Secret Attack
I had a lesson I needed something different and did a variaton of this and it was such a success I made these PowerPoints.
-Split the class into groups (I made 6, 7, 8 and 9 as those fit my classes. If you have smaller classes just ignore the higher numbers).
-Draw three hearts on the blackboard for each team.
-Say a sentence in Japanese (to be translated into English) or ask or show the question on the PowerPoint.
-Students either come to the ALT or JTE to say the answer/sentence in English or write on whiteboards.
-If they get the answer correct, they can secretly (NO CONFERING WITH OTHER TEAMS) nominate a team to attack.
-The team with the most votes loses half a heart (if there is more that one team ALL the teams top voted teams lose half a heart).
-Move on to the next question.
I made a little laminated whiteboard (using slide 3&4 in the "No Questions" version with an extra piece of paper in the middle so it's not see through, thought this is optional. A piece of scrap paper works too!) and I go around the class as they write their answers and secretly make little marks on the teams that get votes. When the votes are in tap the team that got the most votes (if there is more than one team, I tell them before the reveal how many teams got the most votes), then click to open the curtains and reveal the losing team. I had feared that one team would get picked on, but that hasn't happened yet in any of my classes. The students were almost always shocked by who lost each round. I had one round yesterday where ALL the teams voted for different teams, so every team lost half a heart. As you get closer to the end of the alloted time you can up the penalty to 1 or even 2 hearts. If a team loses all their hearts they can still vote and the game can continue.
I have been surprised by how great this one has gone down. I really hope it works well for you guys too! Apparently my students love secretly attacking their friends... Who could have imagined??!
Have a good weekend peeps!
I did this activity today with six teams in the class and each team voted for a different team! So, all the teams lost half a heart!