Name That Term

Based on the old game show, "Name that Tune", Name That Term is a fun, multi-unit review game.  It takes a good bit of prep, but once it's made, you will find it's totally worth the effort!

How to Play:

Students are divided into 2 teams. Each team sends a representative to their respective "hot seat" at the desks with the call bell. I arrange the room like this:

I identify a category and announce the number of words in a particular clue. For example, I might say, "The category is American Revolution and the clue is 23 words long." (I will explain later in the post my suggested way of preparing the clues.) The two players in the "hot seat" will take turns saying how many of the words in the clue they think they will need to hear before they can name the term correctly. The first player might say, "I can name that term in 20 words." The next would say something less than that, such as, "I can name that term in 15 words." The first player will then be able to go lower if he wishes, "I can name that term in 12 words." "I can name it in 10 words," the second player may respond. If the first player either doesn't think he/she can name the term in less than 10 words OR doesn't think the other player can name it after hearing 10 words, then he/she will ring the call bell and say, "NAME THAT TERM."

At this point, I read only the first ten words of the clue. For this example I would read, "Document that claims that people establish governments to protect rights."

The player that has been challenged must guess the term that I am describing. If he/she gets it right, his/her team earns a point. If the student misses, the other team garners a point. After the guess is made, I usually read the entire clue (in this case 23 words) so that students hear the whole clue. So, for this clue, I would have read, "Document that claims that people establish governments to protect rights and they have a duty to change a government that violates their rights."



WARNING! One tendency students have is to try and finish a clue as opposed to guess the term that the clue is describing. So for instance, let's say that the students in the example above got down to 9 words. I would have read, "Document that claims that people establish governments to protect." The guessing student will have an initial desire to extend the clue and guess, "rights!" as opposed to naming the term that I am describing here, which is the Declaration of Independence.

Preparing the Clues:

I make a list of the terms that I want to make sure my students know. Next, I come up with a clue to describe each word. I type them into a word document such that I have 8 words per a line by spacing the words (using the tab key). This will allow me to quickly know which word I should stop with. For instance, I know that if a student is challenged to name a term in 8 words or less, I am only reading words on the first line of my clue, and if the challenge is between 9-16 words I will not go past the 2nd line, etc. An example of clues from the American Revolution unit is below:



Notice how each clue has a random number of words.  The mix adds variation. With clues that have fewer words, students will often, with confidence, suggest that they can "name that term" in 3, 2, or even 1 word of a clue. It's incredible how successful many students are with very few words!


Students have consistently told me how much they love this game. For better or worse, there is some luck--both good and bad--involved. Students truly enjoy thinking about their strategies as they sit in the hot seat.  It gives students an opportunity to take risks and have fun doing so.

One of my favorite moves is when students in the hot seat stare each other down as they go lower and lower with the number of words they need to hear.

 

                                                      Okay, so it's not really that intense...