Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jonpurdy]

I've got an after school class where the girls are angels and the boys are all *****. So I'd like to play team games where I can arbitrarily boost and lower points so that the team that I like the best wins. Whenever they play a fair game the boys are sore winners and loud and obnoxious. So I'd like to bruise those egos a bit to make them calm down.

But, it has to be done in a way that makes it seem fair. You know how kids are. They will see any unfairness and blame and complain.

Ideas?

[lowpo]

[thegadfly]

If it is a quiz-style game, you could introduce questions that score for originality or creativity -- something other than the typical right or wrong responses. I have handed slips of paper to a team, and had them write a mechanically correct sentence that satisfies other criteria (such as "use a past tense verb and an adverb" or " use a third person plural pronoun and both a direct and indirect object"). You could make is as simple as "write an interesting, correct sentence." Since you are interested in one team winning, clearly, their sentences would be more interesting....

Honestly, though, since you are moderating the games, you do not even need to do that -- just pick the questions you know the team can answer, and give the other team the questions you know they can NOT answer.

I pretty much always use a "magician's choice" anyway, regardless of the game I play:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivocation_(magic)

Games in a classroom are intended to serve a purpose, and if they are NOT serving that purpose in the "fair" manner, then I resort to the "unfair" manner...but fair and unfair are incorrectly applied to classroom games, in my opinion -- there are only games which effectively support the lessons I am trying to teach, or games that are ineffective in support the lessons...and obviously, and ineffective game needs to be abandoned...so I alter it.

[theshadowranger]

does it have to be a boys vs girls team? Why not mix them up?

[GreenlightmeansGO]

Could they have a strip-off?

[Depths of My Soul]

[OiGirl]

Any game where they have to answer questions and you pick the questions. Even if you're "ramdomly" picking them out of a box, you've already pre-sorted and put the tougher ones for the boys on one side.

[egrog1717]

Set it up so that if the girls are down by one point, the final question of the game is worth two points

[RufusW]

[ippy]

i doubt it, if it was my kids, unless the reward is something MASSIVE, theyd be pushing to see how far into the negatives they could get.

Rig it is the only way. Do a jeapordy game but just happen to have questions that *by pure chance!!!* happen to be in the interests of the girls answering and not in the interests of the boys. Or just make the 50 point questions about girl stuff and the ten point questions about boy stuff. Really if its a gender divide its quite simple. Random chance is not in fact random.

[jonpurdy]

Thank you all for the good advice.

[thegadfly]

I'm sorry -- what do you mean you "can't" take points away? Rule 1 -- you are the teacher, you MAKE the rules in your own classroom. Rule 2 -- in the case of disagreement, see Rule 1.

You are not there to serve the games you are playing, the games are supposed to be serving YOUR purpose in the classroom, so change away to that end....

[jonpurdy]

[Fishead soup]

Try Baam on
http://eflclassroom.com
It's an elimination game play until there is only one team left.

[perkxplosion]