Fruit Preferences Survey (Character Cards Based)

Overview

This Fruit Preferences Survey Activity is a great way for English beginners to build basic speaking and listening skills.

This set of instructions are for the Character Card Based version of this activity, which is suitable for students aged 7+ who are capable of a suitable level of independence in a classroom. For the Answer-Key Based version of this activity (which is better for learners aged 5-7), view these instructions instead.

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

Each Survey Form is designed to record 60 data-points, as each form includes 6 (of 18 possible) randomly chosen characters (Ben, Jan, Sim, etc) x 10 career characteristics (use of creativity, law, tools, etc).

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

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

Printing

Simply print the needed amount of Survey Forms and one or more copies of the Answer-Key on normal white printer paper.

Preparation (One-Time Use)

After printing, you will only need to cut each printed page in half to separate the two Survey Forms on each page. The forms can then used as is. However, this means that each one will only be able to be used for a single round of the activity.

Preparation (Re-Usable)

To make the Survey Forms re-usable, cut the printed pages in half, remove any unwanted additional white border areas, and then laminate the forms. Activity participants can then use erasable whiteboard markers to add character preference information to the forms.

After each round of play, the added markings can be erased and the forms re-used.

It is highly recommended all copies of the Answer-Key be laminated, as this is a color document ideal for long-term use.

How To Play

Participants & Roles: This activity requires a minimum of 6 participants to be a productive use of classroom time, but is best for 12-36 participants. However, the materials and activity structure can support up to 50 participants in a large enough classroom/learning space.

Participants will either be survey-collectors or information-sharers. Usually, it will be optimal for 50% of the activity participants to be survey-collectors and for 50% to be information-sharers.

With this half-&-half division of roles, participants can always be paired-up and communicating with one other person from the corresponding role, which will maximize the  productive use of the available learning time.

The information-sharers will answer questions about the career characteristic preferences of the 18 characters on the Character Cards for this activity. If there are fewer than 18 information-sharers participating in the character, each will need to be given more than 1 Character Card. For example, if there are 6 information-sharers participating in the activity, each will need to be given 3 Character Cards (18 cards total ÷ 6 information-sharers = 3 cards each).

The survey-collectors will use verbal questions to ask the information-sharers about the 18 characters' career characteristic preferences and then record that information onto their individual Survey Forms.

Materials:

• Survey Forms (1 for each survey-collector) - there are 26 different Survey Form versions available, however, each one could be given to more than one participant
• Pens/pens/whiteboard markers
• Clipboards (or anything else that will allow participants to add information to their Forms while in a standing position)
• All 18 Character Cards (Set A) for Career Characteristics (1-6 for each information-sharer)

Time / Game Round: 15-30 minutes

• Provide a Survey Form to each survey-collector participant. They will need a pen or pencil too (or a whiteboard marker, if the Survey Forms are laminated).
  
  
• Provide 1-6 Character Cards to each information-sharer participant. Generally, half of the participants should be information-sharers.
  
  
• Survey-collectors participants should be advised that the information on their Survey Forms is secret should not be shared with other participants. They are not allowed to show their forms to each other (as this would defeat the purpose of this speaking activity).
  
  
• Additionally, information-sharer participants should be advised that the information on their Character Cards must only be shared with other participants verbally. They are not allowed to show their Character Cards to survey-collectors (as this would also defeat the purpose of this speaking activity).
  
  
• Once the activity begins, each survey-collector should pair up with an information-sharer and ask questions from the five following questions types (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, survey-collectors could simply ask the information-sharer(s) "What are _________________'s career preferences?")
  
  
• The Character Cards use emojis to show the level of interest each character has in each career characteristic.
  

• When asked a question, information-sharers 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 Survey Forms, survey-collectors 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 Survey 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 instructor/facilitator to decide when to end this activity. The activity could continue for a specific number of minutes (such as 20 - 30 minutes, even if none of the Survey Forms are fully completed)
  
  or
  
  the instructor/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(s) (which should be faster than checking their answers against the 18 individual Character Cards).