No-Prep Alphabet Review Game

For me it is finals week!

I really do think that teacher made reviews are the best. After all, we know what will be on the test :) However, there is something to be said for student made reviews.

First, it gives me, aka the teacher, a chance to see what students feel are the most important parts.

Second, I can find misunderstandings and quickly clarify on the spot.

Third, any time students are creating something, I feel that they learn more.

Finally, if at all possible, I like to steal questions or ideas from them to put on the tests. This way the activity feels more "real" and the students can see I do listen to them. This isn't always necessary as quite often students will hit the nail on the head and ask questions that are very similar to what the test had originally.

Here's one of my favorites because it is so easy and adaptable.

ABC

This year I didn't have a chance to make my alphabet books (next year I will). However, I did use this super easy review game with an alphabet theme.

I divided the class into three different groups based on what we had studied. This was a literature class so: "The Rubaiyat", Magical Realism, and Things Fall Apart. In their groups they received different worksheets with letters of the alphabet and made review questions based off of those letters.

This could be done without the worksheets making it completely no-prep. Want more details? Read on:

1. Depending on how much information you covered make those different groups. These can be very basic, or more complex. In many cases it will be the different units you covered.
2. I like to start individually, and then have students pair up, but if you want collaboration right away then assign pairs different chunks. 
• Assign each student a different chunk of the alphabet and a topic. You can have this on the board, or just verbally. Since I have them pair up later each chunk should be assigned more than once. 
• One student may be given A-H - Things Fall Apart, and other student A-H- Magical Realism, while another I-P Things Fall Apart etc. 
• I give the last group (Q-Z) more letters because they are harder, and will be able to skip more in later steps.
3. Give students just over a minute per question. Students must create a question where the question OR answer uses the letter. 
• A- What's the word that means really dry? Arid OR Angels in "The Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" are thought to look like what?
4. If students haven't finished that's fine as long as they have started. If you feel most students don't have many questions yet, then give them more time before pairing up. Now they get to brainstorm! Have them meet with another student who has the same assignment. With my students they usually end up in pairs, but if you have a bigger class it may be groups of three. Have them compare their questions and answers. Together they'll keep the ones they like best. This also gives them a chance to help each other if they were missing a letter. At this point, I tell them I expect them to have 7 questions. This lets A-H skip one letter, and Q-Z skip three.   

• For example, All of the A-H Things Fall Apart students will get together, re-word questions, eliminate duplicates, and decide on the seven that they like the best.
5. Now for the big groups. Have the whole alphabet get together! That means everyone creating the Things Fall Apart review (A-H, I-P, Q-Z) will be in the same big group. As a group they need to come up with 20 questions! There should be no duplicates. This gives them a chance to weed out the duplicates, primp the questions they have and (if they are giving the presentation verbally) decide who says what.
6. Finally, students present these to the class, and the class tries to answer them. This can be done however you like!
• If you have time and technology available, you can have the groups make Kahoots and then play them as a class.
7. (optional) If you have time have the students fill out a quick exit slip. What questions were hard for them? Why? What questions were easy? Why? What information will they review because of this? 

This requires no prep and is really a great chance to have students review the material. I saw pretty much every student take out the text and their notes to try and find how they could make their letter work for the review.

Making a Kahoot

Hopefully you've already read the blog about why I like Kahoot in my class and how I do it. This post will show you how to find and create Kahoots to use with your class.

There are two options to using Kahoot in your class. You can make your own quiz, or you can find one in the public collection. First off you can go to the main Kahoot site. You can use public Kahoots without registering if given the direct link, but I am still going to say that your first step should be to register so you can search and create your own. It is fast and easy. They ask for your school, a username, e-mail and password. In less than 30 seconds you'll have your very own account.


Next, if you are short on time, or you want inspiration, you can go to the public Kahoots. These have been created by other teachers or businesses. You can search these by grammar or other topic. They have Kahoots on different historical movements, different novels, and of course, different grammar points.


To the right is an example of a "Passive and Active Voice" quiz. You can see how many questions are in the quiz, how many players have played the quiz and preview the questions (as well as answers).

If you like the quiz as is you are welcome to simply use it. If you like some of the questions, but not others, or otherwise feel that you would like to change the quiz you can make a duplicate and then edit it to best fit your class.

The other option is to create a Kahoot from scratch. This is pretty fast as well, but can take a bit longer. First you give the quiz a name.

