Answering the Phone: GAME (wrong number, see if in, don't speak English, etc.)

[MaestroCantus]

OK, I just finally out together a game that I want to see if I can get my middle school students to play.

I want to teach them HOW to answer the phone in English . . . with 4 basic dialogue answers:

A) If the person is calling you, and you answer --- AKA.  "Speaking"
B) If they dial a wrong number.
C) If they call someone who should be there --- AKA. I'll see if he's home/in.
X) If they don't speak any English --- AKA. I'm sorry. I don't speak English. Wait a minute. I will find someone who can speak English.

Yeah, I had this idea for a game (to randomize the calling/response and practice the dialogues) in my head for a long time . . . but it really was difficult to work out.

Here's my solution . . .  see if you think it'll work, or if you use it, let me know how it turns out --- I probably won't get around to teaching it for a few months. (One of my "filler" lessons).

Video (Roseanne TV Show) I downloaded to use as an example --- hard to find a good video showing how English people answer the phone at home:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu3PLv_ASQE

[cassie123]

Thanks for these uploads. I used these with first grade students for a chapter that had phone English in it. I used a different video intro - the giant cell phone from Trigger TV or the Really? Windows phone ad.

The kids LOVE the powerpoint, especially the "2MB" - kudos on that.

The game is awesome! Be prepared to use a lot of time to explain it. Explain it to your co-teacher ahead of time and make sure he/she understands prior to classtime how to play. The kids were confused unless someone who really understood it well explained in Korean. I would not play without a co-teacher or high level student who could help explain in Korean.

The kids enjoyed playing a lot, but it took some handholding for them to understand moving along the spaces and which dialogues to choose. In larger classes, it was a problem because they needed me or the co-teacher to work with them, which usually left 2 or 3 groups unattended. Once each group had played with guidance from the CT or me, they could keep playing, but there was a gap for some groups.

I removed "Will" in the "I will be" at the bottom of the worksheet and made it "I am" because that tripped the kids up. I also wrote in A: and B: in front of the sentences in the dialogue and that helped as well.

Heads up: You need enough dice for all the groups and something game pieces for them to move. They couldn't handle writing on the game board.

Again, amazing game that definitely took a lot of thought and work to put together. This was great.

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[bazza83]

Cheers for all the youtube videos. I'm going to use the Rosanne one and see how it goes