A BIG survey!
*Update: The animations in the PowerPoint were a little cumbersome and didn't add much so I removed them. I also simplified the language in the intro as it's an activity more about culture than language (I want the students to understand quickly so I can get more questions in!) and I gave the worksheet version some love to make it easier to use. *
I made a short Google survey intending to ask my friends and family about life, school and what they know on Japan. I had hoped to get around 50 responses, but it got shared considerably more than I had expected. I let it run for about a week and got 761 responses! The results were so interesting (and hopefully surprising for the students) that I made a full lesson quiz for my last JHS classes before summer holiday. It was a great fun writing and sharing the survey and I learned a lot, although some of the questions are a little poorly worded and I will do it differently next time. If you have any suggested questions, please write a comment and I will try and add it! I have some ideas already and might aim to do another one next semester.
For class setup, I put the students in groups of 3-4. I keep a whiteboard at the front with another whiteboard I can put on top so that I can keep score, but also keep the points secret until the end! If you have time before class you can prepare the stuff on the blackboard (detailed in the next paragraph). You will need to print out the answers document so that you know which answers are which on the PowerPoint.
There are two parts. First, I ask the questions in the Word document and get the students to indicate their answer on the blackboard. Ask the JTE to explain questions above their level (I think all the grammar used is in JHS grammar textbooks but some of it hasn't been reached by my classes though). For the first 3 questions, I will write a line with 0%-100% marked and then write the other options on the board for the next questions (Questions 4-10). I have some team number magnet cards that the students can put next to their choice. Correct answers get 5 and then 10 points as indicated on the Word document.
Then we move to the Family Feud (stolen and repurposed from ZoeDeborah, thank you very much!) section. You can give the teams some time to consider their answers once you have shown them the question if you like (perhaps 10-20 seconds or so). I get the students to decide their order within their groups and take turns standing to try and answer each question. Each team can guess once per question then sit down. I do janken to decide order of who can answer, but you can do fastest to stick their hands up if you prefer. If their guesses are in the top 5 or 10 answers they get the number of points indicated next to their answer. There are arrows left and right of the answers in the PowerPoint, they have hyperlinks that don't work and I can't get rid of them in my old version of PowerPoint. I will try to update it next week when I am at a different school. I left the arrows in some of the boxes to indicate which questions had a graph showing the data in the next slide.
I will share a link to my google drive with the raw data and also the graphs that the Google form created when it was finished so you can make your own activities. Please feel free to ask me anything as I know that all the information isn't presented super clearly. There is a lot of data here, more than I expected, and I would think more about questions and ways to answer before posting another survey. For instance, A LOT of people answered the "What time did/do you finish school?" question in 12 hour format rather than 24 hour skewing the data and making it difficult to use.
I made a worksheet version as I intend to use it for my adult evening class too so you can use that if you prefer rather than the PowerPoint (perhaps individually and each correct guess gets a point or as a way to start discussions with more advanced classes).
This was really a lot of fun! I really hope that your kids learn some stuff (don't flippin' say "箸上手!" to non-Japanese people!) and enjoy it too! Have a good day guys!
Google Drive link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1n7Gxa1FHQt5VRE99B_E8IGetSd4j-1g-?usp=sharing
I plan to make some edits after doing this in class for a couple of days. In the meantime, some notes on the questions;
Q1-3 are great (skipped school, shoes at home and chopsticks) and get big shocks.
Q4-9 I have been mostly skipping. ("how often do you eat rice/use money?" work well though.)
In the Family Feud PowerPoint;
Q1 is great
Q2-4 don't work well because there are just a few answers. (I plan to shift these to the first section of questions)
Q5-6 aren't very interesting but are also fun because there is a good chance for mega points!
Q7 works well as all my students assume everyone overseas eats bread for breakfast.
Q8 is good.
Q9 is difficult as many are common toppings in Japan that the students wouldn't think of.
Q10-13 are all fun. Q13 Especially is a good one as many obvious ones didn't make the top 10. Most of my students and teachers haven't heard of Cowboy Bebop which I think is great!
I can't wait to use this in class! Thank you for your hardwork! お疲れ様でした。
This is awesome, I especially like how its split into two parts. I'm sure they'll enjoy answering the survey and comparing it with their friends, but then to go beyond that and show them people in foreign countries is gonna be so interesting for them. Thanks for posting!
A great idea - thank you!
Very interesting! Thanks a lot for sharing.
@Sean1112 the first part is also based on the answers from people based outside of Japan. The Yes/No questions and questions with limited answers don't fit the Family Feud style activity, so that is why there are two sections.
This is awesome work! Thank you very much.
I am currently writing a follow up survey. I intend to workshop it to get question suggestions and then share the link, so that you can all share it too! Let's go for a really big survey next time!