This activity could be modified for beginning learners by utilizing more directed questions.

Questions such as: Where are you from? What’s your favorite color? What food do you like? should be explicitly stated in advance of the start of the activity. Teachers should also model this activity. Any advanced students among the groups could lead the activity in a differentiated lesson or group.

Sub-questions or follow up questions could also be supplied to help facilitate conversation among the student groups. Why is that your favorite color? What street did you live on? Who did you live with?

After the game is completed the teacher can quiz each member of the group orally to expose other students to variations of the sentence patterns. This would also provide an opportunity for repetition of sentence patterns among students. This also gets students using different pronouns and verb conjugations, if they are asked about their teammates.

A few other ideas could include: using the activity as a review of past grammatical lessons (ie:  “Write your 3 instructions using present perfect.”), or as a student-led activity (advanced students provide instructions and/or provide sample topics).

Thoughts by: Willow, Annabelle, Ben and Aaron