Playing Games for Learning: "Guess Who?"

Literacy Network tutors had an in-service on how to use games for learning recently. Many ideas got a good working out by presenter Jennifer Peterson (thanks, J.P!) and workshop participants. One game that seemed easy to adapt for the tutor-learner environment was a variation on Milton Bradley game, "Guess Who?" 

The original version (see illustration at right) was a cartoon guessing game. Each player chooses one cartoon for their opponent to guess. The Wikipedia entry on it describes the rules:

Players alternate asking various yes or no questions to eliminate candidates, such as "Does this person wear glasses?" The player will then eliminate candidates by flipping those images down until all but one is left. Well-crafted questions allow players to eliminate one or more possible cards.

To make the game more adaptable to adult learners, we can create a grid using Microsoft Word instead of relying on the kid-friendly cartoons of the original. As with bingo games, players can put a marker—say a penny or dried lima bean—on a square as it is eliminated. Below is a table I created in Word in a very few minutes. Some of the statements repeat across a row, so asking one question only eliminates some of the characters. 

Alana at the office reading a book sitting on the couch relaxed	Brian at the office typing on the computer listening to music sleepy	Carlos at the office looking for a book typing on the computer nervous	Delta at the office reading email listening to music sleepy
Ella in the library talking to someone sitting on a chair relaxed	Franny in the library typing on the computer reading email relaxed	Gina in the library talking to someone looking for a book nervous	Homero in the library sitting on the couch talking to someone relaxed

 
Changing the repeating phrases lets a tutor focus on grammar skills that he or she wants to reinforce. The grid above inspires players to ask questions using prepositional phrases and present progressive tense, like the following: "Is your person in the library?  Is he sitting on the couch?"  You could save this grid and change the key phrases to teach different language structures. To practice simple past tense, change some of the phrases to reflect what they might have done last weekend:  "watched a movie...went for a bike ride...visited her mother." Changing the phrases is as easy as using the Find and Replace function in Word. If you would like to download a copy of the word document, just click here.
Forming questions is a skill that many learners need to practice in many different tenses. Like any good game, "Guess Who?" is one you can play again and again. 
Extra thanks go to Literacy Network Interns Caitlin MacKesey and Stephanie Beckman for introducing and refocusing this helpful game.

Tense Tension

A tutor asked a grammar question that got me thinking recently. He said, "I was having trouble explaining when to use the simple past tense vs. present perfect... A lot of the textbook's examples for when to use "have done something" would sound OK if you replaced it with the simple "did something" instead... What are some good ways to explain when you need to use this tense?" Good question.

The best book to answer technical questions about tense is Betty Schrampfer Azar’s Basic English Grammar and its companion books.  The books, which I call the English Teacher’s Grammar Bible, have companion websites that I’ll share with you now.  This website lets you search for worksheets and other materials: http://www.azargrammar.com/materials/index.html

This website has a Q & A feature that might partially answer the problem you described for me: http://www.pearsonlongman.com/ae/azar/grammar_ex/message_board/archive/index.html.

In the Q & A feature the instructor called it “a retrospective present,” meaning that it starts at the present and looks backward.

One cue that tells you a lot about how Present Perfect works is that, adding a word that makes the sentence exclusively about the past, e.g. the words yesterday  or five years ago, makes the sentence sound wrong. Take this example:  “I have hung out the laundry last Sunday” -- wrong.  The Azar grammar book has diagrams that explain what period of time is covered by various tenses. The diagrams look like an X,  Y axis grid with NOW at the center where the axes meet. The present progressive has a dot at the present and a series of dots  going back into the recent past.  It might work better if you saw it in the book. But not everybody’s mind takes immediately to graphs. We’re all different. I thought of something different, in fact, namely a game to practice present perfect tense.

You might or might not like the example, but do you know a game called “I Have Never?”  When alcohol is involved, the goal is to get people to tell revealing stories about their own past histories. The player holds a beer and says something like, “I have never ____ [e.g. “lied when my girlfriend asked me if her jeans made her look fat”]  Any other person in the room who has done what the first player said he hasn’t done then drinks. Everyone laughs.  But you can play it clean, which is to say Rated G to PG and don’t even talk about drinking.

