50-50 is an adaptable PowerPoint quiz that can be used for introductions, practice and review.
It’s summer break for many teachers but thoughts often turn to the next semester. For some teachers, new classes are starting. For others, classes will be returning from their summer break. What activities can be used on the first day? What activity can be used as teacher introduction? What activity can be used to review the course information? What activity can be used to review the previous semester? What activity can be used to talk about our summer experiences?
Having thought about these questions, I wanted to create an adaptable PowerPoint game that could be used for any or all of those topics. I called this game 50-50.
The game works upon the idea that it can be used for any binary response question. Examples include: True/False, Correct/Incorrect, Yes/No, Can/Can’t, Should/Shouldn’t. These responses aren’t built into the game, but are added by the teacher, which makes the game easy to adapt for the teacher’s purpose.
True/False questions
These questions are great for introducing concepts or general knowledge, but they are also useful for teacher introductions on the first day of new classes. Rather than begin a class by introducing yourself, turn it into a game and let your students guess the answers.
The example I have used is to introduce that ‘I am from the U.K.’ and I have used pictures that illustrate the country as well.
It is up to the students to decide if this fact about me is true or false. Once the class or small teams have made a choice, the teacher can then reveal the answer.
Correct/Incorrect questions
These questions are great for a course recap. If you want to remind your returning class what you studied in the first semester.
The example I have used has two possible answers. ‘I’m going shopping on Saturday’ and ‘I go shopping on Saturdays.’ It can be used to discuss the present continuous for future plans or the present simple for talk about routines and general habits.
If these were tenses I covered in my first semester with a class, I could use 50-50 to create a review game where students have to decide whether the sentence provided is correct or incorrect.
Yes/No questions
These questions can be used to check students’ comprehension and if they can understand the context of a questions and then choose an appropriate response.
The example I have used involves tag questions, but any yes or no response question can be used.
It is up to the students to decide which response is appropriate. Once the class or small teams have made a choice, the teacher can then reveal the answer.
Can/Can’t and Should/Shouldn’t questions
These questions can be used to review the class rules for the class. Presenting class rules as game can keep it light, friendly and memorable. The first class often sets the tone for the semester and students should be clear about the classes rules and expectations from the beginning.
A combination of questions
Because the template is adaptable, the teacher is free to use a combination of questions and responses in the same quiz. You can even separate the questions into different categories of questions. An introduction, a course recap and a review of the class rules.
Examples of different questions slides made with the 50-50 template.
In order to be this adaptable, the template had to be fairly universal and simple to edit.
This is what I came up with. (See the slide images below)
Click on the image above or follow the link below to download the template.
Download the 50-50 – A PowerPoint Quiz template
The template contains 9 slides – a title slide and four different types of questions. There are text only slides, slides with text and one image, slides with text and two images, and slides with text and three images. Each category contains two slides. The left answer button is correct on the first slide and the right answer button is correct on the second slide.
Select the question type
Choose the first or second slide
Copy that slide into a new presentation
Open the 50-50 template.
Click on File and select New from the File menu.
Alternatively, press CTRL+N to open a new presentation.
Go back to the 50-50 template and select a slide
Right-click on the slide and click on copy
Change the window to your new template by clicking on the file open on the taskbar.
Alternatively, hold ALT and press TAB to select your new presentation.
Right-click in the slide view pane on the left-hand side of the new presentation and click on paste (keep source formatting).
Alternatively, press CTRL+V to paste your slide (However, this won’t keep the formatting from the original template).
How to edit the template
Watch this tutorial video or read the notes below for information on how to edit the template. Topics covered include: how to copy the slides, how to change the image placeholders, adding your own text and playing the game.
Video tutorial showing how to use and edit the 50-50 template. The video run-time is 1 minute and 42 seconds.
Copying slides
Download and open the 50-50 template.
Copy the question slide that you want to use in your presentation.
Paste the question slide into your new presentation.
Right-click on the slide view pane and click on paste (keep formatting).
Working with image placeholders
If the slide contains image placeholders, right-click on the placeholder and select change image.
Select from file to choose an image from your computer.
Choose your image and then click on insert.
Repeat this process if there are other image placeholders on the slide.
Double-click to highlight the text in the white question box.
Write your own question or statement to go with the image(s).
Double-click to highlight the text in the answer buttons.
Adding your own text
Write your own names for the buttons.
Correct – Incorrect
True – False
Yes – No
Can – Can’t
Should – Shouldn’t
Repeat these steps for additional question slides.
Playing the game
Go the slide show ribbon and start the presentation.
The title screen appears.
Left-click on the title screen to go to the first question slide.
Click on a button to answer the question
Red is an incorrect answer.
Green is a correct answer.
The pass button reveals the answer by showing the color of both buttons.
That’s it! I hope your students will enjoy playing 50-50 and it proves to be a useful game over the autumn semester.
Do you have any suggestions for playing 50-50?
Please leave a comment if you have any ideas you would like to share or if you have any questions about the templates.
Thanks for reading and take care!
50-50 was designed with Microsoft PowerPoint 2016. Animations and sounds may differ when opened in other presentation software.
Microsoft® Office® is a copyrighted product of the Microsoft® corporation. All images are for educational purposes only.
Click on sound effect recorded by Mike Koenig is available from http://soundbible.com/1280-Click-On.html under a Creative Common Attribution 3.0 license.
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