The Big Jobs Quiz

Objective & content

A projected team quiz on jobs and the present simple, with real photos, for one game of 35 to 45 minutes. The class plays in 2 to 4 teams through six rounds: What's the job? (a photo and a word bank of jobs: nurse, chef, firefighter, mechanic, hairdresser, vet, pilot, teacher; teams write a full sentence such as "She's a nurse."), Where do they work? (a gap with a word bank of places: hospital, restaurant, supermarket, school, farm, garage, kitchen, plane), Odd one out (job words that end in -er or -or, a or an, and restaurant jobs), He works, she helps (the verb in brackets becomes its third person form), Yes or no? (questions answered with the short answers Yes, he does. and No, he doesn't.) and Name three! (three jobs in a hospital, in a school, with a uniform). There are 36 questions and 45 points. Pupils meet about 50 words for jobs and workplaces.

Pedagogical guide

Every question slide is followed by its answer slide, so the class sees the answer at once and the teacher only keeps the score. This quiz tests the present simple with he / she (a chef cooks, a doctor helps) and the articles a and an, and teams write sentences, not single words: accept any correct sentence, with or without the contraction ("She's a nurse." or "She is a nurse."). In What's the job? the word bank stays on the screen, so pupils choose the job and concentrate on the structure (He's a... / She's a...; with a photo of several people, They're vets). Where do they work? uses the same bank idea for places. Odd one out is worth 2 points and makes patterns visible: teacher, singer and builder end in -er, but doctor ends in -or; an goes before a, e, i, o, u (an actor, an artist, an engineer, but a nurse); a chef, a waiter and a waitress work in a restaurant. He works, she helps practises the third person -s with the verb in brackets, and the lead reminds teams of the spelling changes: -es after ch, sh (teaches, washes) and consonant + y becomes -ies (studies). In Yes or no? the class says the short answer together after the answer slide ("Yes, he does." / "No, he doesn't."), which is a good moment to point out that the short answer does not repeat the main verb. Name three! accepts any right job: the answer slide lists the most likely ones, and your pupils may find others. Every round opens with a Useful phrases box: read it with the class before you start, so teams can use it to speak and write. The quiz stays at A1+ level, in British English. Useful language for the teams: "A nurse works in a hospital.", "He doesn't work in an office.", "She helps sick people." To extend the game, add a mime round: a pupil from each team mimes a job in turn, and the other teams ask yes or no questions ("Do you work in a hospital?", "Do you wear a uniform?") until they can write the job.

Suggested procedure

1. (3 min) Make 2 to 4 teams and draw a score table on the board. Each team has one sheet of paper and one writer.
2. (8 min) Round 1, What's the job?: show the photo, leave the word bank on the screen and give 20 seconds; teams write a full sentence. Show the answer slide. 1 point for each right sentence.
3. (6 min) Round 2, Where do they work?: show the photo and the sentence with the gap; teams write the place from the box. 1 point for each right answer.
4. (5 min) Round 3, Odd one out: read the four words; teams write the number of the odd one. 2 points for each right answer. Read the reason on the answer slide and point out the pattern.
5. (8 min) Round 4, He works, she helps: show the sentence with the verb in brackets; teams write the verb with its third person ending. 1 point for each right answer, with the spelling exactly right.
6. (6 min) Round 5, Yes or no?: show the photo and read the question; teams write Yes or No. 1 point for each right answer. Then the class says the short answer together.
7. (7 min) Round 6, Name three!: read the question; teams write three jobs. 1 point for each right job.
8. (2 min) Add up the points on the board and show the last slide to find the winners.

Adaptations

[S] In round 1, let teams point to the job in the box or say the sentence instead of writing it, and do the first question together before the teams write. In round 4, give the first verb as a model and let teams use their notes on the third person -s. In round 5, let the class answer with the short answer aloud only.

[A] In round 1, ask teams for a second sentence about the job ("He cooks food in a restaurant."). In round 5, ask for the short answer in writing ("No, she doesn't.") and a true sentence about the job. Add a mime round: a pupil mimes a job and the teams ask yes or no questions ("Do you work in a hospital?") before they write the answer.

Materials & prerequisites

A projector or screen for game.pdf (80 slides in 16:9, one PDF page per slide, turned with the arrow keys), the board for the score table, and a sheet of paper and a pen for each team. Pupils should already know the verb be (he is, she is, they are) and a few common jobs and verbs such as cook, help and play. The quiz works well as a revision game at the end of a unit on jobs, the present simple or a and an, or as a reward at the end of a lesson.