Job Discussion Forums

[nickpellatt]

I think I will spend part of my day today searching for an episode of Jeopardy on You Tube! Sounds like an interesting distraction for me, and Im starting to like the sound of using it in my classes during the summer in the UK, and in China later.

I normally teach adults, or older teenagers, pre-int and above so getting questions from them shouldnt be too hard. Im kinda thinking one point if the answer is right / one point if they form the question correct too.

[Riviello]

Nick,

You and others out there may be interested in this -

http://www.teflgames.com/about.html

"Word Up" is a board game that can be used with all levels. It is best for small classes. Read about it. It comes from the UK. It cost a bit, but is fun on occasions, if you have small classes. I've used the game in the past and the students seemed to like it for a bit, but grew bored after awhile.

In my opinion, it really doesn't get the students actually speaking about a topic, but they will get a chance to practice pronouncing, spelling words etc...

The trivia questions may be helpful in creating your own "Jeapordy". Personally, I think a real episode of the show would be too difficult, even for most Advanced adults, hell, even for myself! But you could get some ideas for Topics/Trivia.

For example, in China, the topics could be - Cities, Food etc...

Assuming the class is small/10 people. You could have 2 teams of 5. The 1st player picks a Topic for 100 points. You then read the question (Listening, repeat once if necessary) and then whichever team answers correctly gets the points. "Word Up" has the students asking the questions = practice pronouncing words and listening.

For example - In which city is the Jin Mao Tower located?

In my opinion, a lot of the students wouldn't know = Trivia Pursuit.

a) Beijing b) Hong Kong c) Shanghai

If you buy the 2 of the 2 board edition, which I have, you can use it with 20 to 30 people. 20 is better though. Teach them the rules and just walk around the room chatting with each group - 2 to 4.

Again, it won't get them really speaking, but, it is fun every now and then.

[nickpellatt]

Ill have a look, might prefer to pick one up on ebay though and save a few pennies....I have 4 sets of Scrabble that I bought from there and I have (in the past) set up 4 tables at once in a class....cant do it too often, but as an occasional thing its OK.

I wont use an actual TV show for my Jeopardy, but want to watch it to make sure I understand how the game works...the idea in my head for using it is to have all the answers as vocabulary items used in the current or previous weeks.

[mister_kot]

When I do Jeopardy, I take a big departure from the show in the sense that I don't let people blurt out answers. I give each group a chance to answer the question. For example:

I ask the question to group A. If they know the answer they get points and then the next question goes to group B. If group B doesn't know the answer, it goes to group C. If group C gets the answer, the next question goes to A.

By doing it that way, no group completely dominates because they have one or two smart kids.

Also keep an eye open for dictionaries and mobile phones. People caught using them lose the point value of the question asked for the team.

If no team can answer a question, I give them a hint, if someone gets the answer after the hint, the team earns half the question's value.

Another departure I take from the game show is that I don't require answers to be in question form.

[mat chen]

You can still use scrabble and word up as a sentence producing game. For words to count they must use them in a sentence. Or you can double the points awarded for making sentences of more than 10 words. I usually teach the game by playing five or six games at once. I don't try to win but try to keep the games flowing. It is easier to teach them this way. I also show them how to cheat by coining words. The problem about these games is that they are exhausting to teach.

[nickpellatt]

It is tiring to have a lot of scrabble tables going. I allow students to use dictionaries in that class, (I dont normally) but I keep moving and look for words on their racks which I try to elicit. Thats the tiring bit. I always hope students can accrue and find some new words en-route and I have had them take photos of the final board with their mobiles....I test them on those words later, normally if I have time over in a lesson than needs filling!

[cormac]

Regarding University level games:

I'd say that Hot Seat has proved to be the most popular game I've introduced, especially if you allow the students to determine the rules beforehand for themselves.

The storyline clap game is useful, but only the stronger students like it, and generally it resorts to a colorful story about my personal life. Still, when I've died 7 times in one story, you can see the students working their issues out.

I don't do many games. If I want a game, I'll usually do a quick debate. I got each student to suggest 1 debate topic at the start of the semester, so I've got a host of topics which each class actually wants to debate (rather than my boring suggestions). Depending on the mood of the class, I'll decide whether to do free for all or something more structured.