Row Races (all grades)

 

Author: Cheryl Bertsch, Aragon Middle School, Texas

 

Subject: Any

 

Objective: Drill and practice/recall of specific information.

 

Materials and Preparation: Place the students in rows with each row having an equal number of students. Each row is a team. The teams will need 1 piece of paper and a pen or pencil. The teacher just needs to have question or any content to drill with the kids.Students pick a name for their team and write the name at the top of their sheet of paper.

 

Student Grouping: 4 or 5 per group

 

The Play:

 

1. The teacher puts 5 questions (statements, words - whatever your content is covering) on the overhead/board and covers them so the students can't see them.

2. When the teams are ready (the first person of each team has the team's pen/pencil and paper), you give a start signal and reveal the information on the overhead.

3. The first person in the row answers question #1 and passes the paper back, the second person answers question #2 and passes the paper back and so on.

4. They may not speak (it could get really loud) but another person on the team may correct a question answered by another team member on the sheet of paper if they think it is incorrect.

5. The last person in the row brings the answer sheet to the teacher in the front of the room. The teacher puts the sheets in order by who finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.

 

Scoring: The team that finishes first gets a set number of points (whatever the teacher decides). Each subsequent team gets a number of points less than the team that finished before them. You then distribute the answer sheets to the teams (a team will not have their own answer sheet) and the team checks the answers for accuracy. If they find mistakes, points are deducted from the team's score who made mistakes. If a team says that there are errors on another team's sheet, but there are not errors, points are subtracted from the checking team.

 

Example: In Spanish 1 we are conjugating verbs in the present tense. The teacher writes the subjects on the overhead and covers them up until the start signal is given.

For example:

 

1. yo

2. ellos

3. ustedes

4. Juan y yo

5. Tú

 

(You can add or subtract the number of questions depending on how many students are in each row.)

 

The verb is then written on the overhead for the students to see. For example: Jugar

When the start signal is given the subjects are revealed and the students conjugate the verb according to which number they are responsible for completing and pass it on.