Instead of drinking beer you can use a stack of ten pennies. You put a penny in someone’s cup if you have done something that they haven’t. For instance,  you can say “I have never traveled to Mexico. Have you?”  If your learner has, she can put a penny in your cup and then say, “Yes I have, but I have never been to Germany.”  If you have been there you give her a penny. The winner could be the one who has gained the most coins—or Skittles, or M&Ms. 

Taboo, Taboo

Today's tip comes from brand new Literacy Network Tutor, Marjorie Matthews. In pre-service training last week she talked about her experience using the board game "Taboo" to build vocabulary and descriptive speaking skills. I asked her to write it up as a tip for you and she kindly obliged.

For those of you unfamiliar with it, "Taboo" is a word game that challenges players to guess what word is on a card that a player called the giver is holding. He or she gives clues but must not use any of taboo words also on the card. For instance, one card may have a word like tobacco but the giver would be fobidden to use the words smoke, cigarette, chew, cigar or pipe to describe it. It stimulates learners to find ways to work around a vocabulary gap, How much fun is it? Boatloads. Here's how Marjorie does it:

It had occurred to me that the game Taboo could be a fun way for my Saudi friends to learn some new words, so I took the game to their home. We did not "play" the game, but used the cards. First we talked about the meaning of the word "taboo." Then we went through some of the cards one by one. The word at the top of each card has five words underneath that are all closely related and act as clues to the meaning.

So either they would look at the "clues" and try to guess at the meaning of the word, or I would explain the meaning and they and I would discuss how the five clue words relate. Sometimes this got into culture, for example, the word tuxedo was followed by formal, prom, jacket, rent and wear, and we talked about prom (a uniquely American thing.) The word bench was followed by sit, play, judge, seat, and park.

After we played, I noticed that my learner used some of the words, which had been new words for him. He had written a story about walking by Lake Mendota, and didn't know the word bench, and replaced "wooden chairs" in his essay with benches. I think they enjoyed learning new words this way. It is always nice to try to think of new ideas and approaches to make learning fun. Pictionary cards might work too - except they have unrelated words, which don't act as clues.

Kudos and a big thank-you to Marjorie Matthews, This Week's Favorite Tutor!

Grammar Go Fish

Below is a tutor tip submitted last year by Michelle Kramer, a former Literacy Network volunteer who is serving in Ukraine as a Peace Corps Volunteer educator. She begins by thanking me for writing a recommendation for her. Now I have to say a large, hearty thank you to her. Thanks, Michelle, for this excellent idea!

I just wanted to send you my thanks once again and let you know that my Peace Corps service is going great. I have now been in my site in Ukraine for about 5 months… I am in a village called Poroshkovo of about 8,000 in western Ukraine near the Hungarian and Slovakian borders. I am currently teaching English at the local secondary school….

Since I'm writing you, I might as well share a great game that helps my students practice grammar. They can't get enough of it. Feel free to share with all of your volunteers. There is a little prep time, but the practice and fun is totally worth it. This was taken from materials given to me by Peace Corps/Ukraine.

Grammar Go Fish:

1. First you need an old deck of cards.

2. I write the vocabulary words on the top of Post-It notes, which stick nicely to the cards. Don't forget to make two of each word.

3. Deal seven cards to yourself and your learner. The rest of the cards are spread out in a loose pile—the “pond.” If more than two people are playing, deal five cards each.

4. At the simplest level, the person simply asks someone in the group, "Do you have any (jeans, potatoes, elbows, buses, etc.) ?"

5. To make the game more interesting and to practice tenses that you are teaching, try this variation: make pairs of cards with verbs on them. In order to ask for a card, you must have that verb in your hand

6. Ask by making a sentence in a specific tense. You could practice present continuous by asking, "Are you driving?" If the person has the card, he/she responds with "Yes, I am driving.” In that case they give the person any cards marked to drive. If not, say "No, I am not driving. Go fish,” and then the asker has to draw a card from the pond.

7. If the person asked has the card, he must give it to the asker. Each person in turn asks one of the other students for a card, using the tense in question.

8. When you have a pair, you lay them down face down on the table. At the end of the game, the person with the most pairs is the winner. For those of you tutoring at people's homes with children present, they can play too!

You can practice virtually any verb tense with these cards. I wish the best of luck to the Literacy Network and hope all is going well there! Best regards, Michelle Kramer, PCV Ukraine

Those of us who need help with the rules of Go Fish may visit this website: http://www.pagat.com/quartet/gofish.html. Thanks again to Michelle and to you, as always, for being a tutor.