Middle School English Games and Activities

I used this with much success this week as both an easy and fun activity and a means of gauging students to see if they actually remember what I've been teaching them. There were four categories - Grammar, Words, Konglish, and Holidays - with five questions each. Before the activity, I had a ten-minute lesson on Christmas and New Year's Day and the folkloric roots of Santa Claus (Yule, Odin, and Sinterklaas) as well as a quick review of past lessons.

1. Target grades/age: All

2. Duration: It depends; the more questions and categories and the trickier the questions, the longer. In one class where we played it for 30 minutes, there were still some questions left.

3. Objective(s): This is a great way to review things - vocab, themes such as holidays or cultural things, and even grammar.

4. Name (if applicable): "Jeopardy!"; many people in the US and Canada should know what this is. :)

5. Simple instructions/rules:

-Make several categories and list numbers underneath each category. The numbers represent points. The higher the number, the harder the question.

-Divide the class into several groups; groups shouldn't be too large otherwise it would discourage participation. In a class of 30, 6 groups of 5 works very well.

-The order in which they take turns is decided by rock-paper-scissors. When it's the group's turn, they decide what category and point value they want.

-The teacher gives the question and the group has 15-20 seconds to answer. If they can't answer, other groups can raise their hands and answer.

6. Variations (if any): The subject matter for this activity can be just about anything. I found that it was a great way to not only review the day's lesson (this one being mostly about the origins of the Santa Claus folklore) as well as things that I went over in past lessons. I gave one category higher point values than the other categories. Although many of the Jeopardy! templates you might find online will give 5 categories and 5 questions, you can put as many questions and categories as you see fit.

7. Notes: I found that this really encourages students, even the ones who normally don't do much in other activities, to participate. Because there are many questions and several types of questions, it gave students of varying levels the opportunity to answer.