WHISPER RELAY

Target Group: All grades Difficulty Level: Basic

Conversation
Activity Objective: To practice three sides of communication
(speaking, understanding, writing) in a fun and competitive
way.
Procedure: Sentences are written on slips of paper, and put
face down on a desk/table in the back of the room. The
students are put into small groups (lunch groups, for example)
and then stand in a line.
The student in the back of the line runs to take a random slip
of paper. They read the sentence, give the slip to a teacher,
and then whisper it to the student in front of them. That
student then whispers it to the next, and so on.
The last student must write the sentence on the board to the
best of their ability. The teacher checks the sentence, and
awards a point if it's correct. Then the last student moves to
the end of the line.
The game ends when all students have rotated and everyone
has written on the board, when there are no more slips, or
after a preset time limit. Materials and
Preparation: A blackboard and chalk, slips of paper with
sentences written on them.
Division of Labour for ALT and JTE: Before playing, the
ALT and/or JTE write sentences on slips of paper. The
sentences should reflect current and past grammar points.
Each teacher should cover half of the groups during the
activity to make sure that students are not showing their
teammates the paper instead of speaking, using Japanese, etc.
If the sentences are using a recent grammar point, the JTE
may want to put an example on the board as a guide