I like using popular game shows in my class. Here is one example that fit well in my class on relative clauses and the topic of entertainment - Pyramid. It is an American game show based on guessing words.
Level:
confident pre-intermediate, intermediate and above
What you need:
video projector/ a laptop
cards with words
paper pyramid (or whiteboard to draw it on)
Procedure:
1) Exposure. We followed Upbeat Intermediate book and they present the topic of relative clauses through the text about the entertainment. Ss had to read it at home. So we started off with the discussion of the text.
2) Presentation. I used part of the sentences from the text to draw attention to the structure of relative clauses. My students were quite familiar with the topic, so I let them talk and elicited as much as possible about the difference between defining and non-defining relative clauses. To introduce some new information I drew their attention to the cases where relative pronoun can be omitted
3) Practice. Do some controlled practice first. I had an exercise in the book fitting my aims perfectly, so Ss did it on their own and then compared in pairs. Do the whole class feedback.
4) For a less controlled practice I chose a simple definition game. The aim of the game is to define a word that you have on a card. I demonstrated the activity by giving them couple of riddles. Elicit the language we use to describe people, things, actions such as
It is a person who
It is what you do when
I used a worksheet from New English File Pre-Intermediate Teacher's book Unit 1D. Set the time, monitor the activity and help with difficult words if necessary.
5) Say that today you're going to play a more complicated and more exciting game. Show them the video from Friends and ask what the rules of the game are.
or the longer one with worse quality
Questions to ask:
What should you do?
How many people play this game?
How are you supposed to do it?
How much time do you have?
6) Watch again and ask Ss whether Joey is good at this game and why/why not.
7) Consolidate the rules of the game and write up do's and don'ts for the game
8) Now it's time to play Pyramid! Divide your class in pairs or teams, if you have an uneven number of students one of them could be a facilitator.
9) Reveal (or draw) the Pyramid. You can choose to put the names of the categories inside the pyramid, or just put the numbers which adds an element of surprise. That's what I did and it looked like this
Here is the worksheet that I made. I glued the questions to the cards to make it a little bit more official and easy to hand.
10) Ss chose the category/number, decide who is going to explain the word. Then you (or facilitator) set te time and the game begins!
The team with more points win. That's it! There could be additional variations and rounds if you feel like spending the whole lesson on it.
Level:
confident pre-intermediate, intermediate and above
What you need:
video projector/ a laptop
cards with words
paper pyramid (or whiteboard to draw it on)
Procedure:
1) Exposure. We followed Upbeat Intermediate book and they present the topic of relative clauses through the text about the entertainment. Ss had to read it at home. So we started off with the discussion of the text.
2) Presentation. I used part of the sentences from the text to draw attention to the structure of relative clauses. My students were quite familiar with the topic, so I let them talk and elicited as much as possible about the difference between defining and non-defining relative clauses. To introduce some new information I drew their attention to the cases where relative pronoun can be omitted
3) Practice. Do some controlled practice first. I had an exercise in the book fitting my aims perfectly, so Ss did it on their own and then compared in pairs. Do the whole class feedback.
4) For a less controlled practice I chose a simple definition game. The aim of the game is to define a word that you have on a card. I demonstrated the activity by giving them couple of riddles. Elicit the language we use to describe people, things, actions such as
It is a person who
It is what you do when
I used a worksheet from New English File Pre-Intermediate Teacher's book Unit 1D. Set the time, monitor the activity and help with difficult words if necessary.
5) Say that today you're going to play a more complicated and more exciting game. Show them the video from Friends and ask what the rules of the game are.
What should you do?
How many people play this game?
How are you supposed to do it?
How much time do you have?
6) Watch again and ask Ss whether Joey is good at this game and why/why not.
7) Consolidate the rules of the game and write up do's and don'ts for the game
8) Now it's time to play Pyramid! Divide your class in pairs or teams, if you have an uneven number of students one of them could be a facilitator.
9) Reveal (or draw) the Pyramid. You can choose to put the names of the categories inside the pyramid, or just put the numbers which adds an element of surprise. That's what I did and it looked like this
Here is the worksheet that I made. I glued the questions to the cards to make it a little bit more official and easy to hand.
10) Ss chose the category/number, decide who is going to explain the word. Then you (or facilitator) set te time and the game begins!
The team with more points win. That's it! There could be additional variations and rounds if you feel like spending the whole lesson on it.
- The teams can drop out of the competition (think ahead about how to occupy them ) and the best ones should battle in the finale.
- Award more points for more difficult questions,
- Have "cat in a bag" category