Then you add questions. Kahoot encourages you to have pictures that go with the questions, but this isn't needed. This is just a really fast quiz as an example, so I made it with two questions. You can select as many correct answers as you like. For example:

Question: Select all the adjectives in the sentence: The girls beautiful blue dress never wrinkles. 
Answers: Beautiful   Blue   Never   Wrinkles

You can give different time limitations for the questions. A simple multiple choice may be 15 seconds whereas something where students need to read larger sentences may be a minute.

After putting in all of your questions you will be taken to a page to reorder the questions and confirm that you didn't make any silly typos in the questions. If you find any typos, you can always go back and edit your questions.


 You're almost done! Now you give a description of your quiz. Give a level, description, whom it is for, difficulty level, and any tags to help categorize your quiz. If you opt to make your quiz public it means other teachers can use it too! All of these are optional, but the more you fill out the easier it is for other teachers to find it later.

Last, but not least, you are allowed to add a cover image that will be shown while people are waiting for your Kahoot to start!
So there we go! You have a couple different ways to use Kahoot in your class.

If you make a great Kahoot you'd like to share you can copy and paste the link below for other people to see.

Here's a link to the super fast two question sample quiz.

For more on how to use Kahoot be sure to check out my other post.

Easily Make Reviews into Gameshows!

You can see how involved students get!

Today’s article for the RTT Teach Abroad August Blog Carnival, If you'd like to contribute to next month's Blog Carnival, please contact Dean and he will help!

Kahoot is a REALLY easy game to set up. You can check out my other post how to find and create your own Kahoot which will be published tomorrow.

What you'll need to use Kahoots with your students:
1. WiFi access: Technically it doesn't need to be wireless internet if they are using laptops or computers directly plugged into the internet, but since most of my students use tablets or cell phone WiFi works best.
2. A monitor: It is really important that all students can see  the monitor. If you have an IWB or projector those work best!
3. Devices: Students will need to have a phone, tablet, laptop, or computer that can access the internet. You don't need to make it one student per device; this can be done in small groups with two-five students per device
4. A Kahoot relevant to your class either made by you or others.

Kahoot basically allows you to make multiple choice quizzes that students can all answer. It makes a great review game, quick quiz, or an exit exam. 

To start the teacher starts the quiz. This will show the Game Pin (figure 1 to the left) on the monitor all students will see. On their devices they enter the Game Pin and then their name (or if they are working in groups their team name). Then their name she should be displayed on the monitor for everyone to see. Once you start the quiz keep in mind that the questions are displayed on the screen with each answer having a different shape and color. Students' devices will ONLY show the colors  (see figure four). If students can't see the monitor they will not be able to play.

You can set a time limit for each question from five seconds to two minutes, but once all of the students have answered the time is up regardless of how long you have given the students.The countdown will play as well as your graphic, the questions and answers.

After all of the students have answered, the correct answer will be displayed as well as a breakdown of how students answered (figure 2). This is an easy way to see not only if the students are mostly getting it wrong or right, but also which incorrect answers they are guessing. Are they missing the modals? Do they not know the irregular verbs? etc. Notice that it doesn't specify who gave which answer! This also takes some of the pressure off students. Unlike calling on a student when they answer this way no one knows if they get it wrong.

I usually take this time to go over why each answer is wrong. Ask the students, "why is blue wrong?" After you've gone over it, you press next and the scoreboard will pop up. Students get points for answering correctly; the faster they answer the more points they get. At the very end of the game the student with the most points will be declared the winner.

I feel like I should briefly point out that I often think that technology in the classroom is superfluous. Teaching our students how to use the internet as a tool to search properly is important. Being able to interact with different software programs is important. However, often teachers tell me, "Oh yeah my students are doing this online and it is awesome," and all I can think is, "how does this really help them more than a pen and paper does?"

This is one of those situations where technology isn't making your class more dynamic. You aren't encouraging more critical thinking. You could make a very similar game using post its and a marker. The perks of this compared to paper alternatives are:
 1. Technology Students LOVE the technology. It makes them more involved and most of them beg for it later! After you finish the Kahoot you can download the statistics to see how your students did. The spreadsheet will show how many questions students go correct and incorrect. It also does a breakdown of each question, and each students' answers to each question. This lets you know what questions are tricky for your students. 
2. Breakdown The technology makes it easy for you to get a breakdown of what questions students are getting right and how specific students are doing.
3. Efficient Pretty fast to set up; for me faster than most review games requiring a bit more prep
4. Paperless! Better for the Earth and your school's budget.

