Heads Up Game to Reinforce Vocab & Build Oral Language

If you watch the below clip of  Ellen Degeneres Heads Up Game, you'll see these two celebrities playing a game, but their oral language is just exploding! I know Ellen has an app that you can download on your device- but to incorporate this into your instruction, you do NOT need the app! Simply use index cards with vocabulary that you want to reinforce. You can play the first part of this video to explain how it works, or simply FISH BOWL the strategy (pick one student to try this out with, and have the rest of the class observe all around!).

Please note in the above video, Ellen has a part that goes on to Accents & Impersonations. I have to say that the Accent part really rubs me the wrong way - and I know it probably does for you, too. It looks like the celebrity she was with was also incredibly uncomfortable "acting out" different accents. Just want to share this as a disclaimer. 

I have my own version that I do in workshops with educators. Here's a sample slide deck that I use with a way to do this whole-class using one "set" of materials. In the slide deck, you'll see how I incorporate movement by asking folks to stand up when their group answers correctly. It gets LOUD - but it's SO FUN and gets the language flowing! In between rounds, I'll typically ask folks to share out what clues they gave to their teammate. This structure does require SOME prep (if you wanted to do it on slides, you'd need to prep the slides in advance, or have notecards/post-its for each group, etc.).