MATERIAL IDENTIFICATION AND USE SAMPLES

Socratic Soccer Ball

Socratic Soccer Ball is a funny game which encourages students and the ones who think
reading is boring or the unengaged ones to develop speaking and critical thinking skills by
making use of a receptive skill, reading, in this case. First, let’s define what does Socratic
mean? This word refers to the search for new ideas by using logic. So that, this game
involves movement and students are not just sitting and reading just for comprehension, but
looking for ideas to predict and criticize a text. It primarily provides language practice.

Level:

Basic, Intermediate and Advanced

Time:

10-15 min

Materials:

You will need a typical soccer ball (black and white color) which will be numbered from 1-9
in some of the white sections, covering not all of them, but try to fill around the ball. It
would be better if you fill in all the white sections with different numbers from 1-20 since
the soccer ball has 20 white sections, this way you will provide plenty of questions to
make students answer and think of. The number of questions depends on the last number
you fill, if it’s from 1-9, so it has nine questions. I wrote some questions just to give an
example.

Procedure:

• Make students stand up and form a circle

• Throw the ball to one of the students, so the one who caught the ball can choose one
of the numbers in his/her line of vision and say it loud
• Ask the student the right question depending on the number he/she chose
• After the student answers the question, he/she passes the ball to any of the others by
throwing it and then step to the outer circle and listen.

For example: If the student chose number 5, the question is What do you think about the

text? (After reading) or how do you think the text will end? (Before reading)

QUESTIONS AFTER READING

1. Where did the events take place?

2. Who was your favorite character? why?

3. What did you learn from the text?

4. What part do you like the most?

5. What do you think about the text?

QUESTIONS BEFORE READING

1. Look at the cover, what do you think it will be about?

2. Why do you think the author used this title?

3. What ideas come to your mind when you see the title?

4. What do you think will happen in the text?

5. How do you think the text will end?

COMMENT:

This game was set for a reading activity focused on skimming. The students will be given a
reading at the beginning of the activity, so they will have the chance to start thinking about it
and follow the steps for a Top-down activity since they have to work moving from ‘big’ to
‘small’. from the beginning.
The aim of this material is to make students develop critical thinking skills and use of
language, so speaking and reading skills are involved as well. For this activity it has been
thought that students can run this game before or after they read, that is the reason why I
attached the questions for each one. In both, they are involved in a Top-down activity. Making
predictions, infering are key examples of ‘Big’ to ‘Small’. Furthermore, this material is mainly
developed for upper intermediate or advance students since they already can speak ‘fluently’
giving the answer with explanation or extra information, but it does not mean Basic students
cannot work with this material, you can provide them some prompts, in order for them to
follow the right sentences to answer the questions and if there are words they do not
understand, give a ‘wildcard’, for example, al list of questions to ask about meanings, e.g.
What does mean?
What is the meaning of ? What do you mean by ?
I consider this material will be effective for some reasons. First, during reading activities we
can find students who do not like reading and think this is boring, so by using this game,
those students will find it funny and will get engaged because this game is dynamic and
interactive between classmates. Second, by using the questions like the ones shown above,
the students will develop critical thinking and speaking skills in a reading activity. And that is
what we are looking for. We want them to improve and develop the use and practice of
language. Finally, this game could also work better for kinesthetic students since it also
involves physical activity. Some students can have inconvenient working with this material
because of lack of vocabulary, for example, but the use of prompts is crucial in this part for
those who may have troubles. Shyness could also be an inconvenient, but this is a game
which involves interaction between classmates all the time, so they will break the ice anyway.
WHO’S LYING?

Comments:

Who’s lying? is a funny game way to review any topic or vocabulary words. It is based on
strategy, thinking skills and the dynamic primarily provides language practice in listening and
speaking skills as well.

Level:

Beginners, Intermediate, Advance

Time:

10-15 minutes

Materials:

You will need a deck of playing cards. Or alternatively you can make do with slips of paper.But it
would be better and more fun with real Joker cards.

Procedure:

✓ Take from the deck the same number of

cards as there are students and make sure
that one of the cards is a Joker.

✓ Pass the cards around, each student takes a

card without looking at the others.

✓ Tell the students that if they now hold the Joker, they cannot tell the truth at all.
Everybody else must tell the truth.

✓ Going clockwise around the class, students take it in turns to ask any other student one
question about anything they want. (Focusing on open question will make the activity
more challenging)

✓ If a student thinks they have identified the liar they can make a challenge, but if they are
wrong, they have to sit out the rest of the round.

How to Make It:

You can make the students form different forms but it will be better to form a circle,so we can
follow the clockwise while playing the game.

Consider to be part too. It generally adds to the fun and students will look you to model good
questions. The game descends into hysterics with students struggling to keep a straight face
when they get dealt the Joker. And it is up to you to make an arbitrary judgment as to whether a
question is too specific.

This game was specially made for practicing speaking and listening and it does involve thinking
skills. Furthermore, formulating questions is the most important part of the game because they
have to identify who has the Joker by asking question. This way the students caninclude the
vocabulary or expressions talked in class.
Likewise, students can have some problems while working
with this material but those are minimum, e.g., when
formulating questions, fluency, accuracy and
communication, so this is something they will improve
by working with partners because, this way, they get
more vocabulary from the others and, as it was mentioned
before, the teacher should be part of the game, in order to be as a model to formulate questions
better. I strongly believe that this material is very effective for students will be using the new
vocabulary learned all the time and as it is a competitive game, they will also put all their effortto do
it correctly. We are covering an authentic output activity.