Review Games in Spanish Class: a terrific twist on The Unfair Game

I came across The Unfair Game many years ago looking for a whole-class review game for my Spanish classes.

Basically, students work in groups to answer questions and the point value isn't revealed until after they've answered the question. And sometimes the point values are negative.

Or there's a twist on that, where groups can assign the point value to another group or keep it for themselves.

I think it sounds super fun and it adds a new level to the game beyond the Spanish vocab and grammar you're reviewing, but I just felt like it would leave my students screaming at each other and upset about negative point values... I couldn't bring myself to teach students those rules.

So I adjusted it. To make it less likely to result in screaming. Or maybe just imagined screaming.

How this review game works

Divide the class into teams

The Unfair Game ideally has 2 teams, but with classes of 30+ kids, I don't find this to be ideal. It's too easy for quiet kids to hide and not take part in the game when there are 15+ kids per team.

I divide the class into teams of 4-6 students. This likely results in 5-6 teams total.

The questions

The Unfair Game has one team answer the question and then take or lose the points.

And like the other 25 kids are supposed to... twiddle their thumbs silently?

Yeah okay.

I gave each group a small whiteboard and every team had to answer every question.

This meant every team got the point value assigned to each question. (As long as they got the answer correct.)

And if you don't have small whiteboards, a piece of paper will work just fine!

The point values

The Unfair Game has negative point values assigned sometimes. Even if students answer the question correctly.

I felt like this would potentially result in a mutiny in my classroom, which is something I generally try to avoid.

I only assigned positive point values ranging from 2-13 points to each question.

And I assigned the point values randomly - they're not an indication of how hard the question is.

The board set-up

I created 5 categories with 5 questions each (25 questions total). I lettered the questions in each category A-E.

Each group took a turn choosing a question, which all groups would then answer.

You can use this setup for literally any vocab or grammar topic and any level of Spanish!

The powerpoint

I created the powerpoint so that the Jeopardy-style slide with categories and A-E on it hyperlinked to each question when you click a letter, and each question slide has a button to take you back to the category slide.

And the answers are animated to the screen with a click so no one sees answers before I want them to.