Jeopardy-style Media Vocabulary Game

This game will help students learn and review a variety of media terms in a non-threatening and fun way.

A lesson plan for grades 3–5 Information Skills

By Myrna Price

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Learning outcomes

Students will demonstrate knowledge of a variety of media terms.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

10-20 Minutes

Materials/resources

index cards

pens or markers in two different colors

Technology resources

None

Pre-activities

Teach the meaning of media terms.
Examples:

• fiction
• non-fiction
• Caldecott Award
• Newbery Award
• dictionary
• atlas
• thesaurus
• synonyms
• antonyms
• guide words
• idioms
• audiovisual
• multimedia, etc.

There should be at least one word for each student. Teaching these terms is not a stand alone activity, but an integral part of our media lessons about stories, authors, and research materials that occur throughout the years the students are in elementary school. This game will review and reinforce those lessons.

Activities

1. Preparation of Materials:

   The teacher will create question and answer cards in the following manner:

   • Draw a line to divide the cards in half.
   • Using a red pen (or any color), write the word “Start” on the top half of one card.
   • Using a blue pen (or any different color) write on the bottom half of that card a definition to one of the vocabulary terms.
   • On the top half of the next card, write in red the term being defined in the form of a question. For example, the bottom half of one card would read “words that have the same or similar meanings” and the top half of the next card would read “What are synonyms?” -On the bottom half of the second card, write the next definition.
   • On the top half of the third card write the vocabulary word being described.

   All definitions will be blue and all vocabulary words will be red. Remember to write your answers in the form of a question. Continue in this manner until all terms and definitions have been used. The last card will have a term on the top half, write “Stop” on the bottom half.

2. Activity:
   
   • Shuffle the cards and give one to each student.
   • The person who has the Start card stands up and reads the definition.
   • The person who has the correct term on his card stands up and states the Jeopardy question. If the answer is correct, the first person sits down and the second person reads the definition on the bottom half of his card. (If the answer given is incorrect, that student sits back down and another person who thinks he/she has the correct answer stands up. There is no penalty for incorrect answers.)
   • Play continues with each person giving a correct answer to someone else’s question, then reading the definition on the bottom of their card for another student to answer. (You can’t give the answer just because you know it. You have to be the one with the correct card!)
   • The game is over when you reach the Stop card. I have found that students generally want to play more than one game, so shuffle and start again.

Assessment

When the class can go all the way through the deck with no incorrect answers, you will know they have learned their media vocabulary.

Supplemental information

None

Related websites

N/A

Comments

This is not an original idea. I heard about something similar in library school. However, I have modified it a bit. I am passing the idea along because it is so simple, the students enjoy it, and it can be adapted for many other lessons. For example, you could match descriptions of stories with their titles or titles with authors.