It's no secret that I loved my past life as a self-identified 'cooperative learning' teacher. Thanks to the Anchorage School District and my methods teacher, I attended my fair share of Kagan strategies as a pre-service teacher and newbie public school teacher.
Once I learned about Comprehensible Input from Michele Whaley, Cooperative Learning Martina retired. However, like that retired world language teacher that you can still call on to sub for you in a pinch, Cooperative Learning Martina has kept her teaching certificate valid and still makes regular appearances in my lesson planning.
Quiz Quiz Trade is one of my favorite Kagan strategies because it is SO FREAKIN' EASY! If you are looking for a quick, interactive 'break' for your students--an activity to get them up and moving--this is a great one!
How does Quiz Quiz Trade fit into language classes?
Keeping in mind what we know about language acquisition, here are some things to consider when planning a cooperative learning activity for language classes:
Input precedes output.
Output must follow input. Students can only put out what has been put IN to their brains! What comprehensible input have you provided to prepare students for this activity? I'm not talking about going over vocab with them or analyzing an #authres. I'm talking SERIOUS comprehensible input--input that students can understand completely, not kind of, understand and mostly guess.
Forced output doesn't help students acquire language.
When output is forced (when students are made to write or speak before they are ready to write or speak), it is full of errors and raises the affective filter. Raised affective filter is bad for acquisition! Output that is full of errors is fair game for acquisition by other students in the class, so watch out--you want your students to receive accurate input so that they form a correct mental representation of the target language.
Input is indispensable to language acquisition.
Comprehensible Input is the one thing such that by doing it (providing it), all other activities become easier or unnecessary. Spend the bulk of your class time providing comprehensible input (the BIG bulk of your class time--not the slight majority), and cooperative learning activities like Quiz-Quiz-Trade become unnecessary, but easier if you choose to use them.
What exactly is Quiz-Quiz-Trade?
Quiz-Quiz-Trade is a Cooperative Learning strategy taught by Kagan Cooperative Learning. I highly recommend attending a Kagan training in your area! Workshops can be located on the Kagan website. Quiz-Quiz-Trade is a VERY easy strategy!
How to play Quiz Quiz Trade?
- Write a bunch of questions--enough for each student in your class to have one. In a class of 35 students, you'll want 35 different questions (or you could have two large groups of 18 and 17 students so that you don't have to write so many questions).
- Put each question on a card.
- Give one question card to each student. Make sure that each student knows the correct answer of his or her card (you could have the answer on the back of the card).
- Have all students find a partner using the Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up strategy (also from Kagan). Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up is also super easy: 1) All students stand up. 2) All students put one hand up, straight in the air. 3) Each student gives a high-five to another student that has his or her hand in the air. They are now partners!
- Partner A (the tallest student, for example) asks the question on his or her card to Partner B.
- Partner B responds.
- Partner A states whether Partner B’s response was correct or incorrect.
- Partner B asks the question on his or her card to Partner A.
- Partner A responds.
- Partner B states whether Partner A’s response was correct or incorrect.
- Partners trade cards. A and B each have a new card!
- Partners A and B put their hands in the air and repeat steps 3-10 to find a new partner, ask each other their questions, and ultimately receive a new card!
It is entirely possible that, through the course of the activity, a student will get his or her original card back as trades continue to happen. This is okay!
I recommend doing this activity for no more than 5 minutes in a language class. 5 minutes is enough time for students to get a lot of interaction (which is a nice break from input!) and not so much time that they get off-task. I manage activities like these with the “Hole Punch Police”, which you can read about here.
Can I see an example of Quiz Quiz Trade?
You betcha! Included in the Afrolatinos notables bundle is a set of question cards (40 cards, which should be more than enough!!). The questions are all true-false so that they require minimum spontaneous output from students, keeping input at the forefront of the activity (students READ the question cards and LISTEN to what their partner is asking, and they only have to SAY 'cierto' or 'falso'). The questions are based on the 20 biographies from my Notable Afro-latinos slideshow and grudgeball games product, which you can purchase here.
Click on image to download Quiz Quiz Trade instructions and Afro-latino question card set included in the bundle
