Gesture Game
George Surgenor
| GRADE LEVEL: | JHS 2 |
| SKILLS: | Comprehension, knowledge of vocabulary and speaking skills |
| TIME: | 50 minutes |
| MATERIALS: | The large box of flashcards that accompany the New Horizon series of textbooks |
| OBJECTIVES: | To consolidate students knowledge of vocabulary learned throughout the year. Classes tend to `cover` a lot of new words, but students memories often lapse very quickly. This activity encourages the students to use these words and to apply `real world` meaning to them |
PROCEDURE:
1. JTE shows students a flashcard, whilst concealing it from the ALT. The JTE then attempts to demonstrate the word through actions, until the ALT can guess the word. It might be a good idea if the ALT and the JTE had prepared the word beforehand, to ensure that student can view a variety of ways of `getting the word across` in a non-verbal way.
2. Split the students into groups of either five or six. The game will be made more fun by competition, so perhaps it might make sense for the teachers to select the teams, and thus ensure a fair spread of the most able students
3. Each team of students takes a turn to move to the front of the room. They sit with their backs to the ALT. Each member of the team takes it in turn to be the gesturer, rising from their seat to be shown a card by the ALT. When the other students can guess the word, the gesturer sits down. Each team has 5 minutes to guess as many words as possible. The JTE marks down the score on the board.
4. When each team has had their turn, the ALT and JTE can offer a bonus round. The ALT can gesture to the whole class. Teams can score points by raising their hands and guessing the word.
NOTES:
Having observed this game, I was initially skeptical, expecting it to be a game with no real point. However, having watched the students work their way through the box of cards, I could see the dramatic improvement in their ability to find the English meanings. It would obviously be a useful lesson before tests. Variations could include letting students draw the clues. One problem that did occur was that some student would `PASS` too often, rather than have a go at making a gesture. Maybe limiting the number of passes would solve this problem. The teacher would have to decide whether the students would be shown clues in Japanese or English. I decided that for the smooth operation of the lesson, we would show them the clues in Japanese.
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