the Paper Game is a speaking activity and speaking game for any age and any level. It can be used to practice any question and answer you'd like, and it functions like a targeted Big Town game with complete flexibility.

I originally made this game 7 years ago and it was actually the inspiration for Big Town and then eventually the others, Little Town and High Town. I'd never posted the game, because I didn't have the resources (knowledge) to make it flexible enough for the users, but now I do!

The instructions are up on the game page as well as the game generators. Let me know if you have any questions about the game or if you have any problems with the game generators.

Oh, and MES-English turned 3 today!

Happy b-day, MES-English!

I just up loaded 11 new categories for the game.

insects
feelings
numbers
fruit and vegetables
people/occupations
body parts
family
shapes and colors
nature
countries
places

Mark, I'm currently discovering the beauty of the Paper Game. However, I really need to ask you to run through how you orchestrate it for a group class, with the winning of papers and whatnot. I see that you recommend printing three times the papers than the number of students (check) and that the winner of an exchange takes the paper from the loser. Obviously, the two partners in an exchange will have to have matching papers, so that means each time a paper is won, both partners will need to get new sets to continue, correct? So far, the logistics of this in a somewhat large group (11) has scared me off, so I've just been having them square off with the same papers and partners and keep a tally of how many exchanges each partner won. This has kept it relatively simple, and still allowed them to practice the language without too much moving around. Do you have anything to add or suggest to make it more of a group contest as you seem to envision? I'm forever endebted to you for your awesome work. Thanks!

Well, I have just one sheet and they are all identical. So in a large class you'll make 120 of the same sheet. The variability in the exercise comes with the choice of which character they choose to be.

In this respect the activity is really focused on one language point. When I used in in a class of 45 nursing college students. The top row said things like

__'a headache' __ 'allegic to medicine' __ 'a cough' __ 'a fever'

21 ____Y
13 ____Y
42 ____Y
65 ____N
7 _____N


The row down was a list of ages (not names as this suited the activity better.)

So students would meet and then would play rock, paper, scissors. The winner was the nurse and the loser would choose their age.

They then go through a simple exchange of the nurse getting the patient's information.

N: Hi, how are you today, I'm your nurse, Nurse XYZ.
P: Good morning.
N: You're scheduled for some tests today but first I need to ask you some questions.
P: OK.

********* game starts: the nurse can ask 2 questions and then guess the patient's age

N: Do you have a headache?
P: (looks at their sheet for their age and answers accordingly)
N: Are you allergic to any medicine?
P: (looks at their sheet for their age and answers accordingly)

Nurse tries to guess the patient's age based on the information they received.

N: You are 43 years old, correct?


- If the nurse guessed correctly, they win one paper from the patient.

- If the nurse guesses incorrectly the game is over and they break away to play again with a new partner.

** they close the conversation appropriately after the Paper exchange takes place. **

and that's it

It's a great game for practicing specific language in quick exchanges. You can also use it, as in this case, to set up mini-role plays. If you use the template, you can edit the information in the grid so students can practice questions other than yes/no.

__________ near ________ next to ________ between ________ ...

Elm St. ____ the laudromat
Baker St. __ the cafe
1st St. ____ the laudromat
...

A: Where do you live Tom?
B: I live near the cafe?
A: Oh, do you live between X and Z?
B: No, I live between Q and R.

****** game: A has to guess the street that B lives on

A: Do you live on Baker St.?
B: Yes, I do.

Does that make more sense?


I did a podcast and the game of the week was the Paper Game.
http://www.mes-english.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2128

The game of the week is at the end of the podcast, but you can fast forward through chapters if you just want to listen to my explanation of the game.

Mark-

Thanks for the explanation. It hadn't dawned on me that if I made all identical sheets, there'd be a lot less procedural hassle. I was thinking that I could work in a few more vocab. options for variety, but I'll try it as you suggest. I'll give your podcast a listen when I get a chance. I had been meaning to listen to the CLIL one as well. I'm writing an essay for a masters program on content-based instruction and was curious what you and your guest had to say about CLIL, which seems to be the European branch(?) Thanks again!

I played the Paper game for the first time yesterday in a large class, and here's how I handled it. I made only one paper for each kid, and then gave them bits of scrap paper to trade. Since we've done games with scrap paper before, this was easy for them to understand and much easier for me to make (and easier on the color printer, too.) The kids held on to their chart the whole time, and if they ran out of scrap papers, they could come to me for more.

Yes, I've found play money is a good alternative to having to make so many copies of the paper games too, so that's how I've recently done it.

awesome game Mark

many thanks

I haven't tried the game yet but soon will.

The scap paper idea sounds good to me.

On the color printer side, I don't make color copies of the board. I just make black and white copies. The students don't care.


Thanks! It's one of my favorites.

I can see why its one of your favorites!

I use plastic chips (like checkers)

they are cheap and strong

Hi Mark,

Just to let you know that it took a while before my teens warmed
up to this game but now they love it.

They especially like playing a fast game with the sand timer and have 3 minutes to find the person!!
If they don't find the person, then they play rock, paper, scissors to win the other person's paper.

They love the names that I put as I shorten them all and
sometimes the girls pick a boy's name as they like the
sound of it.

Might try it with some of my adult groups.

I also print most of them up in black and white and some in colour
depending what I pick in the way of a subject.
So, thanks for a great speaking game!!

here is my idea for this great game! (Thanks again Mark)

Allow them 3 tries for general target structure questions then they have to try to guess who the person is.
And for every YES answer they 1 point.

So if you are doing "do you play .....?" (sports)

eg in pairs, each student can ask 3 questions.
eg "do you play soccer? do you play tennis? and do you play golf?

Then, they must guess to see who the person is.
Ie Are you John?
For every correct guess (ie a YES, answer) they get 1 point.

This activity sounds really good, and I'de like to try it with my high school girls. They are really hard to get involved though. I have a class of about 35, and usually no co-teacher.

I'm wondering how you monitor cheating (or "cunning" in Konglish) in this activity. I think students may just switch their character in order to win. So, perhaps they choose character 1, but lie and say it was another.

My students also refuse to get out of their desks and move around, which sucks because it limits activities like this that I would love to try. or else they just use Korean and shout at each other across the room.

Any suggestions?

In reply to how to keep the students from changing their choice

assuming you are using 1 game sheet for the 2 players;

probably the best way is to have a small simple set of name cards that match the names on the game sheet,
The person choosing will have a set of name cards in their hand, when they choose a person they must put that name card on top (they are still holding the set in their hands but the other player can not see them)
hopefully that will stop them from changing?

of course another idea is to give them separate sheets and they number the person on the sheet
ie 1st round, the student choosing a person writes 1 next to the person they choose (on their sheet and so the other player can't see)