The Lucky Reading Game is a favorite and ever since this dumb pandemic started, teachers have been emailing me asking for recommendations to play it virtually. I didn’t have a good answer until Blog Reader “SusieQFrench” made a comment on Digital Pop Up that got my wheels turning. Imagine The Lucky Reading Game and Digital Pop Up had a baby…I present you The Virtual Lucky Reading Game.

To set up:

Get something for your kiddos to read. It could be a story or article or chapter of a novel. Ideally it’s something new, that they haven’t read before, but of course, it should be comprehensible! Since Google Translate is just so dang tempting, it’s best to give them a photo of the reading, so they can’t just copy and paste it into an online translator. If you’d like a little help with that, don’t fear, here’s a video showing you how easy it is to turn your text into a photo. While this won’t totally eliminate the ability to Google Translate (they can still take a pic with their phones…), it makes it harder for those Little Stinkers!

Divide your kiddos into 4 teams and send them into breakout rooms to read and translate the text. If you’re teaching hybrid style, I think it will work best to group your At Home kiddos together and your In Person Kiddos together. Depending on your numbers, you might have 2 in person teams and 2 at home teams, or 3 and 1…it really doesn’t matter! I would have my in person kids read it together on paper live (and adequately distanced, of course!) while the At Home Darlings work with the digital text in breakout rooms. Everyone is reading the same thing!

While students are reading, the teacher types the student names into the score card:

• Spanish Score Card
• French Score Card
• Italian Score Card (Grazie to Tanya Ferretto!)
• Latin Score Card (Gratias Tibi to Lance Piantaggini)
• If you’d like to translate this into your target language, I’d be ever so grateful if you shared it with us!

Teachers- be strategic to assign students of similar ability/ proficiency levels the same number.

On the score card, all the kids in green are on the same team, all the kids in yellow are on the same team, etc. All the #1s compete against each other, all the #2s compete against each other and so on!

After you have filled out your Score Card, share your screen, project the score card for all to see, call back your kiddos from their breakout rooms and let’s play!

Everyone should be logged into the same Google Meet or Zoom meeting, even the kids in the classroom. (If you’ve got kids in person, remind everyone to mute their microphones AND their computers!) Students will answer questions in the Chat Box, so that why your Classroom Kiddos need to be logged in!

To play:

Ask a question based on the text, and everyone types their answer into the chat box (Just like in Digital Pop Up!) After a sufficient amount of time, the teacher calls a number and all the students with that number submit their answers in the chat.

Unlike in Digital Pop Up, the fastest one to submit isn’t the winner. Everyone who is correct gets to “draw a card” to reveal their points. (So, let’s say all 4 kids were correct, they all get points. If 2 of 4 kids were correct, only 2 get points). Open your deck of cards in the same window as your score card, because you’ll be switching back and forth as you play.

The teacher “draws” a card for each correct answer and adds the points to that team’s score. So it might sound like this: “Excellent Joey, (Teacher draws card)and your card is a Queen! Hurray, 10 points is added to your team’s score (Teacher adds 10 points to score card)!” Then the teacher asks a new question, everyone types the answer in the chat and waits until the next number is called. The Little Darlings assigned that number submit their answers and so on.

Like in Digital Pop Up, the teacher keeps track of which numbers have been called to keep everything fair. Print this paper and cross off the numbers as you call them. Once you’ve called everyone once, use a new symbol to track the 2nd time and 3rd time. (So maybe you cross the numbers out first, then circle numbers, then underline numbers, etc.)

And since you were careful to group students of like ability, you’re able to differentiate your questions. Maybe your High Flyers answer a prediction question in the target language while the kiddos who need more support respond with True or False or a single word.

Hey Texas Teachers!

I’m thinking of you and sending my prayers (and donations!) What a nightmare and I wish there was more I could do from afar. *Hugs*

Hey Teachers outside of Texas!

Send your prayers and donations for our friends in Texas!

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