Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Wurmwood]

Hi, all. My goal here is to compile a list of the best games we know of. By "best", I mean which games get the most enthusiastic participation from the students while simultaneously being effective at teaching them something? I know there's the "Game Idea Cookbook", but that doesn't tell us which games work the best.

So give me your top 3 or 5 or however many you can think of. I'd get the ball rolling, but I don't think I know any really good games. That's part of the reason I'm doing this, but I also thought a list of the best games we can think of would certainly benefit others. Please add what age-group, level, and number of students the games are for, as well.
Thank you. ^_^

[NilesQ]

I used to play a game called Sentence Auction. Print up money from your home country and give each group of students the same ammount of money. I used to do $1000 in $10 and $20 bills. Then write a bunch of sentences on the board. Some will be correct, some will contain errors. The beauty of the game is that you can work in what ever you want/are working on: grammer points, spelling, appropriate questions and answers, the list is endless.

When it starts, you read out the sentences and get the groups to write them down and discuss whether or not they contain errors. Then the bidding begins. I used to act like an auctioneer with funny, fast talking. The groups bid on and buy the sentences. The team with the most correct sentences at the end is the winner.

They get really into the auction and bidding part of it. Bids must be in English to be accepted. Modify the rules and procedures for your group level and behavior expectations. I have had this take whole classes up and they want to do it again. The reveal is fun. When you identify whick were good and bad sentences, and why.

[Underwaterbob]

My favorite (and one of the easiest, requiring little to no prep time) is "Dictation Tournament".

Randomize your class list. Have each sequential pair of students come up to the board together. Say a word (or sentence depending on how much time/many students/what level students you have) whoever writes it down correctly first goes on, the other is eliminated. After round one and half your students are eliminated, make the words/sentences harder. Same for the next round when you're down to a quarter of the class. Keep going until you have one student left.

[JustinC]

I have a game that only requires a chalk board so I can pull it out of my ass at any moment, plus it's flexible enough for grammar or vocabulary exercises and it can be used for any level.

It's a bit like an extra large game of tic tac toe (noughts and crosses) but you start with a blank grid maybe 5 or 6 squares square, depending on the size of the class and the time you have available. You can have a game over in 15 minutes or make one last 30 or more. So once you've drawn the grid you divide the class up into teams. You can have as many or as little groups as you like, you just need to remember the symbol or letter (or number) designated for each group when you're playing the game.

Once you've divided them up you start filling in those boxes with their suggestions, going one at a time and making sure that each team gets the same number of opportunities to fill in boxes. If they don't get the same number then they'll complain. So if you have 3 teams you can fill a grid 5x5 with them each getting 8 times then you just fill in the last one yourself (or fill one in, as an example). So if you're doing a grammar lesson you get each team to give you 8 verbs (using my example of 5x5 grid plus you fill one verb in yourself). For each verb give them a couple points as this is the easy part of the game. If they can't come up with 24 different verbs you'll need to be creative; maybe use nouns and change the second part of the game slightly, or reduce the size of the grid.

Once your grid is full you explain on the board, in a way that they can recognize even if they don't understand all of your language (a difficulty I usually have when trying to explain a new game that isn't so simple an infant could pick it up in 3 seconds flat), the second part of the game. This is where it often gets interesting because some tactics will come into play. As I said it's a bit like an extra large tic tac toe as the groups have to get the boxes in a line. A single box just gives them 2 points. A line of 2 (diagonal, vertical or horizontal, but it must be a straight line) gives them 10 points, a line of three gives 30 points, a line of 4 gives them 100 and a line of 5 10,000 points. The way they get a line is by nominating a box (and, thus, a verb) and using that verb in a certain tense to construct a complete sentence. If they are successful then that box is their's and now is when you put their team's symbol/letter/number into it. This way once all of the boxes have been taken you can calculate at the end each team's total score.

The tactics in the game are pretty obvious; you want to get a long line but you also want to stop your opponents getting long lines. Simple really but fun and adds a new dimension to just making up sentences in a book. This game really appeals to the more devious students who aren't so academic. They won't have played it before as I made it up. For added drama you could have them write down their sentence (after the team decides on a sentence) so you can take your time 'checking' it. Make a face that suggests the sentence might not be quite perfect, then one that says 'Okay, good enough this time'. Maybe have a 'discussion' about it with a co-teacher for a few seconds to have the students really apprehensive. It can be quite amusing.

[Nester Noodlemon]

Spin-the-Bottle

[ajuma]

The "Fly Swatter" Game. All you need is 2 fly swatters (preferably different colors) or in a pinch, some rolled up paper.

Put whatever you're teaching on the board. If you're a hagwon teacher and have just learned a bunch of new nouns, draw the pictures. If they're a bit higher, write the words. If you're doing some grammar, write past, present and future tense sentences. If you're working on numbers, (I particularly like this game for the "problem" numbers such as 13/30, 14/40...) write them on the board...anything goes!

Divide the class into 2 teams. 1 person from each team comes up and you tell them one word. The have to hit the correct word, number, picture first. The kids (adults) in their seats pay attention because they want to do well when it's their turn. Switch after the student has 2 or 3 turns.

I've used this with kindy (A-B-C) to adults (numbers, difficult sounds) and everyone has loved it!

[JustinC]