FVR Fun: Game of Quotes

I have found an AMAZING, FUN way to infuse life into Free Reading time, thanks to a little post via the MN TCI Facebook group. (Thank you, Lydia Ann!)

Enter: Game of Quotes.

Here’s how it works. After Free Reading time is done, instead of returning their books to the shelf, students hang on to them and game time begins. Students form groups of 4-5 and compete to find the best passage that fits a specific prompt. Basically, a bit like Apples to Apples, but for books!!!

For example, I post the prompt, “Overheard in the teachers’ lounge” and students scour their novels (or other reading material) to find a phrase, sentence or multi-sentence passage from their novel that could fit that prompt. When a student finds a passage, she yells, “Got it!” Now, the race is truly on and students have 2 minutes to find a passage to fit the prompt. At the end of 2 minutes of time, each member reads their passage and group members vote on a winner. The winners of each group share their passage with the class. A much more detailed explanation can be found on The Book Sommelier Blog, where it was originally posted. (The author was inspired by this game...which I secretly can’t wait to play with my nerdy book friends.)

When playing the game, it doesn’t matter if all group members are reading the same novel or not. If they aren’t, students end up asking one another questions about their novels...kids are talking about books!!! If student are all reading the same novel, perhaps as a class, the game is just as fun because rarely do two students in the same group find the same passage. Now, students are asking one other where they found “X” passage...kids are talking about books!!!

I played this game with my Spanish III class recently, and we all had a blast. The slideshow containing the prompts I used can be found here. There are 25 prompts, broken into 5 different “games.” The prompts are in Spanish, but the English translation is in the speaker notes as well. (If you see any grammatical errors, please let me know and I will get them fixed ASAP.) Of course, regardless of the language you teach, you could always write the prompts in English so that students are focused on making meaning of their texts as opposed to deciphering the prompt. If the prompts are given in English (or L1), they could also be more complex, and perhaps more creative, than those I have included.

All in all, this is a powerful, engaging way to showcase student creativity as well as the books in your FVR library.

Happy gaming!