Based on the Jackbox party game called Talking Points, this game is perfect for upper intermediate to advanced speakers during which they must give mini-speeches on silly topics. They must come ready to use both their creativity and sense of humor! Thus, I created a simpler version of Talking Points in slideshow format and named it Make Your Point.
First, students are divided into speaking teams of 2–3. Then they must create speaking prompts that will serve as the speaking topics for other teams. They do not have to create prompts out of scratch. I've provided them with prompts where they must fill in the blank with their silly/funny answers. Students are highly encouraged to be funny and silly. (No serious topics allowed!) Depending on the number of students, each team may get 1–3 prompts to complete in 5–10 minutes. The printable prompts are available below.
After the prompts are completed, they are folded and collected by the teacher, who then allows each team to take one randomly. Each team must take one that was created by another team. Then, once each team has a prompt, they may have some time to think about what they will say about that topic.
However, there is a catch to this activity. Each team will speak using a pre-arranged slideshow, but they do not what exactly will be on the slideshow. They are only informed of the format: introduction slide, topic slide, picture slide, transition text slide, picture slide, transition text slide, picture slide, conclusion slide, and thank-you slide. So then, when I lead this activity, I change slides on behalf of each team. As they speak, I change slides after about 15–30 seconds has passed or when I can tell that they are ready to proceed. The pictures often have nothing to do with the topic; they are random. Therefore, the challenge for the students is that they have to somehow relate the transition texts and pictures to their topic in some way (i.e., using the picture as a metaphor). Sometimes, they may get off topic. That is okay! The point is to speak. The activity is sure to spark a lot of laughs. Below is the slideshow I created to go with my prompts. The only hiccup is that it is hard to find where each topic begins, so it may take a couple of minutes to find the right place. This may be solved by going in the order of the prompts in the slideshow instead of the order of volunteers or called-on teams. That way, it would not be necessary to jump around the slideshow.
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