Eraser madness
I discovered a new twist to an old game. On a chalkboard wirte and underline: "Sublect," "Modal," "Adverb of Frequency." "Verb," "Object." Then below it write a starting sentence using that structure. For example: "Children should seldom eat candy." Then go around the room in a circle and have each student change only one word from any column. After he/she says a complete sentence, you the teacher must change the word by erasing it and writing a new one. The first change might be in the object column: "Children should seldom eat steak." The idea is for the students to say new sentences so quickly as a team that the teacher gets to the point where he/she can't keep up with the necessary erasing and writing and the students win. Optional changes include allowing the students to change two words. Generally more than 3 will be counter productive to the lesson. Another option is simply to change the sentence structure. In my experience, this game works better with advanced level students than intermediate because they want to show you they are apporaching fluency and are not struggling with the words themselves. Beating the teacher is the game. Drilling for grammar or vocabulary is the hidden target lesson.
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