Wheel of Knowledge (Szűcs Alexandra)

Name of Game: Wheel of Knowledge

What inspired you in the creation of this game?

The TV show Wheel of Fortune inspired me to create this game. The spinning wheel of this show is the basis of my game, but I altered the original rules and created a completely different game from it. 

Preliminaries

Number of players: Groups of two or three (the number of groups depends on the number of students + a host

Age/ Proficiency Level: B1-C1 (but the game can be adjusted to lower levels, as well)

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Play Time: 10-15 minutes

Preparation: Customize the two Spinning Wheels (wheel 1: topic names, wheel 2: parts of speech). Link to an editable wheel: https://www.classtools.net/random-name-picker/

Object of the game

Students will be able to recall vocabulary from the topic covered. The game is appropriate for later stages of a vocabulary learning process after they have already learned and practiced these. It can be used as a revision tool for students.

Roles: 

host - one student

teams - students in groups of two or three

notetaker - one student in each group

Rules of Play

Since students will be playing in groups, the first step is to choose a team name.

Then, they will compete in three rounds, with each round requiring them to complete different tasks to earn points. Each round begins with spinning the wheel, which reveals the round's topic to the players. As the students complete the rounds, the tasks become more challenging.

Round 1:

The host spins the wheel, and the teams should write as many words as possible in connection to the topic IN ONE MINUTE. Only one player should make notes, but their teammates can help. After one minute, the host asks the groups to read out their wordlist. The teams will get one point for each word they collected. The host writes the points on the leaderboard.

Round 2:

The game will become more difficult in the second round. The previous round's winner spins the wheel, and the teams should write as many words about the topic as possible in ONE MINUTE. They will, however, only receive points for "original" words this time. That means that if two or more groups write the same word, none of them will receive points. The players will be informed about this at the start of this round; therefore, they will start thinking differently. So they may write more difficult or advanced vocabulary items. After one minute, the host asks one person from each group to come to the board and write their wordlists. If the board in the classroom is too small, students can type their words in a Google Doc so that everyone can see it. The teams will get points based on the original topic-related vocabulary items they collected.

Round 3:

In the third round, the previous round's winner spins the wheel, and the groups should write as many words about the topic as they can in ONE MINUTE. But before they start writing, the host spins the second wheel, which contains the parts of speech (e.g. nouns, adjectives, verbs). The students should write words to the topic in the given parts of speech (e.g. only adjectives to the topic travel). After one minute, the host asks one student from each team to read their wordlist. The teams will get two points for each topic-related word with the correct parts of speech.

Scoring

Round 1: 1 point for each topic-related word

Round 2: 1 point for each “original” word

Round 3: 2 points for each topic-related word with the correct parts of speech