Choose a Corner (A1 Phonemic Awareness)


Choose a Corner!

Kamilla Varga 

(adapted for English by Jonnie Hill)

Part 1: The Game

Level & Learning Outcomes

Level: Beginner (not only for beginners, but I planned this game for a beginner class)

I designed this game specifically for my 3rd grade students, with whom I spend my German teaching practice. This game helps them expand their vocabulary and discriminate among English phonemes. After each round, the students have a few minutes to discuss with each other why they chose the given corner, thus developing speaking skills and peer interaction. Critical thinking is also quite strongly present in the game as a whole, as they have to think critically and make their decision relatively quickly based on their own opinion. Many times, the other students can also be an influential factor in making the decision. Also, I think their motivation increases, since almost everything is easier to learn in a playful way.


Materials needed 

  • Word List that focus’ similar sounding phonemes that students may not distinguish in their native language  (See Appendix)

  • labels for the corners of the classroom

  • tokens (optional, for scorekeeping)

Object of Game

Choose the right corner of the room as soon as possible.


Rules of Play

  1. On each corner of the room, post colorful labels with “F”, “V”, or “W”

  2. The students gather in the middle of the classroom.

  3. The teacher tells the students the task: they have to choose the right corner in the room based on what they hear.  The teacher tells them that he/she is going to read words out loud and they have to choose  whether the word begins with f, v, or w. They must walk to the correct corner of the room without running or pushing.

  4. The teacher reads the words out loud. Slowly and loud. The teacher may follow up with the word in a sentence, depending on the proficiency level of the students.

  5. Students after a short consideration have to choose a corner.

  6. Students have to discuss their decisions, why did they choose what they chose. If they disagree about something, they can discuss why their answer is  the right answer.

  7. The teacher can repeat this process as many times as desired.


Scorekeeping

This game was not designed to earn points and to win the game. 

If designing a scoring scheme, tokens are easier to keep track of. Students who hear the correct phoneme receive a token. At the end of the game, all the tokens can be counted.


Part 2: Reflection

Overall, I feel that this game was very successful and the students enjoyed it a lot. This was all new to them, they had never played a similar game in class and apparently everyone enjoyed it very much. It was actually very easy to run the game, everyone quickly understood the rules, there was no need to explain them too much and the whole game was played in the target language.

I started by printing the words der, die and das on colored paper in big letters and taping them in 3 different corners of the classroom. After that, I explained the task and its essence to the students, and the game could begin. I projected the pre-made powerpoint (which I attached next to the description of the task) onto the interactive whiteboard. Of course, every student looked to see who was going where, who was heading towards which corner, so they mostly always finished in one corner. After each word, we talked a few words about why someone thinks that the given corner is the right answer, so the communication also improved and I wanted to make sure that every student understood when what to choose and why (and not just ignorantly follows his/her peers).

Perhaps I would call the noise and bustle a kind of negative, since the chatting went on while they were walking here and there, so the noise was a bit louder than I had planned. But fortunately, this did not affect the success of the game. It was also very clear from the beginning that we would not run or push our peers. At the very beginning, there was running, then I told the students firmly to stop and it became clear to them that they were only allowed to walk.

I would definitely recommend this game to other teachers, as you can play this game with countless topics/words/questions, it doesn't even require any preparation if you don't want to use digitally projected teaching material. I highly recommend this game because it is also perfect for getting the students a little more active. After the movement games, they always return to learning a little more refreshed.


Part 3 Appendices


F

V

W

fairy

fan

font

fate

fault

fuzz

fast

fun

festival

fine

fee

very

van

vaunt


vault


vast


vest

vine

vee

wary


want

wait


was


won

west

wine

wee

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