If you are looking for a lively way to work on several language concepts at once with your middle school students, then grab yourself a large poster board that can maintain stability when leaned against a wipe board, 12 small envelopes, and some small pieces of paper! That is all you need to make your own Jeopardy game. I like to mimic the real game by sorting answers into increasingly difficult categories, but I keep mine simple and use 1-3 point answers. I also like to use four categories of "PEOPLE", "THINGS", "PLACES", and "TIME" to coincide with the ever popular "WHO", "WHAT", "WHERE", and "WHEN" questions. You can make up your own stimulus or take them from any therapy manual. Regardless of the source, use those small pieces of paper to write the answers and then place each paper going from easiest to hardest in their corresponding category envelope. That's it. The whole project should take no more than 30 minutes to create!
Once you have the poster board with envelopes attached, you can always change the categories or even make the game reflect seasonal topics. Before we play the game, I spend a few sessions working on the following: matching questions to appropriate answers; asking "WH" questions; using good manners as though you are on a real TV show; and turn taking. You may need to use some paper bags during training with the category names and starter words to questions written across the bag (See picture on right.) Often, my groups have included several students or even classrooms with children who have varying ability levels; therefore, I always provide one point if the student remembers to use a polite question such as, "Mrs. Cote, may I please have ____ for ___ points? I typically have students respond in the form of a question after I read their answer, but you can adapt this game to best meet goals for students on your caseload. I have been playing this game for years and it has proven to be a real crowd pleaser! For more information about this game, see my published article in Advance Magazine for Speech Language Pathologists at this link!
Given our busy, "frenzied" schedules, I thought that I would make your lives a bit easier by creating some answer cards for you! Each row represents statements for increasingly challenging answers starting with level one and working up to level three. You can grab, print, and cut yours at the links below:
What Questions
When Questions
Where Questions
Who Questions
