-
named after the simple card game for 2 players
where you split a deck of 52 cards into 2
piles of 26 and give one deck to one player
and the other deck to the other player. The
two players then turn over the top card on
their pile and whoever draws the higher card
gets to keep both cards.
In
this grammar
game,
the rules are even easier.
The
material for this game has been prepared. There
are two sets of cards: the first set is one
of irregular verbs, such as eat, take,
drive, etc. (In my version, these cards
are yellow.) The second set is of adverbs of
time or time phrases, such as usually,
in general, when my mother arrived,
while my sister was getting dressed,
today, at 7.17 am yesterday morning,
etc. (In my version, these cards are blue.)
{Lonny
can send the material necessary for this game
as an e-mail
attachment.}
This
game is a follow-on from the second part of
the Matches, Birthday Cakes and Dynamite Game,
in the previous lesson. The aim of it is for
the students to make questions out of the
two cards that are drawn.
You
get everyone down on the ground in a circle
and you have the two decks in front of you.
You turn over the top card of each deck and
end up with, for example, write and today.
You model the first question,
for example "What have you written today?"
or "What will you write today?" And
just maybe, "What are you writing today?"
You
then draw two cards and give them to the pupil
to your left. In this instance, I do a bit
of cheating and make sure that the student
gets a fairly easy two cards, such as drive
and now. Either they or their classmates
will quite quickly get to "What are you
driving now?" or, even better, "Where
are you driving now?" I might then "cheat"
a little bit more by giving the second student
something like eat and usually,
so that the game is progressive and predictable
and so that they catch on to the rules before
it gets tricky. My third situation might be
another Present Progressive, at the moment,
for example or a Future - which everyone seems
to find quite easy. And then a Past Simple
or two and only then Present Perfects. I always
save the Past Progressives for the end of
the game, when the rest is clear and I leave
the Present Perfect Progressives completely
out - they really aren't necessary at this
point.
You
go around a maximum of two full times: even
if not everyone is cottoning on, it doesn't
matter. You are at least putting your finger
on what they aren't clear about for them to
delimit their confusion. But the game mustn't
become heavy. It's better to come back to
it two days later than to belabour it.
Having
said the above and advised against belabouring,
I use the game for a lot of "theatrical
and caricatured anchoring" (I just made
that expression up). If someone keeps getting
Present Perfect constructions wrong by asking
questions like "Where do you go this
week?" instead of "Where
have you gone
this week?" and "What do you buy
since June?" rather than "What have
you bought since June?", I make a point
of giving them ALL of the Present Perfects
that come up the next 3 or 4 times. I'll turn
over a since Christmas and say "Oh!!!
This one is for Paul! I know he's going to
get it wrong! I bet he'll say "What do
you eat since Christmas?" Let's see if
he does. (And then pretending that Paul couldn't
have heard what I've just said, I turn to
Paul and say "Paul! I have a very, very
special one for you! Ha, ha, ha!" And
when Paul inevitably gets it right, because
he has understood and been warned against
the mistake - or because the others start
helping him - I look really disappointed and
say, "Ohhhhhh..... That wasn't any fun.
Hmmmm. I have to find something else that's
fun."
While
this seems to go completely against traditional
concepts of being nice, it is very effective
and actually raises the students self-confidence
and leaves him or her with better self-esteem
- and more independence, since the situation
engineered pits him or her against the teacher
in a totally non-threatening way and s/he
comes out on top.
If,
for whatever reason, the students gets the
answer wrong as the teacher predicted s/he
would, then the teacher must stay in character
and say "That was so much fun! Thank
you. Ha, ha, ha!" (a sort of perverse
but theatrically diabolical laugh that is
too silly to be taken seriously). And all
the students will explain to the student what
was wrong and the student will get it right
the next time - which is, of course, just
as soon as you draw another card like for
three years, which requires the Present
Perfect. And then the same routine,
again. It almost always works: the student
gets the right answer and the whole group
cheers. If it doesn't, then you immediately
revert to a more helpful, caring teacher role
and say something incredibly simple like "If
it's both Past and Present, you use have
or has and then Column Three - The
Past. It always works" - and then
you move on and leave it. Give the Present
Perfects to other students and then, as a
supportive coach, whisper to the student with
the Present Perfect problem, "You'll
see: he's going to use a have and
the third form of the verb. Let's see
if he gets it right."
