At the Track: Grammar

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· Students read the first sentence.

 Students decide if the sentence is grammatically correct or if there is a mistake.

 If the sentence is fine, the student puts an X in Lane 3 (the 'good' lane.)

 If there is a mistake in the sentence, the student puts an X in the appropriate lane. If it was a spelling mistake, the student puts an X in Lane 1. If it is a grammar mistake, the student puts an X in Lane 2.

 The students do this for all three sentences of the first race.

Here the teacher needs to explain the betting procedure. Students can bet on one, two, or three of their choices. There is a circle next to each sentence under the word 'bet'. Students check which sentences they'd like to wager on.

You can make up your own odds, but I use:

 if betting only one of the three - a 1:1 return on their bet. A 10 point bet gets the student 10 points added to their total.

 if betting only two of the three - a 3:1 return on their bet. A 10 point bet gets the student 30 points added to their total.

 if betting all three - a 6:1 return on their bet. A 10 point bet gets the student 60 points added to their total.

 After checking which sentences they'd like to wager on, the students then write in their bet on the bet line. If they are confident, they can bet a lot. If they aren't so confident, they can bet a little. (I generally require a minimum bet of 10 points.)

 Students wait for all three answers from the teacher.

 Once the teacher tells the students the answers, they can check to see if they were correct. If they were correct, they add the winnings (according to the odds) to their point total. If they were wrong, they subtract their bet from their point total.

 Continue to the next race and repeat.

 The student with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.

The line under each sentence can be used to rewrite sentences with a mistake in them or it can be used to translate correct sentences into L1. I sometimes have them do the translation, but recently I have just had them rewrite the sentences that had grammatical errors.

If students lose all of their points: You will have plenty of students that let it all ride every time. A good number of them will go bankrupt. In this case, I loan them another 100 points but tell them they have to give me 200 points back at the end of the game.