Stop and Scribble: Participants stand at desks with partners, with one piece of paper and pencil for every 2 students. Teacher calls out physical activity:Participants begin activity and continue for at least 30 seconds or until the teacher calls out a vocabulary word. When the teacher calls out the vocabulary word, participants freeze and partners work together to try to spell the word correctly on a piece of paper. The teams with the most words spelled correctly win at the end of the game.
- Physical Vocabulary Learning Games
My adaptation
I taught the students "Hentilah dan Tulislah" (Stop and Write) quickly. Students wrote their answers in their notebooks, and gave themselves points in the top right corner of their page.
Instead of providing them instructions for actions, I had all students chant a word, and complete the matching action of the word. For example, "Buaya", the students would clap their arms open and shut like a crocodile. I would start them off on a chant, and they would continue. I would look around the room, and when I felt all students were participating in the chant, then I would call out "Hentilah dan tulislah!" The students then would write their answer. I also gave bonus points for those who could write down the English meaning of the word. I counted down after a few seconds, and showed them prepared printouts of the word to the class, so it was clear visually to the students how it was spelled.
Retrospectively, I would just have students write the answers in their own book, and have them check their partner's spelling and give them points instead. I believe this activity was useful for internalising the pronunciation of words, and the meaning of the words with the actions. In addition to this; majority of the class was able to spell the vocabulary, especially tricky words such as "kancil" or "lapar".
The kids found it engaging, and I would say I had a 98% participation rate this lesson.This was just a surprise for me being secondary trained, because I imagine high school kids would find this a little strange chanting as they do. But at the same time, very much useable. I always believe most games can be used across the years, depending on how it is framed when presenting the game!