Gone Seoul Searching in Japan ESL resources: This is Jeopardy!

  

My paper version of Jeopardy! When you have no computer you get creative!

  

Teach students the Jeopardy language before starting the game and show a TV clip.

 Teaching English in Japan through Westgate Corporation at Japan Women's University has been one of the biggest blessings in my life thus far. The daily lesson planners have been chosen very wisely, and there is great freedom to create your own lessons each day as long as you meet the suggested daily goal. To review the first 2 1/2 weeks of class, I taught my students how to play the famous American quiz show Jeopardy.
    My British co workers had no idea why I was holding a newspaper microphone and yelling "This is Jeopardy!" as my students clapped and introduced their teams with the theme song playing in the background. This was my first time to play Jeopardy as a tool to review in class and I'd say it was a huge hit. The first two classes went well, but I ended up having to change my rules. I had 5 categories for review: agree/disagree, emergency language, vocabulary/bonus, goodbyes, real/natural English. Below each category was one clue underneath a number from 100-500 which served as their points. I initially wanted each student to Ask, Answer, and Add (AAA) a model suggested by Westgate for each question, requiring them to make  a short conversation for each question. I liked this idea because it took more time, and I was worried that the students would fly through the game if they simply answered, and practicing the AAA model is always good. However, this was too time consuming, and for the remaining 6 lessons I simply let the students answer by either making the question, or answering.
     A fun way to keep the students in line with playing the game is by teaching them the language of the game. Requiring them to say "What is..." before every answer, and "I'll take agree/disagree for 400 please" was a fun way for them to get into the game. Giving each team a paper microphone also helped them to get into the Jeopardy spirit. To really get the students excited and have them fully understand how the show works, I recorded a clip of Jeopardy onto my I touch and showed this in class. The students were able to see what the show was like first hand, and enjoyed seeing a Western style quiz show. Playing the Jeopardy music was also a tool to keep track of the students time between answering questions, and to help them relax and focus on answering the question at hand. The music also prevented the other teams from stealing each others answers.
    Overall, the students noted that it was a great way to review past material. I even had students stay after the class to uncover all of the remaining point cards just to practice answering the questions. The review was much needed, and what better way to review than by with a quiz show game. To really get students enthusiastic, the teacher needs to play the role of the host successfully by being enthusiastic and properly scaffolding the game. 

Newspaper microphones helped mys students get into playing my ESL review version of Jeopardy.

  

I used my I pod touch and music baby to show the class a clip from a Jeopardy show.

Make your review categories simple and relevant to what you have been teaching in class.

If you have any questions or comments about "Gone Seoul Searching in Japan ESL resources: This is Jeopardy!"  please leave them in the comment box below or email them to goneseoulsearching@gmail.com 
    Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.