Human Typewriter

This is a game which helps students solve dictation exercises as a class. It works well in that it gets students moving and relying on each other to complete the task.

Required Materials

1. Cards or pieces of paper with all of the letters of the languages' alphabet or writing system written on them.

Instructions

1. The cards containing the alphabet are distributed among the students. In most classes, some students will have more than one card, though they should be distributed so that no student will be relied upon to much (so that for English, one student might have "X" "Y" and "Z" rather than giving one student "A" "B" and "C").
2. The teacher says a word aloud.
3. The class is required to spell the word by standing up holding the appropriate letter in order. So for English, if the teacher said "cat" the student holding "C" would stand up, then the student holding "A" would stand, followed by the student holding "T." The students should say the name of their letter aloud.
4. You can also have the students say more information about how the word is spelled. So a student could say "capital" for the first letter in an English word, or give the name of the vowel for languages with an abjad like Arabic and Hebrew (e.g. "Jiim wa-fatha")