FREERICE
WHAT IS IT?
Freerice is an online trivia game that provides multiple-choice quizzes to enhance not only vocabulary but also basic knowledge on many subjects and cultural aspects, helping at the same time fight hunger. The players answer the questions and, for every correct answer, raise 10 grains of rice for The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).
Thanks to private sponsors, earned rice grains in the game generate money donated to WFP.
What's more, anyone can use it: teachers, students, colleagues, and family members, all of whom, after signing up, can join or create group challenges.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
TEACHERS:
Teachers create a free account and, if they want, a group. Once the group's code is generated, they can share it with their students. Thanks to the statistics tab in the group, anyone can see the ranking of the players.
Then as a teacher, you can use it in different ways.
Here are some of my ideas:
IN CLASS:
1-minute Vocabulary Challenge Game:
Open a Freerice website tab for every student in the class (if there are many, create groups).
Set a timer to 1 minute.
Select a student and project the multiple-choice vocabulary quiz, so that everyone can see it.
The selected student chooses the answers until the time is up.
Then you move to the next player.
The person who raises most of the grains wins.
1-minute Vocabulary Challenge Game (on the phone):
Create a group on your account and share the code with the students.
Set a timer to 1 minute.
Make students join the group.
Make sure they all set the same category and the difficulty level.
Start the timer and check the ranking on the "Stats" page.
The person who raises most of the grains wins.
AT HOME:
Weekly/Monthly Challenge:
Create a group on your account and share the code with the students.
Tell them that every week/month, you will check who raised the most grains.
I give mine personalized stickers as a reward, but you can create a Monthly Winner Display in your classroom.
STUDENTS:
Students create their profiles and join a group if there is one. First, they see a question, four possible answers, and an image of an empty wooden bowl, which fills up with every correct answer. There are a lot of different categories on the site for the players to discover.
IS IT USEFUL?
PROS:
It is free.
It requires no prep time.
You do not even need to register.
For every correct answer, the player raises 10 grains of rice for the WFP (World Food Programme).
When creating groups, you can track grains students' raised.
It can be done at home or in class.
At the moment, there are over 60 categories on different subjects, such as Art&Culture, History&Geography, Food & Sustainability, English, Language Learning, Science, etc.
You can choose the difficulty level.
The questions cover a range of subjects and adapt to the level based on how the player performs.
The players can join official challenges to contribute to a cause.
CONS:
There is no explanation for wrong answers, which makes it difficult to learn from mistakes.
The easiest difficulty level is quite challenging for students under the B1 level.
BOTTOM LINE:
It is a terrific online trivia game which requires no prep time and is extremely easy to use.
Players get highly motivated seeing the bowl of rice filling up after having given the correct answer. Moreover, it increases awareness regarding the issue of hunger and creates social responsibility in younger learners.
I mostly use it as a fast break game when I see my students are tired or need a distraction.
However, I encourage students at advanced or proficiency levels, or the ones who are preparing for official language exams, such as CAE or CPE, to make it a habit to enhance their vocabulary.
I recommend checking their website (or following them on @wfpfreerice) and seeing how you can challenge yourself, your students or your friends.
Let me know if it worked for you.
Comments