Jeopardy Review

     I really had to wing it the first semester I taught. I made so many mistakes. Thankfully the students caught my enthusiasm more than the booboos. I assigned readings I wouldn’t assign today, and I conducted activities I wouldn’t repeat. However, I have kept two bits throughout my time teaching, the ice breakers and the Jeopardy review game.
    Back then, I didn’t know how to wrap up my first semester. I am not a fan of tests, so that was out. I looked for some engaging way to review all we had done during the semester. I was lucky enough to hit on a teacher’s website who used a Jeopardy game in his classroom. He had a link to a blank Jeopardy game on PowerPoint that I downloaded and have used ever since. (There are many templates on the internet now.) The game is perfect for a last class.
     I use the same categories each semester.  For elementary writing, the five categories are Words, Creative Writing, Examples, Definitions, and Miscellaneous.  This Jeopardy game is the most fun for me to create, because I use the students as characters in my slides.

For middle school English and high school literature, the categories are Literary Elements, Quotes, Authors, Characters, and Miscellaneous.

      I have written the games so that the windows from 100-500 are increasingly difficult. Often the students prove my guesses at difficulty wrong.  I attempt to be tricky too. I wrote a 500 Characters for Poe’s Raven as: An annoying being with limited speech who taunts a grieving man.  I have since found this one way too easy. When I wrote 300 Characters for Poe’s Montresor in Cask of Amontillado as A man with a trowel and a torch, leading a thirsty man, I found it was rarely remembered. The students chide me for it but all in jest.
      I also try to find the most entertaining examples possible. For instance, here’s my entry for Hyperbole under the Literary Terms category. I tell the class who Ms. Nadja is, of course (a vibrant violin player).
     Example (Tom Robbins, “Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg,” 2005) :

“ Play for us, you big wild gypsy girl, you who look as if you might
 have spent the morning digging potatoes on the steppes of Russia;
you who surely galloped in on a snorting mare, bareback or standing
 in the saddle; you whose chicory tresses reek of bonfire and jasmine;
 you who traded a dagger for a bow; grab your violin as if it were a stolen
 chicken, roll your perpetually startled eyes at it, ...; fidget, fuss, flounce,
flick, fume–and fiddle; fiddle us through the roof, fiddle us over the moon,
higher than rock ‘n’ roll can fly; saw those strings as if they were the log of
the century, fill the hall with the ozone of your passion; play Mendelssohn for us,
 ...play until the cherries burst in the orchard, play until wolves chase
 their tails in the tearooms; …” 

     To play, we either play as a group if the class is small, or we break up into 2 teams. I keep score (never revealing the numbers but telling which team wins). If a team guesses correctly, the points are awarded. If incorrect, the other team takes a shot at it. As we alternate teams, I ask different members to choose the slide. This way each person has some input. Anyone on the team can answer, but I ask them to consult the whole team first. Sometimes I give slight hints if they are on the right track. If it’s too easy, I plant a poker face. The game takes about an hour to play, so it’s important to watch the clock to keep the students answering -- or questioning, in this case with Jeopardy.