Climbing Grammar Mountain: How does it work?

Climbing Grammar Mountain is easy to prepare and can be adapted to the unique needs of different classrooms. Preparation

Draw 4 vertical climbing lines (for a class size of approximately 20 students) on the board or on an overhead transparency. Leave space on the bottom of the transparency to show one sentence at a time. Divide each line into 10 segments to represent vertical feet. As in the example below, mark the segments 10, 20, 30, 40, etc.

	Climbing Grammar Mountain
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20




















	Team 1	Team 2	Team 3	Team 4

Prepare a series of sentences. Some should be correct, and about three quarters should contain one grammatical error per sentence. Choose these sentences from the students' work, or develop sentences to correspond to the particular grammar point or points the class is currently working on. Conversely, the game could be a culminating or review activity and could include one error each from a wide variety of grammatical issues. (See the Appendix for sample sentences you can use as models.) Run off the sentences on a transparency and cut them apart. Place them in a paper bag or envelope ready to draw from during the game. Divide students into 4 teams of 4 or 5 students each. (Organize the number of mountain climbing tracks and teams accordingly.)

Instructions to students

Today you are going to race to the top of Grammar Mountain. In this activity, you are going to compete against other mountaineering groups to get to the highest point on the mountain before our class time is up. In order to climb the mountain, you will need energy and equipment. These things are available in the form of sentences.

When it is your team's turn, you will be given a sentence. You will need to determine if the sentence is grammatically correct or not. If you believe the sentence is correct, you can assign 0, 5, 10, or up to 20 vertical feet to the sentence. If it is indeed correct, you will advance that far up the mountain. If the sentence is incorrect, your team will fall down the mountain the number of feet you assigned to the flawed sentence.

Teams can win 5 bonus feet for correcting a flawed sentence. The team whose turn it is gets the first chance to correct the sentence; then other teams may try to earn the five bonus feet.

Have a great climb, and we'll see you at the top!

For the teacher

Before you start the game, ask the students to get into teams of four or five people depending on how many students are in the class. Have the students choose a name for their team. Start by playing a practice round of the game.

Provide the whole class with a correct sentence that is fairly easy to identify as correct.

Ask each team how many vertical feet (up to a maximum of 20) they are willing to award to it. Show how you would move a player up the mountain by that many vertical feet.

Next, provide a sentence that is incorrect. If students award any vertical distance to it, they must go back down the mountain that many feet. If students recognize the sentence as incorrect and do not wager any vertical feet on it, they can stay where they are. Allow them a chance to correct the sentence for five bonus points.

After the practice round, begin the actual play, using the sentences you prepared. Draw one sentence at a time. Show the first team one sentence and have them make their play. If the sentence is incorrect, give the playing team the first chance to correct the sentence for 5 bonus feet. If that team cannot correct the sentence, open it up to the rest of the class and give the answering team an extra 5 bonus feet. Then, move on to the next team, drawing a new sentence.

The game continues until you have used all the sentences.

How did it go in the classroom?

While developing this game, we asked our students to give us written anonymous feedback. These students were the same students who said that grammar is "boring" and related to "suffering." Most students commented about the aspects of fun and participation, things that were lacking in their previous grammar experiences. For example, one student wrote: "It's a cool way of learning grammar alright. Makes boring grammar fun! Studying grammar in high school was boring." Another student commented, "Yes, it was fun. It's better than just memorizing the rules."

When asked what they learned from the game, some students focused on the grammar target of our lesson, but others commented on the importance of paying attention to detail. For example, one student wrote, "I have to read everything more carefully." And another wrote that he/she learned "how to search for mistakes."

Students also commented that they hoped we would play the game again in class. The overall feedback from the students was positive reinforcement for our belief that students can learn and have fun at the same time. We found that using Climbing Grammar Mountain in our Freshman Composition classes worked well. In addition to the learning opportunity and enthusiasm fostered by the game setting, this activity specifically helped us meet two of the course objectives listed below: l. To improve students' understanding of the fundamentals of effective written communication, especially grammatical usage, sentence construction, paragraphing, and essay development. 2. To help students learn from others through such activities as peer review, team work, and group discussions.

Looking at the first objective, Climbing Grammar Mountain focuses the students' attention on grammatical usage and sentence construction. The game provides a way to address these two areas in such a way that the target structures are being reviewed and reinforced in an interesting, engaging manner. The game also meets the second objective by allowing the students to work and discuss together as a team to judge the validity of the sentences. If you use sentences taken from the students' own written work, the students would also be engaging in a peer review session.

<== попередня сторінка	\|	наступна сторінка ==>
Activity 2: Tree-leaf correspondence	\|	Adaptability to different student populations

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