So, this is a game I have played with my classes recently that can easily be adapted to all different levels. My student range from barely being able to form a coherent sentence to being able to write short paragraphs, so I have found that this is a good way to allow all the different levels (class-to-class levels vary heavily, as well as within classes) to participate without anyone feeling too embarrassed.
So, come up with categories, first. These can vary based on the ability level of your students, but there should be some variety in difficulty as well, to allow for different student skill levels within a given class. I will list some categories I use at the end of the post, with notes about difficulty.
Once you have written the categories on the board, write the numbers 1-5, with space to provide an answer. The task of the students is to come to the board, pick a category, and write 3 or 5 correctly spelled words from that category. I give my students 2 tries to spell a word correctly, 3 if the class is particularly low level. If the students can write three words, they get one reward (sticker, candy, whatever you prefer to use), if they can write 5, they get 2. If they pick from one of the hard categories or one of the affixes, the reward doubles, so if they write 3, they get 2, if they write 5, they get 4.
For my students, I usually use candy because I see the students so rarely, but if I had only one or two schools, I would work out some sort of reward system with stars that could be redeemed for a better reward later, or something. That part is up to you.
I do let students go to the board multiple times, but I try to choose students who have not gone, before returning to students who have gone to the board already, and I generally put a cap on participation – usually 3-4 times, depending on the size of the class. I also encourage them to volunteer early on in the game, because by going early, there is less of a chance that someone else will get to the words that they were going to write, first. I also generally let them look at their dictionaries/books for the first 5-10 minutes of class, and then have them put them away. If I don’t let them look at all, they tend to clam up, as they’re too intimidated by the task. Letting them look at their book makes them realize that they do know a lot more words than they had thought.
I have now done this lesson 12 times, and it has gone over phenomenally well in all but a couple classes, and even in those it went over moderately well.
The Categories
♦♦♦
Easy Categories:
- Food
- Animals
- Clothes
- Sports
- Countries
- Colors
Moderate Categories:
- Vegetables
- Fruit
- Mammals
- Reptiles
- Insects
- Furniture
- Jobs
- Plants
Hard Categories:
- Cities
- Languages
- Emotions
- Tools
- Musical Instruments
Affix Categories:
- un-
- re-
- pre-
- -ing
- -ize
- -ise
- de-
- ex-
- in-