Grammar games for teens

1. Creating a comic

Divide students into 2-3 groups (2-4 students in each).

Give them a big sheet of paper and colour pencils or crayons.
Set a definite topic (optional).

The students work together as a team. They have to create and draw a
short cartoon or comics (4-6 pictures) on a given topic (e.g. shopping, hobbies,
travelling etc.) or they are free to choose the topic themselves. As an example,
they can create the main character that gets into different situations.
When the comics is ready, the students write a short story using grammar
structures they need to drill (e.g. Past Simple tense) and present or act it
together in front of the class.
Some helpful phrases can be written on the board. This activity also helps
to revise vocabulary (as an example, the students can be given some words
from their active vocabulary that they have to use in their story).

2. Alibi

The teacher pretends that one of the students is accused of having

committed a crime. The teacher describes his outer appearance so every
student recognizes who it is. The student who was described goes out of the
classroom with a friend who helps him to create an alibi. Outside the
classroom, these students are explained that they were accused of having
looted a shop last night and that each of them is going to be cross-examined
by two different groups of policemen and that they should be very careful not
to contradict each other in their statements otherwise they would be found
guilty by the committee. So, their task now is to think about a very plausible
and detailed alibi.
The other students are divided into two groups. Both groups should cross-
examine each of the suspects and find out by asking if there are any
differences in their accounts. If there is a difference between the first and
second accounts, the second examined is likely to have committed the crime.
When the two suspects come back into the classroom they are cross-
examined by each group until the committee find a contradiction in the
statements.

The aim of Alibi is to practice asking questions, to gain fluency in asking

questions in the past tense.