Captur.me

Storytelling is almost as old a language itself. In fact, some cultures still use spoken stories to pass on information to younger generations because the language is not written down. Storytelling is also not just for children; it covers the entire age range of the population and covers all aspects of life: Explaining where a good hunting area is, passing on culture, entertaining and generally educating. The important thing to remember is that when telling stories, the listener has to do half the work. The listener has to make the image of what is being described; the listener is indeed as creative as the story teller.

It's usually pretty difficult for my Japanese students to make the distinction between "thirteen" and "thirty", even at the lower intermediate level. Often, when they say a number like 16, it sounds like "sixty", and when you repeat the number in English to confirm it ("Did you say sixty?"), they say "yes, 16."

We got a good question about Captur paddles on the ETJ mailing list:

I used to use 4 cards 1, 2, 3, 4 to do the same thing for large classes. Mostly when I was working from a text book to answer the multiple choice questions. Got a good reaction until some guys started to actually play cards with them. Can't the students see the backs of the other students' paddles thereby leading to some herd bahviour? Or do you do a "1,2,3 up!" sort of synchronising their replies?

John Fawsitt

Here's my reply:

In a game of Odd One Out, the player is given a set of four items, and must decide which one of the four doesn't belong in the group. On the popular children's television show Sesame Street, this game was better known through its song, "One of these things doesn't belong here." This article gives some examples of doing an Odd One Out activity with CAPTUR.