GREAT MINDS: DO NOT THINK ALIKE

Prepared by:

KEW SI NA (A11PP0068)

LEE PEI CHING (A11PP0070)

Objectives:

1)      To enable students to activate their vocabulary knowledge and think differently the name of particular things by using the letter of A to Z.

2)      To enable students to have fast response to write the name of particular things by using the letter of A to Z by giving the limited time.

Language:

Vocabulary (Nouns)

Level:

Intermediate

Duration:

30 minutes

Materials:

1)      Papers Pencils

2)    Pencils

3)      Whiteboard

4)      Marker Pen

Procedure:

a) Briefing

1. Teacher puts the students in small groups of four. Each person has a piece of paper and a pencil to put their answers and keep track of their points.
2. Students are asked to draw a table of 2 columns and 26 rows on the paper. Students need to write the category of each column such as animals and countries. For the rows, students name the first row as A, and continue until the last row as Z.
3. Teacher explains the rules of the game to the students.

b) Demo

1. Teacher asks the students to try answering a name of the animal starting with letter A.
2. Students are required to ask the teacher questions if they do not understand. Teacher clarifies any doubt before starting to play the game.

c) Play the game

1. Students are given three minutes to write the names of animals using the letter of A to Z.
2. They writes down their answers on their own paper.
3. Students try to write the names of animals that are different with their groupmates. (This is why it’s called Great Minds: Do Not Think Alike.)
4. Then everyone reveals their answers. Each person that has unique answer gets 2 points, those who have the similar word with their groupmates get 1 point, ½ mark for the word with spelling error, and 0 mark for blank answer or wrong category. Teacher records the highest point in each group on the whiteboard.
5. Now the teacher divides the class into three big groups. Each big group consists of a few small groups.
6. The person with the highest point in each small group continues the game by writing the names of countries using the letter A to Z in three minutes with the help of other groupmates.
7. Students are required to write the names of countries that are different with other players in the same big group.
8. The points are calculated by comparing the answers of all players in each big group using the same grading system and teacher records their points on the whiteboard.
9. If a student gets the highest point, his/her big group wins the game.

d) Debriefing

1. Teacher asks the students randomly about what they have learnt in the game.
2. Teacher ends the game by making overall conclusion.

Variation:

The category of the particular things such as animals and countries can be replaced by using the other categories such as fruits, foods, drinks, etc.