Let me know if you try out Kahoot and what you think! I personally didn't love it when I first tried it, but my students BEGGED for it every day after. Anytime my students like an activity I think it is probably worth sharing.

Artistically Challenged Pictionary

Thanks to The Doghouse Diaries for this great comic. It IS how my students play sometimes.

I think most language teachers know how to play pictionary with their class. It is a very popular party game and has really clear applications to language teachers. For those that don't you can follow the directions from the comic (hehe), or the SUPER basic set of directions that follow:

1. Give a student randomly select a word (usually a vocabulary word).
2. Have them try to draw it on the board. 
3. Other students guess the word.

Now, you can add variations (divide it into teams, have it timed, say they can't draw any circles, etc.) to make it more difficult or more fun.

I always feel a little bad when playing pictionary because...well... this is an example of my wonderful work. 

Post by Melted ELT Activities.

Alfred Sisley - Flood at Port-Marly

It isn't bad! In fact most people will look at it and say, "flood."  However, many of my students are INCREDIBLY talented and will end up drawing something like the image to the right in about 30 seconds.

As a result, even though the vast majority of students LOVE playing pictionary some students get discouraged because they just don't have the artistic skills to have fun. They get stressed about letting their team down, or people not guessing what they drew properly.

I even have a few talented artists who get discouraged because the white board "limits their abilities" (I have found that whiteboard crayons help).

The category card with the child options

So the other day when I was shopping I was super excited to find Pictionary... the CARD GAME for sale! I live in Mexico at the moment, so the game was technically in Spanish, but that isn't important since the main point of the game (for me) is that it is all pictures. I tend to create my own clues for students.

The category card with the adult options

To start, there's a category card you can use to show if it is movie related, TV related, music related, or something else.
Then there are the "clue cards" these are what people have to guess. In this case mine are all in Spanish, but if you buy the English version your would be in English! Regardless, I would probably create my own to fit my classes level and knowledge.

The nice thing about the clue cards is they are arranged into two categories: children and adults. The children have four words surrounding a theme. For example, "Weather" is snow, air, cloud, and sunlight. Depending on how you play children can say the theme before they start to help others guess. Adults have four options: a movie related option, a TV related option, a song related option and a random word or phrase. 

Finally comes the drawing cards which are my personal favorite and why I am writing this blog. For example, take a look at the following cards and see if you can guess the movie:

A man with fire eyes

There is a lightening lady

A man with fork hands

Any guesses?

If you guessed X-men you are right!


The man with fork hands was supposed to be Wolverine, the lady with lightening was Storm and the man with fire eyes was Cyclops.

Now, if no one had guessed yet, I could have kept giving you hints! (Like the photo to the right).

There are 88 of these little drawing cards in a pack (44 red and 44 blue). The only thing I don't like about them is they are SO little! If you are having students work in small groups then this works fine, but if you want to do a full class review this would be impossible for everyone to see, but I LOVE that they even the playing field of artistic and non-artistic while encouraging students to be creative!

You have a few options as how to proceed.

1. If you have a doc cam, or a similar device, it would be easy to have students rearrange the cards on a table and display them larger for all the students to see. I am not that lucky, but I know a lot of teachers who have them, so make the most of it!

2. Even if you aren't artsy crafty, you can make your own cards! Part of the joy is that these don't require much artistic skills. They are just stick people, squiggles, and other easily drawn shapes. If you don't have the time to make them yourself, you could have students draw these one day as a listening activity. Save and laminate your favorites! Another option is to make a list of what you want and have students offer to make them for extra credit. It would show comprehension!

3. You can photocopy the cards so that they are bigger. My photocopier maxes out at 4x as big, and that makes them look like the picture to the right (which I think it big enough for the class to see). There aren't many details in the pictures so making them bigger doesn't really distort the image.

2/3 b If you are doing option 2 or 3 I suggest you laminate the cards and invest in some reusable adhesive so students can easily stick them on the board / wall for everyone to see.


If you are as artistically challenged as I am, I hope this post helped you.. If you have students who hate pictionary because they are like me, I hope you will consider this as an option.

Finally, even if you and your students are extremely gifted, I would encourage you to try this out. It gets students to really think creatively about how to use the cards to express their word. So many of my students are intelligent, but their creativity is still weak. Games like this will hopefully help them work their creativity muscles so they can think outside the box in real life!

