What Is Jeopardy?
Warning: This post may only be interesting to teachers.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been experimenting with a lot of different games and teaching activities. Sometimes they are spontaneous ideas created during class — like turning a ball throwing game into Hot Potato — and other times I plan them out.
The game I’ve put the most work into has been my version of Jeopardy. Jeopardy totally got the administration off my back today when they saw it in action. I had been getting critiqued all week and the senior consultant wasn’t happy with my experimental lessons. Today I whipped out my trusty Jeopardy and blew her balls off. So this post is dedicated to Jeopardy, how I developed it and why it’s awesome.
Originally it was a spur of the moment decision. About ten minutes before class started I decided that I would draw a grid on the white board, fill it with different point values (first row 100, second row 200, etc.), and divide the class into two teams. Each team got a turn — no buzzing in — to pick one of the spots on the grid.
I would ask them to repeat an English word, phrase, or sentence and they would have to answer all together at first and then one-by-one. I told them that everyone on the team had to say their English correctly in order to get points, but in reality I gave them the points no matter what.
I scaled the difficulty of the phrase or sentence based on how many points they stood to gain, and I always included the key words they needed to learn for that week.
And I used the rule that only the team answering can talk. This is a great way to keep the classroom relatively quiet. I’m planning another post about rules, rewards, and punishments and the contexts that I’m starting to find them both useful and appropriate, so more on that later.
This set up worked pretty well for about ten minutes. Pretty quickly the kids realized that since it was just going back and forth and nobody ever lost points it wasn’t really a competition at all. They kept playing, but I could sense that the interest wouldn’t last long.
I toyed with the idea of removing the turn based system and figuring out a way to let them buzz in. Maybe I could give each team leader a bell to ring. At least there would be competition over who could ring first. But in Jeopardy you buzz in when you know the correct response to a clue, in my game all you have to do is say an English phrase, so they would be ringing their bells constantly. Oh, also they are five-year-olds. Giving bells to five-year-olds is like giving crack to five-year-olds.
So I tried another modifications. I attempted to be strict with the scoring. Both my Chinese assistant and I explained to them that it was just a game and it was okay to lose points but that I was going to be judging more harshly. There were nods of understanding. This actually might work. They know it’s a game, they don’t actually care about points.
The first round of the game one of the girls refused to say her English phrase. “That’s okay,” I said, “but I’m only going to be able to give the team 400 points instead of 500.” The team leader instantly burst into tears. Right, terrible idea Anderson. Better luck next time.
I introduced different category columns in the grid. I wanted this to provide an incentive other than point value. The kids would have to balance how comfortable they were with certain topics with how many points were available. This helped, a little — it made the game more interesting. But since they still knew they were going to be getting full points anyway, it didn’t really motivate them to act that differently.
Right now, the game still has column categories. But it has a huge point bonus if one team clears an entire column. It also has Daily Doubles (but no wagering, you just get twice the point value of that question.)
The introduction of these things has taken a little time — since they all increased the game’s complexity — but it has made it so much more fun and engaging.
It scales really well now. Some of the kids don’t really care about anything other than saying the phrases and knowing they got points awarded. Others are really into the strategy of going after a whole column versus just going after the highest point values.
Today during snack-time I found the two team leaders sitting together discussing the different strategies. (One them informed me that four Daily Doubles would be more fair than just three.) It reminded me of staying up all night playing Unreal Tournament with my friends from home. We would spend the time either playing or just sitting around talking about strategy while eating Doritos. It was fun, and I was glad my students were so into the game that they were doing the same thing.
And it has some randomness now — the Daily Doubles — which really keeps the game interesting and actually makes it more competitive. Obviously, too much randomness makes a game pointless, but a certain amount makes it more fun, more competitive, and more interesting to keep playing.
Too much randomness and you have a slot machine, no randomness and you have chess. A good balance of randomness and you get poker. (Not sure if gameplay theory is an interesting topic for you guys, but I could on forever about it.)
As it is right now Jeopardy is definitely my best teaching tool. It engages the kids of all skill levels, it has both strategy and randomness, it has an internal reward and rule system, it’s competitive, it has variety, and it lets them practice English individually.
I’m sure as we keep playing I’ll have to adapt the game more and more, so if you have any ideas about how to make it even more effective let me know. Also feel free to steal this and use it, I hope it works as well for you as it did for me.
