Dice Duels: A Touch of Randomness
The random combination principle dictates that meaningful learning can be created out of randomized construction. There are dozens of possibilities that a dice box might offer to bring out learners’ creativity. But first, teachers should help learners create a dice box. One useful collection of cut-out dice printables of dots, texts and visual dices can be downloaded from the Tools for Educators website at https://goo.gl/8pVggF. Teachers might have it printed on parchment paper for durable use and save from 10 to 15 minutes of classroom time for students to do some arts and crafts activities of cutting them off and gluing based on the templates. Once each learner owns a box, they might work in pairs/teams to take turns rolling their dices simultaneously to:
- combine a pair/group of lexical items to produce a creative sentence: Mom’s ironing clothes for our new baby snake.
- combine a pair/group of prompts to create a story;
- review speaking topics before the final exam;
Variation: Dice Conversation Group Roles
Students work in groups of 4
Round 1
- Student A: Roll and ask
- Student B: Answer
- Student C: Feedback
- Student D: Praise/High five
Round 2: B→ C→ D → A
Round 3: C → D → A → B
Round 4: D→ A→ B→ C
