Grammar Gamble

Rating

JHS, Some prep, Verbal

How to Play

The props for this are pretty simple. I use a set of index cards with a big X on one side and an O on the other, as well as a big stock of fake money that I whipped up early on in my ALT career. Other than that, all the preparation you'll need is a list of sentences to use. I make sure to get the groups' starting money and X/O cards organized and paper-clipped into handy packets before class for ease in starting out. The money can get kind of messy if you're not careful. The way I play also calls for magnets, one for each group.

This is a group game, so have the class group up; lunch groups are standard and work fine. Give each group its packet of starting money and its card, explain the rules, maybe do an example. I set aside part of the chalkboard with one box drawn for each group, with a magnet in each box.

Then the actual play: you write a sentence on the board and give them a set time (a minute works for me) to decide whether it's grammatically correct or not. Then they decide how much of their money to bet on their answer being right. They take their X/O card and their bet to their space on the board, put it up with the magnet, and go back to their desks. You do the big reveal, then collect the money of each group that gave the wrong answer, and double the bet of each group that guessed correctly. What I do then is, if the sentence was incorrect, ask for volunteers to come up and fix it. If it was correct, I ask for a volunteer to translate it. Either of these nets the student a bonus $5 as well as allowing you to sneak in a little more comprehension practice. The five dollar rewards also can help out a group that guessed poorly and lost all its money. When that's over, they collect their cards and winnings, and you're ready for the next round.

When it's time to stop, just have them count up their money. Winning team is the team with the most cash. At my main JHS the students have sticker books to record class participation and such, so stickers are a great reward for them for any activity, so the winning team gets stickers. For some kids, of course, the Nerd Factor of learning or the joy of competition might be enough, but some extra incentive never hurts.

How to Use

I start each group with thirty dollars in ones (5), fives (3) and a ten. The kids usually bet ten dollars, so it's good to have plenty of extra large-denomination bills handy. Also, I limit the amount that can be bet in a single round to the $1-10 range. Without a cap, things can tend to snowball catastrophically. Naturally, all details such as exact numbers and so on are up to you based on your style and your students and resources. One warning is that, if you have them correct the mistakes, it can take a few tries and a good deal of extra time. I recommend doing it anyway, if at all possible, because that's the part that's really best for reviewing the relevant rule with an example that they're relatively likely to care about.

This is a great game for reviewing a grammar point as well as the general rules of sentence-writing. It allows you to focus on areas where the students seem to be weakest. I suspect, too, that the environment of challenge and profit is more likely to make the students remember the content more than just another worksheet or lecture ever could. By now you've probably noticed that I like adjustable games, and this is one of those: if time runs short, just stop at the end of the current round and wrap things up.

Notes

I use this game almost exclusively with third-year junior high kids, since it suits the material they're learning better than many of the lower-level games. To be frank, there are fewer activities that you can use to teach participles and dependent clauses than vocabulary, basic grammar, or simple sentence patterns. But that doesn't mean you can't use Grammar Gamble for any grade level where the kids can read. Even when all they know is some vocabulary and sentences along the lines of "My name is Kentaro," you could adjust it and play Spelling Gamble or the like.

Some students try to guess whether the next sentence will be correct or not based on patterns. I overheard one say, the most recent time we played it, that I never started with an incorrect sentence, for example. Feel free to mix things up and mess with their heads a little. I've done stuff like give correct sentences four rounds in a row, which made some of them very nervous. The point, after all, is for them to learn and use the grammar, not human psychology.

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