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As a LINC literacy teacher at the beginning of my career I’m constantly on the lookout for new materials and ideas to bring into my classroom. While online resources often seem scarce, I’ve found a few gems that I’ve been able to modify for my CLB – 1L class. I need to confess, this particular activity was inspired by an image that popped up on my Pinterest feed. Conventional? Definitely not. Inspirational? Absolutely.
The image which inspired me to create this game was of the “Guess Who” game, which I loved as a child. The game involves a board of people with varying special features, from which you need to guess the individual that your opponent has selected by asking questions about their appearance. While the game itself would likely be very effective for higher levels, the varied question construction and vocabulary are too advanced for my learners. So I set about determining a way to simplify it for use in my classroom.
I started by modifying this activity to use numbers instead of pictures of people. Learners would have to guess the secret number by asking their partner questions. I started with 1-10, 20, 30, etc. up to 100. However, my colleague, Tammy Wells, suggested we adjust it to be used with sight words. She created a template of basic CVC sight words and we each trialed the activity with our learners. We discovered that with some practice, learners could practice pronouncing a large set of CVC words independently as they played the game. We made copies of our sight words, cut them out and then created two extra pieces of paper. The first states, “Is it ______?” and the second has “My word: _________.” After nabbing 1 legal size file folder per student and some butterfly clips, we were set!
Game play starts with each student spreading all of the sight words out flat on their side of the filing folder to create their game board. The “Is it _____?” card stands upright against the folder, and the “My word: ________” goes at the bottom of their game board. Before play begins, each learner selects a word to be their “secret word” and places it, face down, on the “My word” card. Learners can choose who goes first. Player 1 begins by selecting a word from their board and asking their partner, “Is it ______?” and waiting for the answer. If Player 2 responds with no, Player 1 takes that card and flips it on their board, so it is no longer in play. The turn would then switch to Player 2. However, if Player 2 responds with yes, Player 1 has won those two cards and gets to place them in a pile on the side as 1 ‘point.’ Both players then flip up all of their cards and re-select a secret word/number. Play continues until time is up, or learners have successfully guessed all of the words.
Once learners are familiar with this activity, they are able to complete the set-up and launch into game play independently. It is flexible for any number of students to play simultaneously. I like to use it as an alternate activity for quick-finishers in my class.
Benefits of this activity include repetitive reading and speaking of controlled vocabulary. The inverted question structure, “Is it…” is read/spoken again and again, to become ingrained in learners’ memories. Pairing it with the question mark symbol will encourage learners to encode this as a question. When learners have difficulties comprehending one another’s speech, they can dictate the word to each other, providing an opportunity to practice letter naming. These kinds of information gap activities enable learners to negotiate meaning with peers. Rather than interacting primarily with the instructor, learners are placed in a situation where they are motivated to communicate and cannot rely on context or the language skills of the instructor to interpret their meaning.
Modifications include using flash cards of current vocabulary instead of spelling cards. To make it more difficult, add a bingo chip into the mix, where learners can place the bingo chip on any 1 of their cards and if their partner asks for that card, the partner automatically loses that round.
Future instantiations of the game will hopefully include images on each card, so learners can connect the meaning with each number or image, rather than having to do a pre- or post-game activity to introduce the meaning.
Happy guessing!