5 Reasons To Love The Lava Bridge Game
No other game has gotten my kids so excited as the Lava Bridge game.
I try a lot of different games with my students. Sometimes they are part of English lessons — I created a flash card baseball game today, it was awesome — and sometimes they are just for fun during free time.
This week I taught the kids a game I learned during an orientation weekend for a scholarship I won. I don’t remember the official name of the game, but I call it Lava Bridge.
Here’s how it works: The students have to get from point A to point B. Between whatever you choose for A and B there is lava.
The students have to cross the lava and you provide them some objects to use that are safe — we used hula hoops. As long as they kids are standing in a hula hoop they can’t be burned, but if they touch the ground outside of a hula hoop they are out.
There aren’t enough hula hoops to just lay straight across from A to B. Instead, the kids have to lay them down and walk across them then pick ones up from behind and put them in front. Repeating this relay motion until they are all across.
But you can only pick up a hula hoop and move it to the front if it is empty. (You aren’t allowed to move it if someone is in it, including sliding it.) The students are forced to fit on all but one hoop so that they can keep moving. Depending on the number of players and hoops this can get pretty difficult.
I had about twelve kids today making their way across with three hoops. Which means every time they needed to pick one up to move it, they had to all squeeze onto the remaining two hoops. Fitting six kids in one hula hoop is not easy. But it is hilarious and fun.
So that’s how it works. You have this pack of kids laying down hoops, then squeezing onto the front few so that they can pick up the last one and move it to the front. Rinse and repeat until they make it across.
I know it sounds a little complicated. If you have no idea what I’m talking about let me know in the comments and I’ll try to come up with a better explanation.
Anyway, like I was saying this is the most popular game with my kids. I spent some time trying to figure out why and I came up with the following reasons.
1. Everyone Who Plays, Participates
I’m sure that sounds a little redundant, so let me explain. There are a lot of games that everyone will play in, but not actually get a chance to participate in.
I organized a soccer game last Friday and a lot of the kids wanted to play. Once the game started, though, only a few kids were actually participating. The kids who were better or more confident when it came to soccer were the most involved.
Even when I play flash card games, there is always a tendency for the kids who speak the best English to dominate and they end up participating way more than the kids who actually need the flash card practice.
There isn’t anything wrong with the best kids at a certain game being the most involved. It’s perfectly normal. But it is nice to have a game where you don’t have to worry about that happening.
In Lava Bridge, every single kid who wants to play is very included and involved. They are all holding onto each other on a tiny hoop trying not to fall into the molten hot lava, there is no way not to be involved. Which leads us to number two…
2. It Is An Amazing Teamwork Game
Everyone has to work together moving from hoop to hoop. And then picking up the last hoop and handing it to the person in the front. All this while they are trying to keep their balance and make sure nobody else falls. There is a lot of working together both physically and with verbal communication.
It really is a great teamwork game, which is why it is used as a team building exercise even for adults.
And — like any good teamwork scenario — it allows certain students to take the leadership roles. They can be the ones to come up with ideas of how to move next, or who should be in the back or the front, or any of the other stuff that needs to be worked out. Any student confident enough can attempt to take on a leadership position and try to communicate and organize the rest of the team.
3. You Can Scale The Difficulty
At any time during the game you can do things to affect the difficulty.
You can add new rules limiting how far apart hoops can be, or how many students per hoop, or create certain obstacles they have to go around. The rule that they must start over if anybody falls off makes it really difficult.
You can add or remove hoops to make it easier or harder on the fly.
You can also add a second team and make it a race scenario. Or make them gather certain items at point B and then make it back to point A. Which means they have to do the same thing they just did, but now while carrying something.
There are so many possible rules and variations that the game can stay fresh and fun forever. And by the way, it is fun.
4. The Game Is Really Fun
It is such a blast to play the game. Especially if you have it set up so it’s just challenging enough to be rewarding, but not so hard that it frustrates the kids.
Every single time my kids laid down the final hoop and made it the last little bit to point B, they cheered so loud. All the reasons I just named give the students a great sense of accomplishment.
And it is pretty fun to watch too.
5. It Has Lava
Kids love lava. Seriously, how many times did you play some game growing up involving lava?
We used to jump from pieces of furniture pretending the floor was lava. And I remember only walking on certain tiles in elementary school because we’d all decided the rest of the color tiles were lava.
Even in China, the kids know, love, and respect the power of lava.
