Chain
Paragraphs
1.
Enter
your team name on the board.
2.
One
member of the team should write the first sentence of a paragraph and pass the
paragraph to the right. The next member
will write the next sentence and again pass the paragraph to the right. This process should continue until the
paragraph is 10 sentences long.
a.
The
first sentence should be a commitment sentence; it must make a promise that the
rest of the paragraph will develop.
b.
Narrative
paragraphs are very easy to write and thus they are prohibited in this
game. Paragraphs that tell a story will
receive no points.
3.
The
first team to complete the paragraph should award itself two points on the board.
The next team to complete a paragraph should award itself one point and announce that the other teams
must stop writing.
4.
Scoring. Teams should exchange paragraphs, and the scoring team will score
the paragraph, reading it aloud and awarding it one point for each coherent sentence (after the commitment
sentence). Enter the total points
earned at the top of each paragraph and circle the number.
a.
Coherence
can be judged by following the promise of the commitment sentence; if a
sentence does not develop the promise, the paragraph does not develop the
promise and has lost coherence. It will
sound as if the writer has started a new paragraph.
b.
Once
the paragraph has lost coherence, it cannot be regained, so no more points can
be awarded. For example, perhaps the
first three sentences develop the commitment sentence, but the fourth one does
not. The team will only receive three
points, even though sentences 5-10 develop the promise.
c.
Give
the scored paragraph back to the team that composed it and enter the score on
the board.
5.
Appealing scores: Composing teams may appeal scores awarded to their paragraphs. An appeal is filed by slamming the paragraph
in question on the teacher table.
a.
Appeals
are judged by members of teams not involved in composing or scoring the
paragraph. Teams may consult on issues,
but each member of the judging teams must vote individually.
b.
The
appealing team will explain the number of points they think the paragraph
should have been awarded and why.
c.
The
scoring team will defend their scoring of the paragraph.
d.
Rebuttals
and questions are allowed.
e.
If
the appeal is denied, the appealing team suffers a three-point penalty.
f.
If
the appeal is granted, the appealing team is awarded the extra points earned
plus one point for a successful
appeal; the scoring team is penalized twice
the number of extra points earned (for unsportsmanlike behavior).
Copyright ©1993 Patrick Hartwell and Robert H. Bentley. Permission is granted for noncommercial educational use, with acknowledgement of copyright.
Patrick
Hartwell-Indiana University of Pennsylvania
The Great
Punctuation Game
1.
Form
teams of three or four. Name your team
on the scoreboard, and select a magazine from those at the front table.
2.
Mark
two sentences in the magazine. The
first sentence should have: one colon
(:) OR one semi colon (;) OR one dash (--), plus associated
commas. The second sentence should
have: two or more colons, semi
colons, and dashes (and parentheses may also be used), plus associated
commas. Write these sentence on the
board, omitting all punctuation. In
fairness, write in word-internal punctuation, like apostrophes and hyphens (as
in word-internal), and include
quotation marks and italics, since they aren't predictable. Note the magazine and page numbers of your
sentences so you won't lose your place.
3.
Teams
will project their sentences in turn, and other teams will guess the
punctuation of the sentence. One member
of the team will go to the board, read the sentence, and enter the guesses of
the other teams. The other members of the
team will quietly keep score, announcing the actual punctuation of the sentences--and
the scores awarded--only after all teams have guessed.
4.
A
team that matches exactly the punctuation of the sentence will be awarded two points; a team that comes
"close enough" will be awarded one
point. (Teams are encouraged to be
liberal in the awarding of one point.)
If no team exactly guesses the punctuation of the sentences, the team
projecting the sentence earns two
points.