Do you think Jeapardy is overated.
 

In my years of teaching almost everyone I've met raves about playing Jeapardy with your students. I personally think its one of the most overated games out there. This is why.

Its basically teacher centered. The students don't get much opportunity to speak. Its not bad for listening but if you've got a multi level class there is a tendancy for just a few students to dominate the lesson leaving many students sitting idle. Most of the answers are just one word. If the teacher is asking the questions that means the majority of the speaking is done by the teacher.

Then again most kids really like it so its good for developing your rapport. Overall I would say its OK to use it but in moderation.

I guess it depends on how it's played. Here is what I have done to make the game as least teacher-focused as possible. I actually played this game with my university students a few weeks ago to review for their final. It went over really well and I actually was able to easily identify some of the weaker students and help them come up with the best answer.

The first thing I do is to take the speedy 'I'm First' element out of the game. Therefore everyone gets a chance to answer and to win or lose points. I break the class up into small groups of 2 or 3. Instead of speaking the answer they discuss the answer with their group and then write it down. Therefore noone can copy another's answer and everyone gets a chance to answer. If they are right, I give them the points of that square. If they are wrong I deduct points. You could also just reward points for being right and do nothing for being wrong.

The last game I played we were reviewing past and future. The categories were: "Who", "What", "Where", "When" and "Why". Under each category were 5 boxes with points 100 to 500 just like the real game show 100 being the easiest and 500 being the hardest. The teams take turns picking a category and an amount. Then I would say the answer: "I ate pizza." or "I am going to the hospital.". They would write the answer (really the question) down on their paper. "What did you eat?" or "Where are you going to go?".

It was a great review and I think it got almost everyone involved.

Eric

I agree that it is a little over-rated. I think if your hours are numbered there are better things you can do with 50 minutes.

In jeopardy's defence, I think if you can get everyone involved (like Eric posted) and use it as a platform for review or to cover common mistakes.

Over all rating: It's fun and I wouldn't harrass someone who uses it once or twice a year, but once a month is just killing time.

Absolutely. It does take up a lot of time and should be used conservatively.

Excessivly playing Jeopardy is the sign of a newbie. Then again we were all newbies at one time.

Re: Do you think Jeapardy is overated.
 

I think it is a little overrated, but i agree on the comment of how it is played. when i used to play it the class would make groups and then make an order within the group. the questions don't HAVE to be single word answers. even if the question is as simple as "what time did so-and-so teacher get up?" make the students answer "she/he got up at 6 o'clock", instead of it just being "6 o'clock". the good thing about games like jeopardy is that you can focus on a grammar point for most of the questions and the students still feel like they are getting a break from english training. my major beef with the game is that once a team has a lot of points the other teams give up. that is why i now play "the typhoon game" which i am sure you've read about on other sites. if not here is the gist of it

prior to class make a score sheet. with random scores from as little to as much as you want...i usually have somewhere in the low 20's as my highest score. add a few T's for the score. make it in a grid format with a, b, c, d, e on one side and 1,2,3,4,5 on the top side

when class starts make a grid on the board just like your score sheet but don't fill in the points.

when the students answer they say i want a-2 or whatever, and they are given the score you wrote down prior to class. the T's are 'typhoons' and erase all the points that the team has earned. the students get really excited b/c it pretty much means at any point they can come ahead or the team that is ahead can lose it all. if you find a team has gotten points and no longer plays for fear of getting a typhoon you can call on them regardless if they attempt to answer or what i usually do is change one of the scores on the sheet to something right above the winning teams point (i.e. yellow team has 35 points, and isn't playing, red team has 12 points and just answered a question correctly...they picked square E4, which says is 8 points but i'll change it to 23 points or more so that they are now equal with yellow team forcing yellow team to play again).

the students love the game and are always requesting to play it. but i try to keep it a treat for when we do play it. much like jeopardy it can be played out.

now bingo, i think that game is WAY overrated. and in japan, we do BINGO fore everything.