Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tomato]

The bingo game has often been attacked on this message board.
Since I frequently play bingo, it is my responsibility to defend myself.

■ Using a hand-made bingo game is not a sign of sloth.

It always takes me at least 7 hours to make a set of bingo boards and display cards.

■ The bingo game is adaptable in terms of subject matter.

I have sets for nouns, plural nouns, shapes and colors, verbs, and adjectives.
Furthermore, you can use the same verb bingo set is adaptable for teaching question formats, negatives, and different verb tenses.

■ It is a good reinforcer.

If the class behaves, bingo.
If the class doesn't behave, Side by Side.
If the class behaves exceptionally well, go fish.

■ If you do it right, measurable learning can take place.

First, do it the easiest way, with the students matching the pictures on the display cards with the pictures on the bingo boards while you say each word.

After enough repetitions of the first step, use display cards showing only the words, but continue to use the bingo boards showing the pictures. This will test whether or not they really know the English words.

I've never gotten this far yet, but a possible third step is to say the words without showing them. This will be an iron-clad test of their understanding of the spoken words.

As for hangman, that is someone else's battle.
I don't play hangman.

[Zyzyfer]

I'm not really a bingo attacker, but, the way I see it, the games, unless directly related to the lesson, shouldn't be anything more than something to fill in extra minutes towards the end of class.

Bingo takes a long time to play, compared to other games, and I can think of other games which reinforce things better, yet take far less preparation time.

I don't really see how people could play bingo every class, yet still teach the lesson...

[schwa]

I teach middleschool students & use bingo a couple times a semester. Zero prep beyond photocopying blank grids (or you can even have them draw their own). Elicit words around some theme or lesson, which they then write in random boxes on their grid. Useful for vocabulary recall & spelling, plus listening & reading when you play the game.

Lots of possible variations too. Irregular verbs -- elicit 25 irregular past tenses but call out the present form. Or first class this semester I played 'introduction bingo.' The students asked 25 questions about me & wrote in my answers, then we played by my asking the questions again randomly (Where am I from? What's my hobby? etc).

I also have a version of hangman I use as a last 5 or 10-minute filler. I call it 'sentence hangman.' Instead of one word, I write blanks on the board for a complete sentence, the longer the better. Groups in turn guess a letter & score one point for each 'hit.' If their letter doesnt occur, minus 5. First group to guess the entire sentence gets 10 points. They really get into it & it has some use in focusing them on sentence & word forms, spelling, letter frequencies, & grammar. You can use it to reinforce lesson material too -- new vocabulary or grammar structures.

Simple games are great for keeping the atmosphere fun & need not be time-wasters. An added appeal is that they tend to engage students of all ability levels.

[waterbaby]

I think the Bingo bashing has been brought on because of the Bingo abusing bludgers. That's enough alliteration for one post!

I too spend waaaay too much time making specific bingo cards for my students based on what they are learning ... it may take three hours to make but only 6 mins to play

I find Bingo can be really helpful to improve their listening skills and improve their vocabularly and it's a fun reward for the kids when they complete a unit. I just with they'd appreciate my excellent colouring and cutting skills a little bit more

[mysteriousdeltarays]

No denounciations of Bingo from me. Phonics Bingo can be good. Pat, Cat, Bat etc. The trouble with this is you have to really keep track of what they are doing.

Small kids like it. Use a small grid, like 9 by 9 and make sure they know the correct answers, the winner gets to be the next announcer so to speak.

I like Bingo if you actually play bingo on the time level. I can send you some code that will make "pre-made", sort of randomized bingo sheets, one of these monsters I created in the past. I now kind of question it's value. It keeps them from copying each other's answers and prevents the problem of kids crying because they blew the list. A word missing etc.

Then again we play Bingo. We are talking little kids. Perhaps good for them to write the word down themselves. I always use chips cut from trash paper as markers, and then collect the Bingo grids from them and use them later. Otherwise they lose them and again start crying.

[Busanchick]

[quote="Zyzyfer"]I'm not really a bingo attacker, but, the way I see it, the games, unless directly related to the lesson, shouldn't be anything more than something to fill in extra minutes towards the end of class

At the hogwan I worked for last year it was expected that we play at least one short game during every class. I respect this mentality. Games allow Korean children to relax when they are usually overworked and wacked. They need stress relievers too!

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

I have never used bingo.

It just seems a little, well...too lazy to re-use and re-cycle the same game over and over again.

I know if I use it, I won't look back, which is why I never use it.

[mokpochica]

I have a neat picture bingo game that I've played with my classes just once. It's put out by Carson-Dellosa Publishing. I guess they have a bunch of different sets with different words, etc. This one is a picture bingo game on one side and has the corresponding words spelled out in English on the other side. I've made my own picture bingo games before using clip art to, to reinforce new vocabulary. Minimal pairs bingo is also a good game to play when you're talking about pronunciation (ex: pat/fat, rice/lice, van/ban, etc.)

If you play any game too often, most kids will get bored with it. I like to mix up my teaching methods and games/activities I use in class so kids are getting as much as a cultural experience as they are getting an English class. I think a large part of our jobs as English teachers here are to show kids that there is more than one way to learn--and learning doesn't just come out of books.

[Rand Al Thor]

I posted the real teacher post that kind of bashed bingo. I don't think it inherently bad. The problem is if you use it all the time. Like anything in life moderation is the key. I play occasional games with my students, but I never use the same game/activity more than once a semester.

[Zyzyfer]

[MrTESL]

In my EPIK middle-school classes I had a pretty good BINGO class.

First thing I did was tell them we're going to play BINGO. Excitement ensues.

Then I tell them we need BINGO words. I tell them I'm going to give them a letter and they have to write down as many words as they can think of that starts with that letter.

I give them a few minutes to write. Then I ask them to stop and count their words, and the kid with the most words I ask to come up and write a word on the board. I go thru the class and pick kids at random to write a word on the board, so that I have 5-10 more words than I need for my BINGO grid.

I go over the words and do choral repetition to weed out any pronunciation errors.

Note that before the game has even started, I've got the kids thinking, reading, writing, and speaking in English. They're still chomping at the bit to play BINGO, so no one is bored.

Depending on the level, when we play I'll just read the words out at random or make sentences using the word and have them pick the word out of the sentence.

As a joke and to rile them up, I always call out the letter that we started with ("Y," say) as that's written on the board with the rest of the words.

We go thru 2 games, and the whole thing takes 40 to 50 minutes. I'm sure there are other teachers who do something similar, this is just what I found that worked for me. This way, I had 50 kids interested for an entire class and reading, writing, and listening to English.

The only nagging thing about it was that there's no speaking on their part, apart from choral repetition.

But I guess that's for another class.

[saint_moi]

Here I go risking it all by declaring ignorance.. but please do explain clearly what your bingo game is all about Thomas ??? I'm defs new to this and I don't have a clear idea as to what you're talking about and I'm sure I'd love to use this game when I'm gonna be teaching there.

[Squaffy]

I use Bingo as a fun game - but it's even funnier if you tell the students its called OGNIB.

Enjoy

[yodanole]

What is the difference between a set of bingo picture cards and a set of flash cards, when they don't have to identify written or spoken words to match a picture? i.e. picture card with picture bingo card. Not too much! Hangman? Lesson plan? This goes back to the are you an educator or a smiling white face dichotomy. We all know that some people are not in situations in Korea which permit them to teach. This includes from university to Kindergarten. For those people, I say whatever gets you through the day. The week, the month, the year!

[OiGirl]