One of my JTE's gave me this activity and I've adjusted and used it so often that I thought I would share it here.
It can be used to review a unit or multiple units, and can have elements o writing, reading, listening and speaking. It can also be adjusted to be more or less difficult, as you see fit.
Goal: Work as a team to complete 10 missions.
Prep: Make, print and cut out the individual missions. For some missions that will be used over and over again and won't changed/written on you could laminate them that works best. It would save some of the wasted paper in the end. Either put the missions in envelopes by mission number or just paper clip them together. Whatever will work best to keep the missions separate and organized in what will turn into a bit of chaos later.
How to Play:
Preferably before class starts: Draw a table on the board with group numbers and mission numbers for the students to check off as they clear each mission. It's best to just get this out of the way before the explanation starts.
- Get the students into groups, and have them put their desks together. Groups of 3-4 students work best, but a group of 5 is ok in a pinch.
- Have the students play janken to decide their order. (person 1, 2, 3, 4)
- Ask the students if they have ever heard of Mission Impossible, sometimes they have (I've had classes immediately start humming the song, which is great). Explain the goal of the game is to complete (clear) 10 missions with their team.
- The groups get 1 mission at a time. When they complete the mission, they bring it to one of the teachers to check it. If it is OK they get the next mission and check their group number and mission number on the board. (This is mostly for you to keep track of what groups are on what mission so you can go help teams that are falling behind, and to track who the winner is at the end.)
- For each mission a different person must bring it to the teacher (Mission 1=Person 1, Mission 2=Person 2, and so on.) This is to get each member a bit more involved, as some groups let just 1 or 2 of the stronger English speakers do everything.
- Continue until the end of class. I usually try to set a timer near the end (around 5 minutes to, to give the students the heads-up that the game will be over soon so to hurry/wrap-up the current mission.) It's also good to end the game a bit earlier than the bell, to go over who won and give stickers (if you do that) to the winning teams. Classes don't always have groups that complete all 10, so in that case I just give the group(s) that did the most amount of missions the 1st place title and stickers.
Some rules that I always make sure to tell the students:
1. Work together as a group.
2. Focus on the mission.
3. No cheating! (I always have to physically show them what I mean by pretending to be a member of a group that runs over to see what another group has answered before running back, but they always understand after that.)
4. Line-up. When you are done a mission, if there is another student with the teacher, line-up behind them.
5. (Not a rule, but I add it here for the students) Textbooks are OK/not OK to use.
While the game is running, walk around and help out groups that are struggling. But sometimes you'll get trapped at the front checking missions/giving out missions.
I have attached a couple of the games I have done recently (and their answer keys) so you can get an idea of the different mission types that have been successful so far. I used the New Horizons textbook for these games. I will add more as I make them.
If you have any suggestions for other mission types, please let me know!
Great collection of independent group work ideas.
Thanks for the idea! I think I'll try making these missions halloween themed for my classes this month :D
It was awesome! Thank you so much! My JTE was so happy, she wants to do it again! I gave each team a famous spy name (e.g. James Bond, Black Widow, Loid Forger...) I also added mini roleplays that they had to perform in front of me in pairs and it was really funny.
That sounds so cute! I will have to try that myself. I'm glad you enjoyed it!! :D
This was an absolute smash hit with my lower level SHS. I was looking for a non-typhoon/jeopardy based review game and this was super amazing for that! Singing the theme song and really playing into the whole spy theme when they came to get new missions had them rolling. Thanks so much! :)
This is really good!
Thank you so much for sharing