Have students break up into two teams — Patriots and Falcons, based on who they’d like to win the trophy (you may have to assign non-sports fans to a side). Then, have students create word problems for the opposing team. Once you vet the questions, have your own match up and see which team gets the greatest number of problems right. This can range in difficulty for all learners, so tell them to put their game faces on.

Translation please: If you teach a foreign language, ask students to transcribe a portion of the game. Make it easy on yourself, unless you’ve got a way to record and replay on campus (use a commercial from YouTube or an ESPN clip). At the end, ask students to read the transcription out loud in the tone of voice the individuals had in the original video (this could be fun with a dramatic commercial or energized sports anchor).

Create memorabilia: Have your art students design gear, collectibles, and swag to commemorate the game. Take it a step further and ask them to come up with a reasonable price for each item and their potential earnings if the entire stock sells. Bonus: you’ll score extra points with their math teacher!

Geography jam: Gather a list of previous Super Bowl locations. Provide students with a map of the United States and ask them to plot cities. Then, assign students to research one location and see what weather hindrances might come into play.

More ideas? We love providing resources for our teacher peers, so if you have great, interactive tasks, comment below so we can add it to the list. Happy watching and teaching … may the best team win!