Test Your Knowledge
Minefields
| Level | Aims | Grammar | Time | Materials |
| junior high school third year to senior high school first year | To have students ask and answer clues using 'which'. | relative clause | 40 mins | Pictures (calendar size are great) and sets of clues for each. |
Divide the class into groups (lunch groups are fine for this), and hand each group a list of clues. Each clue describes one aspect of the creature or thing in one of your pictures. Do not show the pictures to the class, or the activity will dissolve into a simple guessing game rather than the effective listening/thinking exercise which it can be. Assign each group a name, and write these on the board. Have the first member of group one stand and read the first clue to the rest of the class. Group one members are not permitted to participate at this time, as they will have seen all the clues on their sheet, which would give them an unfair advantage. The other groups have to identify what animal/thing group one is describing. Limit the number of attempts at identification to two per team per clue. If no-one can identify the picture, the next team player stands and reads out clue #2. This continues until the picture is identified, at which time you can reveal it and fix it to the board, or until all the points have been read. If a picture is identified before all its clues have been read out, have the team read out the remaining clues anyway.
Scoring is done by awarding 5 points to any team that identifies the object from the first clue, 4 points for the second clue, 3 points for the third clue, 2 points for the fourth clue, and 1 point for the fifth clue. If no group can identify the object when all of the clues have been read out, the team reading the clues receives 5 points. As the activity progresses, start awarding double bonus points to help lagging teams to catch up. This helps keep everybody interested and participating.
The opposite page contains lists of clues used with pictures of Australian animals. Top to bottom, left to right they are: Koala, Wombat, Tasmanian Devil, Seal, Fruit Bat, Kangaroo, Frog, and Whale. DON'T feel obliged to use them, nor to limit the use of this activity to the designated junior high school third year & senior high school first year target group. The basic concept works equally well with, "This animal/thing can _____." for junior high school first year, or other grammar points with other ability levels. One variation is to provide the groups with a picture and have them construct the clues themselves. Then get the students to interact as described above.
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