Gamify ESL/ELL! Get your students excited about parts of speech or any other category. This can be adapted for math! This is the modified version from a collection found at BridgeUniverse.
Play ESL Jeopardy remotely (by sharing your screen with the class) or with an in-person class (on your SMARTboard or whiteboard).
Materials
Whiteboard and markers
7 Generation Games clip art (if applicable)
How to play
Before class, write out ESL Jeopardy on your whiteboard.
- Decide on 4-6 categories for which you’ll come up with questions for your students.
- Make sure some of the categories are for grammar/vocabulary questions, such as “verbs” or a flexible category like “Name Three.”
- Make other categories fun topics you know will interest your student, such as “7 Generation Games characters,” movies, popular books, video games, etc.
- Write these categories vertically along the left side of the virtual whiteboard.
- Along the top of the whiteboard, make columns for increasing point categories (i.e. 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 points).
- If you have 5 point categories (from 10 to 50), you’ll now need to come up with 5 questions under each of your chosen categories.
- As you write your questions, remember that the higher the number of points, the more difficult the question becomes.
When you’re ready to play, explain the categories and points to the student. Then, ask the student to choose a category and a number of points. (You can have the student use the language from the Jeopardy TV show: “I’ll take ‘Name Three’ for 50 points.”) Ask the student the corresponding question. He or she earns the points if the answer is correct.
If you’re playing with more than one student, another player can “steal” the question if the first student doesn’t answer it correctly, by attempting to answer the same question.
Variation
Instead of questions, you can use photos to reinforce unfamiliar vocabulary, especially for beginner students.