What Are You Taking About?

Christopher Wade

PROCEDURE:

1. It’s a good idea to review the class’s adjective vocabulary as a warm-up. Either use objects lying around the classroom or use the picture cards, and have students try to describe the chosen item. Criss-cross works well, just change objects each time a new row stands up. Note that 2nd year JHS students learn comparatives (bigger than, more beautiful than, the smallest ~ in ~ ) which can be used to great effect in this activity, but will probably require review as it is not reinforced well in the 3rd year New Horizons textbook.

2. Split the class into teams, so that you have 6-8 students per team. Try to keep the number of students in each team an even number. Note that the more teams you have, the more picture cards you’ll need, but you can just make copies of one “master” set so all the teams are working with the same cards (which keeps things fair).

3. The activity itself runs like this: two students on each team sit facing one another, with a student holding a stack of picture cards standing behind each seated student (so four are “active” at a time). Say the seated students are A and B. Student A will be looking at the picture cards being held up behind student B’s head, where B cannot see. Likewise, B is looking at the cards held up behind A. The object is to have the two seated students describe the picture behind their partner, so that the facing student can guess what’s on the card behind them at that moment. Student A goes first, and continues until B correctly guesses, at which point B describe’s A’s picture. Once both have guessed correctly, two new pictures are held up and they begin again.

4. There are two primary ways to handle the flow of the game. First, give the students a set amount of time per round. For example, the same two students on each team are given one minute to describe as many pictures as possible in turn, back and forth. At the end of one minute, whichever pair got through the most cards wins a point for their team, and the next pair of students take the seats (and the two who just finished guessing take over the picture holding). Alternatively, you can have a marathon lasting a few minutes (possibly limited by the number of picture cards, more cards = more options!) where the students within each team rotate in and out of the seats every 4 (or however many) successful guesses. This faster pace helps keep the non-participating students from getting bored, but the teams must have a specified order and be on top of keeping score this way. Have each pair of students take up the picture-holding job when they are done with their turn in the seats, so everyone gets a chance at both guessing and picture holding.

NOTES:

In a way, this is like Taboo, where one person is forced to describe something without naming it to elicit guesses from their partner. I found this activity worked out better than traditional Taboo for a couple reasons. First, it does not require an insane number of cards (relatively speaking, you still do need a healthy number); and two, students seem less intimidated describing a picture rather than reading words on a card and describing from there.

Depending on the level of your students, you can add sports, actions, or anything else that can be put on a card into this activity. The higher grade the students, the more review and warm-up they will likely need before getting started, and that can easily make this activity balloon into a full-blown 45-50 minute lesson.

I would be careful using animals or insects, unless you are sure your students can handle them.

While the focus is on adjectives, having students lead off with the type of object (“It’s a fruit,” “It’s a place,” “It’s something in this room”) is perfectly fine. The true goal is to have students describe something without naming it directly, and they can accomplish that however they want unless you restrict them.

Finally, students will encounter cards from time to time they simply cannot seem to guess, holding up their team and causing frustration all around. Two ways I’ve used to combat this:

Pass-Method – Give each team a set number of “passes” where students can “pass” on a tough card and move on the next one. The team does not get credit on a passed card, but it lessens the chance of teams hitting total roadblocks.

Millionaire Lifeline Method – I like this one, because it keeps the students not sitting in the two main chairs participating. Basically instead of a number of free “passes” you give a team a limited number of “lifeline calls” where they can ask the other team members for help describing a card.