Teaching Explicit vs Implicit? Play a Game.
A 20-30 minute game students play to realize the difference between two concepts.
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TLDR: Playing a game like “Poetry for Neanderthals” helps students distinguish between “explicit” and “implicit.”
I teach my students the difference between explicit and implicit for a few reasons. First, one of my state’s standards is that students can use evidence from a text to support what the text is explicitly or implicitly saying. Second, if my students understand these two words it becomes easier to guide them in their writing.
Students often believe they are clear in their writing, but what’s clear to them may only be implied. In feedback sessions, we discuss this, and I often say: “I love that idea! You should make it more explicit.”
So, what’s a fun way for them to experience the difference between the words explicit and implicit? Play a game. ◡̈
The Plan
Overview:
Preparation
Explain/play the game.
Connect it to the vocabulary.
Ideas for extending the activity.
Maybe you’ve heard of the game Poetry for Neanderthals. Maybe you haven’t. It’s a get-your-team-to-guess-the-word-by-giving-them-hints kind of game. The difference between this and Taboo or Catchphrase is that the person trying to get their team to guess the word can only use words that are one syllable long.
Preparation
Figure out group sizes.
I recommend group sizes of an even number, preferably 6+. Groups of 4 could work.
Print out the “cards.” (These cards have the different words on them.)
Thanks to yours truly, and a quick jaunt over to ChatGPT, we now have a print-out version of the materials you need for the game. If you don’t want to use this list of words, you can come up with your own. (I recommend you come up with 75 or so.)
Each group needs one set. (For example: if you have a class of 36, print out 6 copies.)
(Here’s a google doc version if you’d like.)
Explain and Play
Get your students into their groups. Arrange the desks so they are sitting in a circle.
Possible Scripting—
“Alright, now that we are in our groups I need you to pick one person to be the time keeper and one person to be the score keeper. Once you’ve got that figured out, give me a thumbs up.”
After you get the thumbs up, go over to one group and have the whole class observe as you explain how the game works.
“Okay, now we need to split your group into two teams, time keeper, please raise your hand. Each group should follow along. Okay, so Jared is the time keeper in this group. He’s raising his hand. The people sitting every other person from the timekeeper are on one team. Everyone else is the second team.
“Here’s how this works. One team will start. We’ll have the person to the left of Jared go first. Once the time starts, she’ll look at the top card and say phrases or individual words to help her teammates guess the word. Here’s the trick, though. She can only use words that are one syllable long. If the words she uses are longer than one syllable, she sets the card aside, and it is a negative point. Every word her team guesses is a positive point.
“As soon as a team member guesses one of the words she sets it down and moves to the next one. She tries to help her team guess as many words as possible within the timer. We’ll set it for 1 minute. After she goes, she’ll pass the remaining papers to the left and the next team will have a turn. So on and so forth around the circle.
“So let me give you one quick example. If the word is ‘goose’ then I might say, ‘big bird.’ My team might say something like eagle or ostrich. So then I know I need to help them more. ‘Flies in V shape with friends.’ This might get them to say ‘goose.’ If I had said, ‘flies with other birds’ then my team would get a negative point because the word ‘other’ has two syllables…
“We feeling ready? Any questions?”
Connect the Game to the Vocabulary
After we’ve played the game, I’ll give my students the definitions of “explicit” and “implicit” by writing them on the board. Then, I task them to identify parts of the game where they noticed things that were “explicit” and “implicit.” (I sometimes through in the word “ambiguous” as well.)
After they have a chance I ask a few students to share their observations.
Students quickly realize that all along they were implying things and could never explicitly say the word.
The definitions and game help make these concepts pretty obvious and clear in the minds of my students. Hopefully it helps with yours!
Thank you for reading! I’d love to hear from you if you use this activity or any adaptations of it in your class! If you find something that makes it better, let us know in the comments.
Cheers,
Brandon Merrill