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The Synonym Game | |
|Introduction |
|To initiate and ease students into the concept and processes of synonym listing, there will first be a whole-class activity. |
|The teacher randomly selects and announces a “focus word” to the class. “Focus words” are always simple and generic words that |
|contain many synonyms, such “Cook,” “Easy” or “Run”. |
|Everyone is invited to put up their hands and name synonyms to that word, one per student contribution. These are all listed onto |
|the board by the teacher, creating a big long list of that “focus word’s” synonyms. |
|This introductory “focus word” chosen needs to be very commonplace and have a broad definition, so that the list created will be at |
|least ten words long, but hopefully as many as twenty. |
| |
|Set up |
|Beforehand, the teacher should already have created a big stack of flashcards, each one having a “focus word” written onto it. These|
|cards can then be shuffled at any time, and one of them randomly selected each round. |
|The class is divided into four equally-sized teams. They’re each given their own separate space within the classroom to work without|
|being overheard or interfered with by the others. |
|Each team is expected to produce a single piece of work, which means each member is contributing to the collective and they’re all |
|working collaboratively to achieve this one united goal. |
|The teams are each given several pieces of paper, one to use for each round, on which to write down their answers. And they are |
|given a pen or texta with which to use to write down the answers onto the paper. |
|One team member each round is nominated as the “leader”, who is in charge of writing down the synonym-listing answers and then later|
|reading them out aloud to the whole class. This is then rotated the next round, so that everyone gets an equal chance at playing |
|this “leader” role over the course of the game. The teacher keeps note of who has been the leader of each team, to make sure that |
|everyone gets to have a turn. |
|The teacher acts as the game-show host and oversees the contest: saying the “focus words”, time-keeping, inviting teams to offer |
|their answers, tallying up the words and scores. |
|There are two spatial set-ups for this game. When a new “focus word” is being announced and when words are being recorded onto the |
|board, every team is sitting around the front of the room. When it’s synonym-listing time against the clock, the teams go off to |
|their own isolated spaces in the classroom. |
| |
|How to play |
|Each round begins with the teacher randomly selecting and announcing a “focus word,” then writing it onto the board. |
|It’s synonym-listing time. The teams, once they are located in their own places in the room, are given two minutes to create a list |
|of words that have the same or a similar meaning to this “focus word”. |
|(Beforehand, a conscious choice has to be made by the teacher regarding the margin of acceptability of each “focus word” on the |
|flashcards. For something like “cook,” it will probably be appropriate to include all words associated with or connected to the |
|food-preparation process, such as “cut,” “bake” and “boil”. While for words like “run,” it would be better to restrict synonyms to |
|those about moving very fast – “dash,” “sprint,” and “bolt” – and not accepting words about moving slower, like “walk,” “jog” or |
|“stroll”.) |
|When the time is up, the buzzer rings, teams stop listing words, the leader stops writing down things, and everyone heads back into |
|the centre of the room. To make sure that no cheating happens, the leader is to hold onto the piece of paper with their answers, but|
|the pen/ texta used to write them down is left with the rest of the team. |
|The whole class now sits on the floor. The four team “leaders” stand up on the stage in front of the room and read out their |
|respective lists of synonyms, which are all recorded by the teacher onto the board. |
|(The teacher acts as the gate-keeper adjudicator in terms of the acceptability of each synonym. If a word is listed which is not a |
|synonym, a repeated word or is generally inappropriate, then the teacher reserves the right to declare that that word is null and |
|void: it’s not listed and the team gets no points for it.) |
|Teams earn 1 point for each successful synonym that they were able to list. When the four “leaders” have finished their respective |
|word listings, the teacher tallies up the lists and assigns the correct number of points to each team. |
| |
|How to win |
|It is with the teacher’s discretion how the game will end. |
|1) There could be a set target to reach, for example 50, and the team that first reaches this mark is declared the winners. |
|2) Making sure that enough rounds are played through so that every student from every team has had their opportunity to play the |
|role of the “leader.” |
|3) Some arbitrary number of rounds are to be played through, for example 10, and when that number has been reached then the team |
|with the most points at the end is declared the winners. |
| |
|Cross-curricula |
|Because this game is based around word associations, it can easily and quickly be integrated into a unit of work’s vocabulary, |
|making it a useful cross-curriculum tool. Instead of containing common and mundane words, the flashcards could have key words |
|associated with the unit’s subject. |
| |
|Optional extras |
|1) Creating an incentive to win each separate round of the game: bonus points are available for teams that earned the most points in|
|that round. This could be set at a certain mark, for example 3 points, or it could be variable, for example the margin of their |
|victory over the second-placed team. |
|2) Rewarding the team who’s leading the game in number of points: instead of the teacher randomly selecting one “focus word” |
|flashcard, they draw out 5 of them. The “leader” of the winning team is shown them all and given the choice of picking which one of |
|them will be the “focus word” for this round. |
|3) Adding a risk-reward mechanism into the game: each team is given one “wild card”. They can only play it once in the whole game, |
|at the beginning of a round, and once they use it then it’s gone forever. For that one round, the number of points they earn is |
|doubled. They are invited to play their “wild card” in a brief ten second period in between the round’s “focus word” being named and|
|the timer starting. |
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