Comparing two things is a great way to encourage students to discuss and debate or to speculate and guess.
It encourages students to explain the reasons behind their ideas and if there is disagreement in their groups, they have to learn to persuade their peers.
During the New Year Period, I was watching a TV show with my family where celebrities experienced two things, one of which is expensive while the other is a cheaper version or a fake.
This year there was a very expensive violin versus a cheaper violin. A professional jazz band versus an amateur jazz band. Fugu versus Frog’s legs. Expensive crab meat versus fake crab meat.
The celebrities had to choose A or B and then they waited in a room until the answer was revealed. If they were correct, they gained points. If they were incorrect, they lost points and moved down the ranking table.
As you can imagine, this show caused a great deal of discussion in my family. All of us sitting down trying to guess which one was which. All of us explaining the reasons for our decisions. I sat down thinking it would be great if I could bring this game into the classroom.
So, my first post of 2017 is an adaptation of this game.
Download the A or B PowerPoint
Image showing the template and the correct answer for each slide.
The template contains five slides. There is a title slide and four question slides divided into two categories: text comparison slides and picture comparison slides. In slide 2 and 4, you will find that A is the correct answer and in slide 3 and 5, you will find that B is the correct answer.
You can select the question type and choose a slide with either A or B as the correct answer and copy that slide into a new presentation.
Open the A or B template.
Click on File and select New from the File menu.
Alternatively, press CTRL+N to open a new presentation.
Go back to the A or B 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).
Now, let’s look at the two different slide types.
The Text Slides
Example of a text comparison slide, which has been edited to review a grammar point.
The first slide type is the text comparison slide. In the example above, I have written two similar sentences, but one of the sentences is grammatically incorrect.
A or B can be used as a grammar review game or as a way to gamify error correction.
The text slides can be used for any of the following reasons:
Common misspellings. For example, alot versus a lot
Pronunciation – Matching the teacher’s pronunciation to the spelling. This is useful for students who mix up the sounds of R and L or B and V.
Grammar mistakes or incorrect sentence structures
General knowledge questions.
Quotes – Which quote is correct?
Basically, anything you can think of. You just need to edit the text slide.
How to edit the text slides
Copy the question slide that you want to use in your PowerPoint presentation
Paste the slide into your PowerPoint presentation
Delete any slides that you don’t need
Write your question at the top of the slide
Write your two sentences, grammar points or spellings in the text boxes
Go to the slideshow ribbon
Start the presentation
Click on the A or B button to find out which is correct
The text box will change color to indicate if you have chosen the correct answer or not
Green is correct and red is incorrect
The Picture Slides
Example of a picture comparison slide with a question that encourages students to make guesses. (Image attributions)
The second slide type is the picture comparison slide. In the example above, I have two images representing France and Germany. The associated question asks the students, which country they think is bigger (geographically).
Unlike the text comparison slide, pictures don’t present words, sentences or language points to the students. However, they provide interest, context and they are assessable. Picture questions are more likely to be general knowledge questions on based on a theme, but they can also be used for any of the following reasons:
Using images to elicit grammar structures. In the above example, I used a question designed to encourage students to answer using the comparative. Single word answers don’t achieve this, so they should be avoided.
Best representations – This type of question asks the students to match one of the pictures to an adjective, noun or idiom. For example, “Which picture is the best representation of relaxation?”
Your own photos* – Choose one of your own photos and use a photo downloaded off the internet. Ask the students which one is yours. This is a great way to share your own experiences with the class.
Reading the story* behind the image and the students have to match image to the details of the story.
ELTpics is always a good resource for images, but flickr has plenty of images that are available under the creative common license.
How to edit the picture slides
Video tutorial on how to edit the picture comparison slides. The video run-time is 2 minutes and 9 seconds.
Copy the question slide that you want to use in your PowerPoint presentation
Paste the slide into your PowerPoint presentation
Delete any slides that you don’t need
Select one of the image placeholders
Right-click on the placeholder and go to change image
Select from file and choose an image from your computer
Click on insert
Resize the image so that it covers the red or green square behind it
Repeat the previous steps for the second image placeholder
Write your question at the top of the slide
Go to the slideshow ribbon
Start the presentation
Click on the A or B button to find out which is correct
The image will become transparent showing the color underneath
Green is correct and red is incorrect
CAUTION: Don’t delete the image placeholders because you will delete the animation that turns the image transparent as well.
That’s it! I hope this template generates as much discussion in your classrooms as it did with my family over the New Year.
Do you have any suggestions for playing the A or B game?
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!
You may also like to read:
At the end of 2016, I put together a bumper pack of 10 PowerPoint games that can be used in the ESL classroom. All the templates are free to download and there are brief descriptions on how to use them in the classroom.
Template
A or B 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.
The template is an adaptation of a game from the TV show 芸能人格付けチェック. This template is free to download and it is intended for educational purposes only.
The font used in the template is Nouveau Drop Caps and it was created by Typographer Mediengestaltung and it is available for download from 1001fonts.com. The font has been used as an image, but no changes have been made to the font.
Image Attributions
Flag of France by Nathan Hughes Hamilton, used under a under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license (CC BY 2.0).
German Flag by fdecomite, used under a under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license (CC BY 2.0).
*These ideas are based on activities from Images by Jamie Keddie. This resource book for teachers has many ideas and activity suggestions for using images in the classroom.
Your Own Images is based on an activity around a personal picture on page 69. Reading the Story is based on an activity about the story behind the image on page 34.
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