Sunday 18 October 2015

Kerajaan (Empires)

I was just thinking the other day that I should add something,  and then this morning I came across Andrew Teo's version of Empires as written up in Warta WILTA - I've copied it verbatim below. I love games that get students to use and then remember vocab items like this, and can't wait to try it out with my classes. 


Students write a word/term on one side of a small piece of paper and their name on the other side. The teacher collects and reads all the words/terms on the pieces of paper. It doesn’t matter if words/ terms are also used by other students. Students listen and remember the words.

A nominated student starts off by asking another student: “Apakah kamu ... [word/term]? The person asked answers “Ya, saya.......” or “Bukan, saya bukan..........” [if it is a noun] or “Tidak, saya tidak .......”[for verbs/adjectives]

These ways of asking and answering should be written on the board for easy reference. If the questioner gets it right, the student who answers “Ya, saya .....” is OUT of the game AND moves over to where the questioner is sitting. This student is now part of the questioner’s EMPIRE. The questioner keeps asking others as long as he/she gets right answers. If not, the person who is asked has a turn.

When a questioner asks a student who already has an ‘empire’ and gets it right, then he/she gets all of the ‘empire’. The ‘empire’ moves over to where the student who got it right sits. The student with the largest ‘empire’ [after a certain time] is the winner. Generally, in most games, I’ve found students are able to recall all the terms used and it ends up with one student being the winner.

NOTE: To speed up the game, give each student only 5 seconds to ask a question. Students who are part of someone’s ‘empire’ are to help recall what terms haven’t been used ie they are helping. 

One variation that I may make would be to write the list of words up on the board in English, so that it becomes about remembering the meaning as well as the word itself. I think that the it's important to keep the students who have already been selected engaged, so the final point that Andrew makes about them helping create the largest empire could prove to be particularly useful. I suspect that it will very quickly become a game of strategy in my classes!

What would you change? Or would you leave it as is? Do you have a favourite game or variation that I haven't included? I'd love to hear from you!
Salam,
Danielle