Revision game

Before starting on their preposition handout this week, Sportyclass got to play a revision game I invented during the first sleepless hours of a cold, pre-solistice night.

During the introductory grammar course this fall we touched on word groups such as nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives. Before reentering the confusing realm of grammar we had to refresh some of these groups.

Sportyclass is particularly partial to competitions, so I decided to use this form for revision, why not. Building on a game we played in the army, I had the whole class stand on their desks. Then I proclaimed that the whitebord (forward) was nouns, the windows (left) were verbs, the door (right) was adjectives and the back was adverbs.

The idea was for the students to turn towards the word group they thought each of the words I was to pronounce belonged to. I had, beforehand, printed out a number of examples of each word group so I would have the posibility to concentrate on choosing words of appropriate difficulty. If a student turned the wrong way, he or she would have to get down from his or her desk and watch the game from their chairs.

Initially I thought I would need one or two pairs of eyes to help me, but this proved unnecessary since we were in quite a large room (using the height rather than the width of the room). However, I found it necessary to limit the time available for pondering by counting down from a few seconds, further adding to the excitement.

It all went really well. No students fell off their desks, and everyone watched those who were left implicitly registering the word group of each given word. By altering the tense of verbs, the degree of adverbs and adjectives, altering between singular and plural nouns and so on, I also managed to have them repeat the properties of each class, and all in a kinestetic and playful environment.

The students politely asked for grammar revisions. Twice.