Career Characteristics Information Trading

Overview

Career Characteristics Information Trading is a great way for English beginners to build basic speaking and listening skills.

Students can be introduced to this game after memorizing as few as 10 vocabulary words and 3 sentence patterns.

This activity type is available in different versions that can be completed in pairs, small groups, and large groups.

Each Information Trading Form is designed to record 180 data-points, as the activity includes 18 characters (Ann, Bess, Kim, etc) x 10 career characteristics (use of creativity, law, tools, etc). Each form comes with some of the data-points already filled in, while others are blank and need to be added by the participant.

Survey-taking activities like these are a classic example of an information gap activity. 

In addition to providing an opportunity to vocabulary recognition practice, this activity is also VERY useful for phonics encoding practice (see notes below).

Printing

Simply print the needed amount of Information Trading Forms on normal white printer paper.

There are 5 versions of this activity available.

• For 2 Participants: The first version is designed for use by partner-pairs. Both of the 2 included Information Trading Forms already has about half the activity's 180 data-points.
  
  

Each of these 2 Forms have about
50% of the activity's 180 data-points

• For 3-6 Participants: The second version is designed for small groups where minimum number of participants will be 3 and the maximum will be 6 at the most. For this version Information Trading Forms A, B, and C each already have about 1/3rd of the activity's 180 data-points.
  
  The other 3 Information Trading Forms (each marked with a +) also have a random set of about 1/3rd of the activity's 180 data-points.

Each of these 6 Forms have about
34% of the activity's 180 data-points

• For 4-8 Participants: The third version is designed for small groups where minimum number of participants will be 4 and the maximum will be 8 at the most. For this version Information Trading Forms A, B, C and D each already have about 1/4th of the activity's 180 data points.
  
  The other 4 Information Trading Forms (each marked with a +) also have a random set of about 1/4th of the activity's 180 data points.
  

Each of these 8 Forms have about
25% of the activity's 180 data-points

• For 5-12 Participants: The fourth version is designed for class groups where minimum number of participants will be 5 and the maximum will be 12 at the most. For this version Information Trading Forms A, B, C, D, and E each already have about 1/5th of the activity's 180 data points.
  
  The other 7 Information Trading Forms (each marked with a +) also have a random set of about 1/5th of the activity's 180 data points.
  

Each of these 8 Forms have about
20% of the activity's 180 data-points

• For 10+ Participants: The fifth version is designed for large class groups where minimum number of participants will be 10 and the maximum will be around 50. For this version Information Trading Forms A to J each already have about 1/10th of the activity's 180 data-points.
  
  The other 14 Information Trading Forms (each marked with a +) also have a random set of about 1/10th of the activity's 180 data-points.

Each of these 8 Forms have about
10% of the activity's 180 data-points

• This version allows for up to 24 participants to each have a unique Information Trading Form, but if there are more than 24 participants, a copy of the same Information Trading Form can be given to 2 or 3 participants, as it is almost certain that by the time any participants with (initially) identical forms encounter each other during the activity, they will have already collected additional data-points from other participants and their forms will no longer have 100% matching information.

Download and print a sufficient number of forms for the version of this activity best suited to your anticipated groups-size(s).

Preparation (One-Time Use)

After printing, you may use the forms as is.

Each copy will only be able to be used for a single round of the activity. Due to the challenge of using erasable whiteboard markers to draw emojis in the small provided data-recording spaces on the forms, it is not recommended that these materials be laminated for repeated re-use.

How To Play

Groups: The method of game play is the same regardless of number of participants. Each participant will be provided with a Information Trading Form that has only a portion of the  activity's 180 data-points (18 characters x 10 career characteristics). Each participant must ask other participants questions in order to add the missing information to their own form (and also answer questions asked of them by other activity participants).

Materials:

• Information Trading Forms
• Pens/pens
• Clipboards (or anything else that will allow participants to add information to their Forms while in a standing position)

Time / Game Round: 10-40 minutes

• Provide an Information Trading Form to each activity participant. They will need a pen or pencil too.
  
  Each Information Trading Form is marked with either a letter (A through J) or a + symbol. It is very important that all of the forms marked with a letter are distributed to participants.
  
  This will ensure that at least activity one participant has each of the 180 information data-points needed.
  
  The + forms are optional. Each provides an additional random distribution of a some of the 180 data-points and allow for a flexible number of participants to be part of the activity.
  
  
• Participants should be advised that the information their Information Trading Forms is secret and can only be communicated verbally. They are not allowed to show their forms to each other (as this would defeat the purpose of this speaking activity).
  
  
• Once the activity begins, each participants should approach other participants and ask them one of the five following questions (with a character name of their choice inserted into the blank):
  
  "Do you know which career characteristics _________________ is very interested in?"
  
  "Do you know which career characteristics _________________ is interested in?"
  
  "Do you know which career characteristics _________________ is OK with?"
  
  "Do you know which career characteristics _________________ is not interested in?"
  
  "Do you know which career characteristics _________________ is definitely not interested in?"
  
  
• (As a second option, participants could simply ask each other "What are _________________'s career preferences?")
  
  
• The Information Trading Forms use emojis to show the level of interest each character has in each career characteristic.
  

• When asked a question, participants should use on of the following sentence patterns to reply:
  
  "_________________ is very interested in a career involving _________________."
  
  "_________________ is interested in a career involving _________________ and _________________ ."
  
  "_________________ is OK with a career involving _________________ and _________________ ."
  
  "_________________ is not interested in a career involving _________________ and _________________ ."
  
  "_________________ is definitely not interested in a career involving _________________ ."

• To add the missing information to their own Information Trading Form participants will need to draw a comparable version of the emojis shown above.
  
  It is recommended that the teacher introducing this activity to student participants encourage them to first practice drawing each of the 5 included emoji symbols (possibly on the blank backs of their Information Trading Forms) before beginning the activity.
  
  For efficiency, it would be best to communicate to participants that for the "very interested in" emoji, only 2-3 hearts need to be drawn, rather than the 9 on the printed icon. Additionally, while the printed "definitely not interested in" emoji is filled in with gray to make it easier for learners to visually differentiate from the other emojis, they don't need to color it in when drawing it.
  
  
• It is up the classroom teacher/facilitator to decide when to end this activity. The activity could continue for a specific number of minutes (such as 20 - 40 minutes, even if none of the Information Trading Forms are fully completed)
  
  or
  
  the teacher/facilitator could decide to end the activity when a certain number of participants have filled in all the data-points on their forms.
  
  
• After completing the activity, it may be productive to have the students check their answers against each other's forms or against the available Answer Key (see downloads).