“What is this?” By Michael M. Magbanua

Give your students a very interesting and meaningful reason of bringing their own

dictionary in class. Try facilitating this non-conventional dictionary drill. It’s so fun and engaging! This

group game allows students to work collaboratively by hunting words from their own dictionary the

quickest and exact as they can. To play, it is highly recommended to use common copy of Oxford

Dictionary. This can also be used as an enhancer activity to a vocabulary or part of speech lesson.

Target Learners : has to tailor-fit to target learners

Alloted time : about 10-15 minutes

Materials : Oxford dictionary; teacher’s wordlist; marker and answer board for each

group; tissue papers; a prize for the winning group

Procedures :

1. Divide the class equally into small groups (ideally of 4-5 members only)

2. Distribute each group’s answer board, marker, and tissue. (See my improvised answer board).

3. One by one, write only the first three (or first four) of the word you initially prepared on your

list. You may prepare 10-15 words. Consider a grammar lesson, say simple present.

4. Have them listen as you announce the meaning (synonyms and/or antonyms).

Teacher’s sample input: (happ_____) This “happ___” is a verb which means to occur or to

take place.

5. Emphasize that they have to listen to your “go” signal before starting the word hunt on their

own dictionary. On a freeze mode, ask them to raise their dictionary. Doing so avoids cheating.

Student’s sample output: happen

6. On your mark, have them search and then finally write and say the exact word on their answer

board. Wrong spelling (even faulty word form) won’t be considered. Correct their pronunciation

if needed.

7. To recognize their answer, let them raise their answer board. Grant your *assigned point/s for

every correct answer. (Scoring variations: 1st=full; 2nd=half; 3rd=.25 point only) (*Assigned

point could be also graduated points like 1, 2, or 3…)

8. At the end of the game, total each group’s score and then award the winning group.

VARIATIONS : b. What are the verbs/adjectives/nouns found on page ___?

c. How many adjectives are found on page ____?

d. In Arabic, it means __________. On page ____ what is this word?

COMMENTS : For a competitive game like this, expect students to be very vocally expressive.

Just try to manage tolerable level of noise. Please feel free to customize.

Enjoy teaching!

The improvised answer boards

To change answer, clean the plastic jacket using tissue paper.

Ask each group to show their answer like this. Have other groups

recognize too the winning group’s correct answer then proceed to the next

and last round.