The sequence game

February 13, 2008 in Activities, classroom dynamics, listening, reading, speaking | No comments

This milling activity is very simple. Each student has a different sequential series written on a strip of paper. Their task is to find the participant wıith the exactly the same sequence as them self. For this to be a speaking and listening task, monitor the learners carefully to ensure they don’t show their sequences to people.

Aim: Learners will participate in a milling task involving sequences. Ex. counting

Materials: pre-prepared sequential prompts. In this case, numbers and the alphabet are used.

Time: 5-10 minutes

Level: A1-B2 or higher level for setting up random pairs.

Skills: Reading aloud, speaking and listenıng

Here is an example of two partner sequences:

Learner one: 20, 15, 14, 5, 6, 18, 12, 1, 13, 19, 18, 12, 5, 6, 12, 14, 16, 5.

and:

Learner two: 20, 15, 14, 5, 6, 18, 12, 1, 13, 19, 80, 12, 5, 6, 13, 14,

… the students have to find another student with exactly the same code. To do this, they mill around the classroom, reading their sequences and listening to other participants’ sequences. In the example given above, these learners do not have the same sequence and so must continue searching (i.e. practising). Monitor carefully to check that the learners are not turning your activity into a reading activity.

Sometimes it is useful to have codes without partners (that is no ‘learner two’), so that students have to look harder and for longer - but you will have to inform them at some point that you have played a dirty trick on them…

  • I have found this activity useful for setting up pair at higher levels.
  • You might try focussing on certain phonemes that learners confuse such as ‘18′ and ‘80′ or ‘e’ and ‘i’

Here are some sample sequences that you can copy and paste and adapt to suit your needs.

20, 15, 14, 5, 6, 18, 12, 1, 13, 19, 18, 12, 5, 6, 13, 14, 11, 17.

20, 15, 14, 5, 6, 18, 12, 1, 13, 19, 80, 12, 5, 6, 13, 14, 11, 17.

20, 15, 14, 5, 6, 18, 12, 1, 13, 90, 18, 12, 5, 6, 13, 11, 16, 17.

20, 15, 14, 5, 6, 18, 12, 1, 13, 19, 18, 12, 5, 6, 13, 11, 16, 17.

And for the alphabet:

Q W E R T Y U I O P A S D F G H J K L E Z X C V B N M

Q W E R T Y U I O P A S D F G H G K L E Z X C V B N M

Q W E R T Y U I O P A S D F G H J K L E Z X C V B N T

Q W E R T Y U I O P A S D F G H J K L I Z X C V B N T

Q W E R T Y U I O P A S D F G H J K L E Z X C V B J M

Q W E R T Y U I O P A C D F G H J K L E Z X C V B J M

Happy teaching!

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