Bad Advice
Subject: Imperative
Skills: Writing, Speaking, Listening
Level: Elementary
Recommended Age: 18+
Participants Number: 4-8 players
Time: 20-25 minutes
Place: Classroom
Equipment: A black- or whiteboard
Materials: A piece of chalk or marker
Preliminary Preparation. Not required
Immediate Preparation (5-7 minutes):
1. If possible, arrange the game participants in a circle or a sem-circle in front of the board.
2. Write on the board the following or any similar questions:
How to lose your job?
How to quarrel with your neigbours?
How to spoil your holiday?
How to fall into depression?
How to gain weight?
How to catch a cold?
How to weaken your eyesight?
How to be always late?
2. Ask each player to choose one of the topics and to write, on their own, bad advice for it in their notebook. Allow them a reasonable amount of time for completing this task. While the students are writing, circulate, monitor and assist, if necessary.
How to Play. When everyone has finished, bring the class to order. Aferwards, invite Player A to read out their advice. It might look something like this:
How to gain weight?
1. Eat fatty food.
2. Have dinner late.
3. Don't walk.
4. Don't do exercises.
5. Don't weight.
As a result, Player A gets five points by the number of grammatically correct items of their bad advice. After that, you ask the rest of the group what another advice they can give to someone, who would wish to gain weight. For each tip, unsaid before by Player A, the game participant gets one point. This time, it is Player B, whose turn to read out their bad advice and so on. The game continues around the circle as long as all the pieces of bad advice have been read out and suggested. At the end of the activity, the number of points, accumulated by each participant during the competition, is counted up. The player, who gets the most points in total, becomes the winner of the game.
Variation. You may wish to extend this activity for stronger groups or higher levels. To that end, ask the students to write questions similar to ones on the board on separate pieces of paper. When everyone has finished, collect them and redistribute. Writing bad advice for these topics may be set as homework. In this case, you might continue the game in the next lesson by adding the old and new results.