Category Challenges
Amy Heusterberg-Richards · 2025
This chapter begins with a description of a high school Creative Writing classroom working in teams to brainstorm as many like-ideas as possible in a small amount of time. It then offers research-based rationale and instructional steps to guide teachers in using a play-based learning strategy called “Category Challenges” in which students make connections across advanced knowledge after being prompted with categories. This chapter ends with samples of student-facing instructions, examples of teacher use, and ideas to implement this play-based learning approach in high school classrooms of varying subjects.