Style Wars
When?
This is a great activity for when you are nearing an assessment and are sure your students understand a reading. This is great for just before a timed write, an assessment, or as a brain break following a heavy reading activity
What?
This is a competition between the class. I've done it in halves, which seems to work really well. The halves compete in reading part of the passage back and forth in different styles. The winner is the group with the most points.
How?
Set Up
- Divide the class into halves.
- Give the class a story. Today, they received a copy of all the poems we've read this semester.
- Put a list of "styles" on the board (see below).
- Give students 8-15 minutes to practice and strategise different styles.
- Play the game!
Play
- Groups read in turns. They get to choose the style the opposite team reads in. e.g. if team A is reading aloud, team B chooses their style.
- Teams can earn up to three points: 1 for reading in unison, 1 for reading each word in the selection, 1 for style
- The teacher is the judge!
- Do this for as long as time allows or as long as planned.
- Tie Breaker
- Each team volunteers their "best" reader.
- The teacher chooses a style.
- Both read at the same time, in the style. The teacher chooses the winner.
Styles
The styles can be anything you'd like them to be. I always listen to suggestions, but I decide the ones we choose. I also decide which ones I will not put up on the board for various reasons (too much, inappropriate, disrespectful towards a group of people). Here are some of my favourites:
- canibus - like dogs
- felebus - like cats
- avibus - like birds
- vaccis - like cows
- matribus - like mothers
- magistris - like teachers
- infantibus - like babies
- celeriter - quickly
- lentissime - very slowly
- tacite - quietly
- "valley" - in a valley/"California" accent
- "Southern" - in a "Southern" accent
- "British" - in a "British" accent
- somniosis - sleepily
- tristissime - very sadly
- irate - angrily
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