Guessing games can be a great way to practice language in an authentic context. Here are some of my favorite guessing game activities.
Activity #1
I first shared this activity in my post about gender inclusive language back in the fall. I created the activity below to promote interpersonal speaking. I color coded the boxes to reinforce the gender of each person. This year I have also made a concerted effort to include more example names that reflect the diversity of names found in the French-speaking world.
Activity #2
For the Guess Who game I made below, all students are given a virtual copy of the board in Microsoft Word. One person in each group or pair thinks of someone on the board and the others ask questions to figure out who it is (primarily using adjectives). Students have the ability to use the draw tool in Word to cross off people they know it can’t be until they’ve determined who it is. This is an activity you can come back to the following class. Then, eventually (in a subsequent class), students write a description of one of the people, and I read some of them off while students try to figure out who it is.
Activity #3
Here’s an activity I do at the beginning of the year to promote listening skills. Students have already learned numbers up to 60, how to state one’s nationality and what city they’re from, and how to state their age. I also introduce some basic professions, such as actor, singer, and student (for the Harry Potter characters). Note that I also introduced the gender-neutral forms of actor (un.e acteur.ice) and singer (un.e chanteur.euse) that are used by non-binary folks. Once students have all the essential vocabulary, I then assume the identity of someone on the board below and state my profession, nationality, age, and city of origin. Then the students ask me if I am a particular person and I tell them if they were right. A variation on this activity is that students could do this themselves with a partner, but at the point in the year when I do this, my students don’t have the speaking skills yet to easily do this. This could easily be modified to be done in the third person as well, and other facts could be added such as hair and eye color.
Image Credits (Clockwise from top left):
“Demi Lovato during an interview in February 2020” by Ashley Graham is licensed under CC BY 3.0.
“Billie Eilish at the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards in Los Angeles California on March 14, 2019” by Glenn Francis is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Megan Thee Stallion in a video from Ashley Graham in September 2021” by Ashley Graham is licensed under CC BY 3.0.
“Emma Watson at the Cannes Film Festival 2013” by Georges Biard is licensed under CC By-SA 3.0.
“Celine Dion performing ‘Taking Chances’ at Celine Dion ‘Taking Chances Tour’ Concert @ Bell Centre, Montreal, Canada in August, 2008” by Anirudh Koul is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
“Matt LeBlanc at the 2013 Arqiva British Academy Television Awards, Royal Festival Hall London, UK” by Richard Goldschmidt is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
“Actor Rupert Grint being interviewed in 2018” by Sidewalks Entertainment is licensed under CC BY 3.0.
“Originally posted by Vanity Fair YouTube channel on 10 December 2020 (reposted by VOGUE Taiwan)” by Condé Nast through VOGUE Taiwan is licensed under CC BY 3.0.
“Daniel Radcliffe speaking at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con International, for ‘Horns’, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
“‘An Evening with Justin Bieber’, Allstate Arena, Rosemont, IL, 11/18/15” by Lou Stejskal is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Activity #4
This is one of my collaborative PowerPoint activities. I put the students in groups and give each group a slide. Then the students must pick a weather photo to describe. They write three sentences: one stating the presumed season and one stating two presumptions about the weather. Then I read them off to the class and the class guesses which photo was described. In the example below, all except the dog photo are photos I took around our town.
Activity #5
To practice talking about food and prices, I give my students a board with various food or beverage items on it. Each item (or sometimes a food or beverage item paired together) has a name and a price next to it. Students pick a name off the board and announce what they would like (whatever items are next to the person’s name) and how much it costs. Then their partner tries to guess who they are. For copyright reasons, I can’t show the board, but below is an example of one item that would appear on the board. If a student picked this person, they would say “Je voudrais un sandwich. Il coûte 5,50€.” Their partner would then ask, “Tu es David ?”
Activity #6
I first blogged about this activity back in 2013. After we have learned the vocabulary for giving basic biographical information about others, students pick a mystery celebrity or character. Then the students write six hints as to who the person is. First, they state if it’s a boy, girl, man, or woman, child or adult (for non-binary folks). Then, they state their profession, age, nationality, and hometown (all in complete sentences of course!). Finally, they say “Il/Elle/Iel s’appelle X.X.” with the “X.X” representing the person’s initials. They put all of this information on a mini poster with a picture of their person covered by a flap, so no one can see who it is at first.
This assignment could easily be adapted for upper levels by using different tenses, and/or allowing for more details and expansion in the responses.
Once the students have completed this assignment, they go around the room reading their clues and trying to stump their classmates. It’s always fun to see what celebrities students pick.
Activity #7
I call this activity “La ville secrète.” I give students 6 global cities to choose from. Then, I tell them to secretly choose a city to travel to. With a partner, they take turns guessing where the other person is. They ask things like “Tu es à Paris ?” (Are you in Paris?), and if the answer is no, they say “Non, je ne suis pas à Paris” (No, I’m not in Paris), and keep guessing until they get it right. This gives them an authentic context to practice “I am” and “Are you.”
Do you use guessing games in your classroom? If so, what are your favorites?
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