Communication in Charade Game - Essay Example

Your full Communication Game Charade is a guessing game believed to have originated in France where one of the participants act out a word or phrase for the other participants to guess (A 2 Z Creative Teaching Methods). Learning opportunity To let the students express their creativity in acting To encourage the students to express their thoughts by guessing On the part of the teacher/host, this game can help him/her to gauge the vocabulary and pronunciation of students Audience/ Participant Participants to this game can range from 5 years old and above as this is an easy game which one can adjust to cater to whatever age level it is applied to. For younger participants, easier words/phrases should be given them and should be adjusted according to their level of understanding. Likewise, words or phrases should be chosen according to the lesson for the game to be more efficient and more productive. Resources You will need strips of paper and pen. Setting This game can be done during birthdays, educational meetings, classes and other events indoors or outdoors. Briefing Before the game starts, divide the participants into two groups. Give these instructions: Every member will have his/her chance to pick up a strip of paper where a word/phrase related to the lesson is written. The actor, one member of the group will act out the word/phrase while the other members will guess. They can divide words into syllables and phrases into words when acting so, before the game starts, you can give them time to plan on their secret codes like showing the ring, middle and point fingers up to denote ‘W’ for word and making a fist to tell the group members that they are to guess for a phrase. Sticking out the point finger can mean the first word or syllable and raising two fingers mean the second word or syllable, and so on. No actor is allowed to make sounds or let his/her group mates read his/her lips, that is the lips of the actor should never move. Pointing to a thing to give away an answer is to the teacher or host’s discretion if it is allowed or not. The time limit for each actor should be given. Three minutes is ideal or can be adjusted to cater to all participants at a given period of time. If there many participants, you can lessen the time for each participant to act. To reach the aim of improving verbal communications of the participants, guesses can be required to be in sentences and not just words. For example, instead of just saying ‘word’, the guessers should say, ‘Is this a word?’. Appropriate punishments must be explained before the game starts to avoid misunderstandings during the game like, if an actor is caught moving his mouth, the group will have deductions from their score. Scoring should also be well-defined. For instance, a group guesses correctly in two minutes and one second to three minutes, they will have a score of 1, if they correctly guess the answer in one minute and one second to two minutes, they will be credited 3 points but get 5 points if they answer correctly in one minute or less. More punishments can be imposed depending on the discipline the teacher or host would like to draw from the participants. The groups can draw lots on who is supposed to play first. Process After giving all the instructions and rules, the game can start with one actor from each team playing alternately until all have acted. The actor picks a strip of paper where a word or phrase is written. The actor is the only one allowed to read what is written on the paper among the group members. He then acts out the word or phrase for the other members to guess, being creative enough to communicate the written word or phrase through non-verbal communication. Variations: Variations to this game could be done in order to concentrate more on the development of the participants’ communication skills. This variation is advantageous especially in smaller classes where you can group the participants by twos. Rationale This guessing game aims to enhance the participants’ verbal communication skills. Participating in a game compels someone to talk, even those who are often quiet. This variation of the game, charade encourages every participant to talk since there are only two members in a group. Being under time pressure, the guessers reveal the scope of their vocabularies and word pronunciations which the teacher can note for corrections after the game. The participants’ deductive reasoning is also sharpened in this game as they try to analyze how they are going to guess the word or phrase correctly in a systematic way in the least possible time. On the other hand, it can also improve the written communication skills of the participants as well as the value of team work as they participate with the players. Resources You would need bigger strips of paper, preferably board paper where you can write the word or phrase to be guessed. The letters should be large enough for the participants to read from a distance of at least one meter. You may also need two helpers, one to hold the board paper and another to score the players. Briefing The playing partners will be seated at least three meters away, facing each other. The strip of board paper will be held above the guesser’s head so that he will not be able to see the written word/s. He will be asking for clues to the word or phrase from his partner until he will be able to give a correct guess. The other participant on the other hand is only allowed to answer with ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘maybe’. If he answers with other words, appropriate deductions can be declared for them. For the participants to make the guessing easier, they are supposed to be advised to use deductive reasoning. For instance the word to be guessed is ‘Dinosaur’. The guesser will ask, ‘Is this a non-living thing?’, ‘Is this a living thing?’, ‘Is this a person?’, ‘Is it an animal?’, ‘Is it small?’, ‘Is it big?’, ‘Is it extinct?’, and so on until the guesser is able to get to the specific word or phrase. Remember, the other participant is just allowed to answer with ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘maybe’ and nothing else. The same rules regarding time limit and scoring will hold for this game. For the other participants not to get bored while waiting for their turn, you can challenge them to improve their written communication skills. Scores are great motivators, so you can give additional scores to them per group or individually. The other participants should stay behind the guesser and imagine themselves in the place of the guesser. Instead of verbalizing their questions however, they should write them on a piece of paper, numbered. At the end of their list of questions, they should write the correct answer whether the guesser got it correctly or not. This is for you to easily check if there are improvements in the students’ reasoning aside from their written communication skills. This will also prepare them for their turn so those who are playing later are at an advantage. Process After giving all the instructions, making clear the do’s and don’ts, and laying the scoring rules and regulations including deductions, let the players draw lots for the order of players. The game proceeds to the next set of players when the guesser gives the correct answer or in case their time is up even if they were not able to give the correct answer. Collect all papers of those who are not playing every after each turn to avoid the students from simply copying what they have written in the earlier games. This will give them room to think of how they are going to improve their strategies in guessing. Debriefing Asking the students to say something about their experience of the game can also help them in communicating their thoughts verbally. You may also ask them how they feel after the game to help them feel even more at ease. If they express dissatisfaction to the activity, this would be a good chance for the teacher to ask how they would have let the participants play if they were the teacher or host for the game. Knight, Lizette F. and Sonia Silbor. A 2 Z Creative Teaching Methods. Church Strengthening Ministry, Inc. 2006. Print. Read More