If you don't think these cards could be used to make YOUR classes vocabulary words I'm happy to show you what I would do. Comment below (or on facebook) with the vocabulary word from your class, and I'll show you what Pictionary Cards I would use to describe your word!

Fight! Fight! A playful way to have a "snowball fight" to review topics

I remember in high school one teacher, who I can't remember exactly...either an English or History teacher, had us push the desk and chairs to each side of the class making two "trenches." We balled up old quizzes, tests, and homework, and for about five minutes threw the paper balls back and forth at each other. I can't remember the point of the lesson, but I do remember it was lots of fun! So when Lee Adams told me about a review activity he played involving balled up paper I was hooked. He thinks he got it from The Accelerated Learning Handbook.

1. Basically each student gets a piece of scratch paper (be it homework that you accidentally photocopied with a typo and it thus is trash or any other one side free page). I often tell them they can use old math or chemistry assignments to get more of a cathartic relief. 
2. On the paper they legibly write a question in English from something that we covered (or that I have told them will be on the test). 
3. They each ball up the piece of paper and wait.
4. Once everyone is ready set a timer for 30 seconds (if you have an IWB or projector I suggest the bomb countdown). 
5. Let chaos break out as the students have 30 seconds to pelt the "snowballs" at one another (and probably the teacher too).
6. When the timer goes off they have to grab the "snowball" closest to them. 
7. The teacher takes turns calling on volunteers to read their question and come up with the answer.

As always, I can think of a few alternatives

• Make the snowballs yourself. Now this is one less step for the students, but if you have specific things you want covered it may be better. Hand out the paper as though it were a one page quiz and then tell the students to ball it up! That will make them happy :-)
• Make it a competition. My teenagers LOVE competing against one another. So do it like my high school teacher did. Divide the class into two groups. At the end if they answer their review question right, their team gets 10 points. If they don't get it right, let their team help them out and if as a team they are correct they get 5 points. (Let the other team steal after that for 5 points i f you wish)
• Code it! Give each student a different color paper (or save the planet and use scratch paper that you've put different symbols onto). Tell them that a blue (or smiley face) paper is vocabulary, a green (or star) is relative clauses, a red (or circle) is short story, etc. That way they are still writing the questions, but you can promise a variety of categories at least. 
• Use it for new vocabulary or grammar. Have them write a sentence with a blank for the vocab word (or draw a picture of the vocabulary word) OR have them write an example of the new grammar and the student has to guess the grammar (or vice versa, they write the grammar topic and the student would need to give a sample sentence).

So there we go, a great way to get the blood pumping in your class!

Would you use this in your class? Would you change it first? What other ideas does it give you?

I am thinking of a word that rhymes with....

Looking for an easy filler?

The fast and the dirty rules:

To start the teacher thinks of a word and writes it on a piece of paper (to prevent cheating later) and says says, “I am thinking of a word that rhymes with frog”

Then students try to guess the word, but instead of saying their guess they give a hint, “Is it an animal cats fear?”

Now the teacher has to figure out what animal they are guessing and respond “No it is not a dog”

“Is it another word for a pig?”

“No it's not a hog.”

“Is it something people use to write online?”

“No it's not a blog”

“Is it what happens when the sky is really thick and you can't see through it?”

“I don't know” (The teacher doesn't know! So the person has to tell the word they meant.)

“Is it fog?” (This person gets a participation token/point for stumping the “teacher”)

“No it's not”

“Is it a slow run?”

“Yes it's a jog!”

If they guess correctly then they get to be the teacher and think of a word for the class to guess (and get a token).

This is even better than the teacher thinking since students have to try and guess what the students are thinking when they propose a rhyme.

