Welcome to the track!  If your grammar is solid, you can win it all or if not, lose your shirt.  This is a great review game or can be used to target specific weak areas.  If you like this game check out the grammar Casino!  It's a slightly less complicated version and does the same trick.

The downloads:

These are in .doc (Word) format so you can change the template to suit your language needs.  This game can also be used with other foreign languages, French, Spanish, German ...

Formatted A4 size: At the Track (full color)    At the Track (b/w)

Formatted Letter size: At the Track (full color)    At the Track (b/w)

How to play:

Materials needed: 1 copy of the game board per student

• Students start with one hundred points.
• Students read the first sentence.
• Students decide if the sentence is grammatically correct or if there is a mistake.
• If the sentence is fine, the student puts an X in Lane 3 (the 'good' lane.)
• If there is a mistake in the sentence, the student puts an X in the appropriate lane.  If it was a spelling mistake, the student puts an X in Lane 1.  If it is a grammar mistake, the student puts an X in Lane 2.
• The students do this for all three sentences of the first race.

Here the teacher needs to explain the betting procedure.  Students can bet on one, two, or three of their choices.  There is a circle next to each sentence under the word 'bet'.  Students check which sentences they'd like to wager on.

You can make up your own odds, but I use:

• if betting only one of the three - a 1:1 return on their bet.  A 10 point bet gets the student 10 points added to their total.
• if betting only two of the three - a 3:1 return on their bet.  A 10 point bet gets the student 30 points added to their total.
• if betting all three - a 6:1 return on their bet.  A 10 point bet gets the student 60 points added to their total.

• After checking which sentences they'd like to wager on, the students then write in their bet on the bet line.  If they are confident, they can bet a lot.  If they aren't so confident, they can bet a little.  (I generally require a minimum bet of 10 points.)
• Students wait for all three answers from the teacher.
• Once the teacher tells the students the answers, they can check to see if they were correct.  If they were correct, they add the winnings (according to the odds) to their point total.  If they were wrong, they subtract their bet from their point total.
• Continue to the next race and repeat.
• The student with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.

The line under each sentence can be used to rewrite sentences with a mistake in them or it can be used to translate correct sentences into L1.  I sometimes have them do the translation, but recently I have just had them rewrite the sentences that had grammatical errors.

If students lose all of their points:  You will have plenty of students that let it all ride every time.  A good number of them will go bankrupt.  In this case, I loan them another 100 points but tell them they have to give me 200 points back at the end of the game.

This may sound confusing but it's pretty simple and the students love it!

Variations

Change Lanes 1, 2, and 3 from spelling, grammar, and good to the number of mistakes in the sentence.  So, each sentence has at least one error in it, but may have up to three errors.  Students play the same way but wager on how many errors each sentence has.

Just as a spelling game: write a list of 3 to five words on the line.  Include some spelling mistakes in 1-3 of the words.  Change Lanes 1,2, and 3 from spelling , grammar, and good to one, two, and three. Students play the same way but wager on how spelling mistakes each question has.

If students lose their bet on the first question,  have them subtract their bet from their total, but give them the option of placing another new bet on the remaining questions.  This might help to keep them interested.

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