{"id":4518,"date":"2019-09-14T21:03:33","date_gmt":"2019-09-14T18:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/?p=4518"},"modified":"2019-10-10T21:06:46","modified_gmt":"2019-10-10T18:06:46","slug":"z-a-word-association-quiz-format-for-startersplenaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.activehistory.co.uk\/updates\/history-teachers\/z-a-word-association-quiz-format-for-startersplenaries\/","title":{"rendered":"Z-A: Word Association Quiz format for starters\/plenaries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Z-A quiz format<\/a> involves revealing a series of words or phrases, letter by letter, in reverse alphabetical order.<\/p>\n

Students, organised into teams, win points if they are the first to identify what all the words\/phrases have in common.<\/p>\n

As soon as a hand is raised, the teacher \u2018stops the clock\u2019 to hear the answer.<\/p>\n

If the team answers incorrectly, it is frozen out of further play and the game resumes.<\/p>\n

The format is used in Richard Osman\u2019s House of Games on BBC TV.<\/p>\n

Based on this game, I have coded a simple Z-A quiz generator<\/a> at ClassTools.net to enable students and teachers to quickly generate their own Z-A quizzes.<\/p>\n

Case Study: The Origins of the Cold War<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the sample game provided freely on www.classtools.net<\/a> on the Origins of the Cold War, the first set of terms is Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Josef Stalin. The students might identify them all as leaders of key states at the end of World War One (2 points for \u2018something in common\u2019). Another team may have played though for three points with \u201cStalin was the only one who didn\u2019t speak English\u201d. If you are playing the version of the game where each team is challenged to identify such a connection and the teacher judges the most sophisticated, another team might trump this by saying instead \u201cStalin was the only one who wasn\u2019t at least half-American\u201d or \u201cStalin was the only one who attended both the Yalta and Potsdam conferences from start to finish\u201d). It\u2019s up to the teacher (or a special team of student adjudicators!) to decide which of these is the most useful\/sophisticated points when deciding who to judge the winner!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Taking it further<\/strong><\/p>\n

To add further interest to the game, the rules can be developed by rewarding students when they:<\/p>\n