ALTERNATIVES

• I normally let them guess until they get it but sometimes I'll cap it at 20 guesses. It's usually my end of class filler, so I try to get students to beat their score (can you guess in less than 5 this time?). If it takes more than 20 guesses then the person who thought of the unknown word “wins.”
• You can give more clues according to the class, so if you are practicing syllables (teaching superlative perhaps?): “I am thinking of a two syllable word that rhymes with _______”
• Use it to practice parts of speech, “I am thinking of a verb that rhymes with frog” (clog, flog, jog, snog, etc.) This can be hard so consider omitting the rhyming.
• Another way to make the game easier is to get change the rhyming aspect. “I'm thinking of an animal that starts with a D” (Dragon, Dinosaur, Dog, Duck, Deer, Dolphin, Donkey, Dove, Dragonfly, etc.)
• If you are giving out participation tokens you can give it to students if they guess correctly (a good way to get students involved) or if they posit a guess that the thinker can't guess.
• With upper level students I tend to exclude words with suffixes, otherwise trying to guess all the words that rhyme with nation is rather hard and time consuming.
• Play it like Alternative Hangman where students have to answer review questions and only if they get a review question right are they allowed to guess.
• You can also play it as a team game where correct guesses or stumping the “teacher” gets your team points. To keep it going fast you can cap it at 10 guesses.

Why is this game good?

It helps them practice rhymes

It helps them practice interrogative statements (making questions).

It helps them practice basic vocabulary and defining words in English.

Most importantly it helps them practice thinking and forming sentences in English.

Students like it!

Much thanks to Lauren, one of the awesome ladies I studied with in Spain, for introducing me to this game. She got us all hooked on it when we were waiting in line or on long public transportation rides.

Alternate Hangman (The Hangman you knew and loved, but more physical)

When I was young I remember spending HOURS playing hangman with my brother while my parents prepped for their own classes.

Many teachers that don't have much training start out with limited games and one of the go-tos is Hangman. It helps with word recognition, can be used to review vocabulary and is a great filler since it requires little to no prep. It isn't just for EFL and English classes; I can recall this being used in many of my classes throughout high school. We would use it in history (e.g. with president's names, battles, treaties), geography (e.g. countries, rivers, mountain ranges) etc. This version is a twist on the classic hangman that can be used in any class!

It was presented at a GEPIK conference I attended in 2008, while I was in Korea. I do not remember the name of the teacher, but she was a younger lady who was clearly overwhelmed at being told to help a group of 100+ new GEPIK teachers with activities for class, nonetheless she did really well.

One of her games was adapted hangman! I don't remember the specifics of her set up, but this is how I have used it over the years. I understand she used it mainly as a filler, but I suggest using it for a vocabulary review, OR to review pretty much anything.

You can play this game two ways.

For both versions you need a target for the students to hit. You can make one out of cardboard/poster board and hang it on a wall or just draw one on the board. The point is to make the rarer letters on the outside (easier to hit) and the more popular letters on the inside (harder to hit). I made a sample here, but you can adapt it anyway you like. You may choose to have more letters in the middle or only 3 different area to hit (instead of my 5). You're the teacher so make it however you like!

VERSION ONE

1. Divide the class into teams.
2. Go around the classroom with each team getting a turn.
3. When it is the first team's turn let them throw a beanbag at the target. Whatever section it hits is the section they can pick a letter from. (so if they hit the green ring they can choose, N, B U, C, R or M)
4. My rule is they can talk together as a group to decide but if I hear anything that's not English they forfeit their turn and the next group goes.
5. For this version I gave them a point for each letter they chose in the word (if there were two of the letter they got two points).
6. The team with the most points when the word was completed wins.

VERSION TWO

1. Divide the classroom into two teams.
2. Ask revision questions about the topic you wish to review.
3. Either with a bell, raising their hand, etc. Give the first team to “buzz in” the chance to answer the question.
4. If they get it right they have a chance to throw the beanbag and guess a letter OR they can simply try to “solve” the puzzle.
5. If they get it wrong the other teams have a chance to steal, and then throw the beanbag and guess a letter or “solve” the puzzle.
6. No points are given for correct or incorrect answers, points are ONLY given to the team who guesses the word (or completes it).
7. If time permits after one word is guessed you can put another, and another until the time allotted is up.

Why add the beanbag throwing in the first place? With younger students (and even older students) the addition of the physical makes it more fun (and more like a real sport, not just a language game).

The reason the speaker added that in her class she had a few students who were physically competent. They played sports they were active and they had killer reflexes... but they struggled in English. When she divided the class into groups often students would be audibly disappointed when these students joined their group. By adding this physical component, they were no longer seen as liabilities and instead were viewed as assets. This helped their self-esteem and also classroom dynamics! I hate to perpetuate the stereotype of a “dumb” jock as it is not the norm (in my opinion) but if your class has students like this then try it may help.

So there you go: an easy twist on the classic Hangman!

If you have a chance to use it in your class please let us know! Or, if you have a different way of using hangman, I'd LOVE to hear it!