Writing or Grammar Review Games

Previously I wrote about nonlinear PowerPoint presentations and some of the creative, interactive things you can do with them. Recently I learned how to use triggers and with my newly gained skill I made a concentration game. I used it on Thursday with my grammar class and it was really fun. For my first experiment with concentration, I divided the class into teams and then explained the game. For this version of the game, they simply had to match possessive adjectives with possessive pronouns. They really liked it and at the end, asked if they could play another round. We didn’t have enough time, but I promised them that we would play another version of the game in the future.

My use of this game on Thursday was pretty basic, but used in other contexts is gives students the opportunity to categorize. They could, for example, match examples with categories. My big picture for this game really involves a marathon review at the end of my writing class. I plan to divide the class into groups and assign each group the responsibility for reviewing one section of the course (time order, space order, persuasive, comparison, contrast, cause and effect, and summary) with the class, using a game format. As an example, I will show them a concentration game that I’ve made to review the things to consider when writing a paragraph that gives instructions. Their responsibility will be to decide which features they will review and make a game which does this. During review week, one of the members of each of the groups will act as quiz master. It’s too much to ask them to create a game so, along with the concentration template that I’ve made, I will make several other game templates available to them. Jeff Ertzberger’s site has lots of great game templates that look like they would be fun and some of them don’t require the students to make any modifications.

If you would like to use this game, please feel free to download the Concentration Template. It was made using Word 2007 and I apologize for not being able to make it available in 2003, but too many of the features were lost. You will need to add your content. Move the brown cards to the side and type in your content where there is currently a question mark.

April 23, 2009 Note: If you downloaded the Concentration Template before April 23, 2009 there is a small glitch with card one. If you download it again after this date, the problem should be fixed. Thank you Toula!

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