Who wants to be a millionaire
Age group: Grades 7 - 9The aim of this activity is to make the students acquire a detailed understanding of a text of medium length. (2 -4 pages).
Students are asked to work in pairs and make up a set number of multiple choice questions (2 questions), to which they should offer 4 plausible solutions, one of which is correct only. To cover the whole of the text I usually tell the students which part of the text they are to work on.
Next two students are chosen who are to play the millionaire game in front of the class. Another student does the scoring on the board. One student is the game show host, the other student is the contestant. The host then collects the suggested questions from the class and puts them to the contestant, who will move higher on the scale to the million dollar-question with each answer correctly given. The scoring can be done in various ways, I usually follow the pattern set by the German quiz show., i.e. we start at 100 Euro and move up to a million by more or less doubling the amount with each subsequent question. The 1000 Euro and the 32000 Euro marks are fixed points, i.e. if someone fails to answer the 125000 Euro question he falls back to 32000 Euro, if he fails to answer a question below 32000 Euro he falls ends up with 1000 Euro. This sounds all a bit complicated, but it isnīt really. Watch the studentsī eager faces when they are waiting for THEIR questions to be asked.
Notes: Not all classes find it easy tp create multiple choice questions. It
is advisable to give them a few examples and to make very sure that their
answers should be acceptable. Once the students get the hang of it, they
really enjoy both the creation of the questions and the game itself.
Banner Puzzle
Age group: Grades 8 - 13
This activty has been contributed by F.J. Mayer. It is a great
student-centred way of working out the gist of longish texts or plays.
Students work in groups. Each group is given one chapter or scene of a
text/novel/play in random order. The students note down the basic idea of
the respective section on a banner (maximum length: 1 m, height: 10 cm).
The banners are then displayed in random order on a board. Students are now
asked to put the banners into the correct order. A simple, but highly
motivating and effective activity. Thank you very much, F. J.
YAQ - Yet Another Quiz
Age group: Grades 5 - 13You are probably thinking: Not another quiz, P-L-E-A-S-E. Believe me, it makes for a nice change in our daily rut.
The class prepare a (part of) a text so that they will be able to
answer any question on the text later. A small group of students (the
challengers) prepare
a list of questions on the text (may be specific: on the content, on the vocab)
which they subsequently ask in turn a student of their choice. If the
challenged student cannot answer the question or gives the wrong answer, the challenger gets a point. The students of the challenging
group who has the most points gets a prize ---- i.e. he only has to do
part of the homework, or whatever. It may be an idea, to have one
student who is in the process of collecting points, continue until he
meets his match, i.e. gets the correct answer.
Variation: If a student cannot answer a question, any other student may
volunteer to answer. If he has it correct, he too gets a point and
takes part in the competition for the prize. If he is wrong, however, he
is out, i.e. he cannot volunteer again.
Another variation: Two challenging teams prepare both questions and
answers. In the game proper a member of team A challenges any member of
team B. You figure out for yourself how you do the rating.
As you can see there are plenty of variations on this game, too. If you
come across one yourself, which you think is just great, let me know,
and you'll get an honorary mention plus a night out with Jennifer Lopez,
which, as you might have guessed, is just a publicity stunt.