Chaining-Wordburn: A steemhomework lesson plan on adjectives

I grew up in a classroom where the teacher would give me a list of words to memorize. After a week, we will normally be tested on these words via spelling or some form of diabolical assessment designed by the teacher. These days, such a method is frowned upon and I personally prefer teaching vocabulary such as adjectives in a more fun manner.

As such, I have named this activity Chaining-Wordburn not only after Channing Tatum whom one of the woman I love is a big fan of... Ahem.. I am not jealous. But, this is a lesson designed for classrooms with very proficient and very weak students mixed together. Often times, if you run a language game, the group that will always wins is the group that has the best English speakers in it. This activity is designed to level that playing field. So let us begin.

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Preparation

You will need three colors of whiteboard markers or chalks. This is because you will need this to mark the answer provided by different groups. Furthermore, you will also have to arrange the class in two large islands, one for each group. Next, you will need a camera or a smartphone to take some pictures.

Now that you have all your equipment, divide the class into two large groups (Red team & Blue team), assign a number to each member of the group. Each member should share a number with the opposing group, for example Red 1 and Blue 1. So here are the rules:

• Each member must give an answer. Failure to do so means no points.
• English only, no translated words.
• The teacher's decision is final.

Chaining

If you have not guessed by now, Chaining-Wordburn is a two part activity, the first activity is the chaining, or the vocabulary acquisition component. The teacher will first start off with a default incomplete sentence. For example.

Jack shakes his....

The groups will then have to continue with an adjective to describe what Jack is shaking here. The group that ends with a noun, loses. Here is an example:

Jack shakes his big, gigantic, cute, enormous, small, likeable...

Notice that each of the adjective given must start with the last letter of the word before it. The teacher will use the whiteboard marker to write these adjectives in the color of the group. For example, if 'big' was suggested by red team, it will be written in red and if 'cute' was suggested by blue team, it will be written in blue.

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At some point of time, the group who managed to give the most adjectives or did not end with a noun, example below:

Jack shakes his big, gigantic, cute, enormous, small, likeable bottle

That group will win the first activity. The teacher will then have to take a photo of the list of words given. This will be used for the next activity.

Wordburn

Wordburn is meant for each group to 'burn-off' all the words that they have 'gathered' in the chaining activity. At this point of time, you will likely have two scenarios:

i) The winning group has a lot more adjectives written down as compared to the group that lost.
ii) The winning group has written only a little bit more adjectives as compared to the group that lost.

Wordburn is meant to even up the odds and to give the losing group a fighting chance. As such, if scenario one is the outcome, the winning group will have to construct a sentence for each of the adjectives that they have written down. The losing group will have to do the same too. However, this is a game of comprehension and speed, as such, the group the finishes the fastest gets extra points.

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However, if scenario 2 is the outcome of your lesson, do consider giving the winning group some form of penalty. This can range from less time to complete or even adding more adjectives for them to complete. Remember, the goal here is to gauge comprehension, as such, do not place too much focus on speed.

Conclusion

At the end of the lesson, the teacher can revise some of the more difficult words with the students. A few things to take note, if you are teaching students with low proficiency, you may want to provide a list of adjectives to support the activity.

I hope this has given you some ideas for your next class, do let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

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