TITLE: CURRENT EVENT JEOPARDY
AUTHOR: Connie G. Ford, Eastgate Elementary,
East Helena, MT
GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT: 4-12, current events
OVERVIEW: Once a week our class is fortunate to receive a
current event newspaper written for our grade level. It
contains interesting articles about recent happenings from
all around the world. In the past we had usually read the
paper either together or silently and then discussed it as
a group. Although the articles were of high interest, the
same old weekly pattern of reading and discussing had
become tiresome for the students as well as for me.
PURPOSE: In order to create some variety and fun while
studying our weekly current event newsweek, we will create
questions and answers to use in a game similar to Jeopardy.
Cooperative skills will also be used as the students work
together in their groups of four.
OBJECTIVES: Desired specific outcomes are:
1. Students will read their current event newsweek with
the purpose of highlighting possible questions and answers
for the Jeopardy game.
2. Students will use their cooperative learning skills
to decide which questions are to be used, the price of each
question according to it's difficulty, and who will be the
group secretary.
3. Students will develop study skills for finding the
most important information in an article.
RESOURCES/MATERIALS NEEDED:
1) one current event newspaper for each student, ie:
Scholastic Newsweek or Weekly Reader
2) paper and pencil for each student
3) one light colored marker or highlighter for each student
4) a chalkboard in front of the classroom
5) a piece of red chalk, blue chalk, and white chalk.
ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
1. Weekly current event newsweeks are to be passed out to
each student. Students are then to read the magazine
silently and use a light colored marker to highlight any
information they think may be used in the upcoming game.
2. When the majority of the class is finished reading,
I assign each cooperative group of four students one article.
(If there are extra articles, some groups may be assigned a
second article if theirs was a short one.)
3. Each student then decides on a question from their
article to use in the Jeopardy Game. He must also have the
correct answer.
4. Each group secretary uses one sheet of paper to record
his group's article title, the names of the students in
their group, and the four questions and answers that have
been decided by the group members.
5. Members of each group then give each of their four
questions a price of $100-$400 according to it's level of
difficulty. The price should then be written next to each
question. Upon completion, the teacher will collect the
papers from each group.
6. While the groups are working, the teacher uses a
chalkboard to make a Jeopardy Board as follows:
across the top of a grid write, PUT ARTICLE TITLES IN THESE
BOXES. Going down, write $100, $200, $300, $400.
7. I then divide the class into two large groups, making
sure not to separate any members from their cooperate group.
The first group will be called the Blue Team and will use
blue chalk on the Jeopardy board. The second group will be
called the Red Team and will use red chalk on the Jeopardy
board.
8. The Jeopardy Game begins with one student from the
Blue Team. He selects one of the six article categories and
also a dollar amount. (He may not choose the article that
his group designed.)
9. I then read his question. He has fifteen seconds to
come up with the correct answer. During this fifteen seconds
he may check back to his news magazine containing the article
and highlighted information if he chooses to do so.
10. If he answers correctly, he may go up to the Jeopardy
board and write the dollar amount in the appropriate category
box using blue chalk.
11. If he does not answer correctly, the Red Team then has
fifteen seconds to answer the question correctly.
12. Only a student who did NOT help to design questions for
that category may answer, and every member of a team must try
to answer a question before any of his team members answers a
second question.
13. If neither team can correctly answer the question after
two tries each then the dollar amount goes to me and I fill in
the appropriate dollar amount for that category with my white chalk.
14. The game continues as each team takes turns selecting
categories until the entire Jeopardy board has been completed.
At this point the money earned for each team is added up to
determine the winner of the game!
15. During the course of the game, if a student believes his
answer to be correct and the group's answer who originated the
question to be incorrect, he may challenge the question and
prove them wrong with his evidence from the article. If he is
successful, his team is then awarded the dollar amount for
that question.
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER: As a class, discuss strategies that
were used during the game. Share ideas for ways to find answers
more quickly. Discuss why some answers were too difficult and
why some were too easy. Were the main ideas of the articles
covered in the questions? How could our cooperative groups
function more effectively? Some students may even want to take
the newspaper home the night before and begin reading and
highlighting information early. I feel this is acceptable
especially for slow learners.
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