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Logic game for
drilling - 1st, 2nd or 3rd years.
Purpose (other than shopping):
To provide drill practice for several variations of a particular
grammar structure; to engage the students' minds and interest in a
type of activity they are probably unaccustomed to; to provide an
english activity that can be played by all students, regardless of
actual english ability.
Materials:
Worksheet handouts - one per student, but have extra copies
available (see right, or other examples at bottom of page).
Two large copies of the vocabulary box for demo (see diagram below).
Two large and long copies of the secret sentence section
(the bit between the dashed lines) for demo.
Time:
20-50 minutes, depending on how much Japanese is used in the activity
explanation, and also how fast students catch on to the
demonstration game.
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The brief explanation:
Give each student a worksheet. Students make pairs and write a secret
sentence using one of the entries from each column. Student A reads
out his/her guess at B's sentence, combining entries. Student B checks
it against his/her sentence, and tells A how many of the entries were
correct. A writes down the guess and enters the number of correct
entries in the box provided. Partners change roles. Play continues
until one partner guesses the other's sentence.
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shopping
listening to CDs
watching TV
playing soccer
reading books
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her
you
them
him
everybody
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the store
home
the library
school
the park
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The detailed explanation:
Take a look at the example we'll be using;
'I enjoy watching TV
with you at home' for 2nd year students. The vocabulary box is
shown on the left, with the five options for each of the three gaps in the sentence
highlighted in different colours:
I enjoy watching TV with you at home.
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First, you need to demonstrate this activity by having a short game
between yourself and the JTE (how short depends on the time available,
as suggested above). Stop as soon as you're sure the students know how
to play and set them off on their own games right away. The game, using the above example, goes as follows:
Each player makes up one sentence (using one option from each third of
the vocabulary box above), and writes it in the middle of the worksheet
in the space provided. You can then fold along the dashed lines
(making a Z with the paper), because this section should be hidden
from your opponent.
Play scissors/paper/stone to decide who starts.
Player 1 tries to guess his opponent's secret sentence. So he, for
example, guesses 'I enjoy playing soccer with you at school'.
He reads this out to Player 2, who tells him that (using the above
secret sentence example) only one out of three parts of that guess was
correct; 'I enjoy playing soccer with you at school'.
Note that Player 2 doesn't tell Player 1 which part of the
guess was correct. That is what Player 1 needs to use logic (or maybe
just lucky guesswork!) to deduce.
Player 1 can then say "Only one part? Oh, nuts!!". And then notes
down on his worksheet his guess (in row 1 of the box at the bottom of
the worksheet) and also how many parts he got right. That box is for
notes, so that players can remember their previous guesses. Usually a
player should be able to correctly guess all three parts of their
opponent's sentence within about 6 or 7 attempts.
Now it's Player 2's turn to try, so she attempts to guess Player 1's
secret sentence. After that Player 1 tries again, then Player 2, then
Player 1, until one of them successfully eliminates their wrong answers,
and deduces their opponent's full sentence. At which point, ideally,
they'll both say "Blimey! That was awfully fun. Why don't we play
a rematch?" and rush to the front of class to grab a couple of
extra copies of the worksheet, which you've thoughtfully provided.
Note that not everybody can get the hang of logic games like this, so
sometimes they'll just guess blindly, hoping to chance across the right
answer. But most people will catch on sooner or later. Older students
should catch on a little faster. We recommend that you play
a couple of times against your JTE, to check you're both familiar with
how to play, before you walk in to class. Have fun!
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