Activity 1: Scratch-off Quizzes
Acquire a few IF-AT forms (Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique [http://www.epsteineducation.com/home/] and prepare a set of multiple-choice questions to ask in class (you can test grammar, a reading, etc.). Craft your questions carefully so they will lead to disagreements within groups.
Organize groups of three students and give each group a form. Then ask your questions and give students time to discuss and choose the correct answer as a group. When time is up, students will scratch off the form and see whether or not they were correct. Designate a group who had the correct answer to explain it to the class. The group with the most correct answers may win a prize.
This activity may be a little difficult for beginners as they may not know enough vocabulary to discuss their choices in the target language. However, depending on the topic, one could prepare a worksheet with useful phrases to be used by beginners in their groups.
This can also be done as a whole class with a PowerPoint presentation with or without clickers.
Activity 2: Tourist Trap
· Organize students in pairs or small groups. Give students time to research the tourist features of different countries or regions within a country. Have them develop a poster (virtual or paper) or PowerPoint presentation to “sell” their vacation package to the rest of the class.
· During the presentations the audience may use a graphic organizer to note the trip features (e.g. climate, cost). At the end, the students vote for the best vacation package (not voting for their own). The winning team may receive a reward such as extra credit or a small prize.
Activity 3: Speed Vocabulary Review
· Line up the desks in the classroom so there are two rows facing each other (if odd number, add one desk on the end for a group of three). Tell the students they will be given a topic that they must discuss until you give the signal (e.g. bell, whistle, light blink).
· When the signal goes off, one side of the group moves down a chair so everyone has new partners and the next topic is given.
· Sample topics include: vacations, families, food and restaurants.
Activity 4: Name that Category
· This game is modeled after the television show from the 1970s called the $10,000 Pyramid. The board game is built in the shape of a pyramid and contains different categories.
This activity can be used with the whole class split into two teams, with the whole class grouped into pairs, or in small groups. One player on each team, the clue giver, is able to see the board. The guessers are not able to see the game board. As the categories are revealed, the clue givers list terms belonging to that category. For example, for the category "fruits" the clue giver may say, "pineapple, apples, grapes" and continue to list terms until the category is named by the guessers. The team that names the category first wins the points. The other categories are revealed in turn.