Consequences

 Consequences is a popular parlour game from when people had parlours and didn't have wifi. It involves creating humourous pictures by each drawing part of a person, hiding it by folding it back, and passing it to the next person to continue.

In less artistically talented parlours, there is also a more literary version. In which you create scurrilous stories one step at a time: My maths teacher was... in the parlour with... the vicar's husband, wearing...

A version of this game works well with building longer answers in the languages classroom.

If you are working on this dice game, then you can use the same worksheet for the consequences activity.

Without using dice for this, the first pupil picks an item from the first block of six and writes it at the top of the paper. They fold it over and pass it to the next pupil. Probably best if they point on the sheet to which block of 6 comes next. So after passing it back and forwards 9 times, they unfold the paper and read something like Je voudrais... voir mes amis... alors... je dois... nager... dans ma chambre...

The random hilarity is enjoyable but it's also about pupils recombining what they are learning in new ways. And for me it is part of a process where moving from random sentences to carefully curated coherence is as big a part of their learning as is learning more language.

Once the pupils have got the idea, you can have them all start with a piece of paper each and pass them round in groups simultaneously. It is important that they do indicate to the next person where to carry on. I think this is important in them paying attention to how the sentence works or doesn't work if you miss out important chunks. It's also a good idea to re-use paper for this which has something printed on the back. That way they don't accidentally write on the wrong side.

If you have groups which have used the My Grandmother went to Market... technique (also known as If you Give a Mouse a Cookie) then they can use this for the Consequences game as well. Each pupil in the class has a structure associated with them. So by thinking their way round the seating plan, any pupil in the class can construct a sequence like this:

J'aime jouer au tennis parce que c'est passionant et je peux aller au parc y jouer avec mes amis. Surtout s'il fait beau. Par contre, ma soeur préfère aller en ville. Le week-end j'allais faire mes devoirs mais il faisait beau, alors ma soeur a dit, "Je vais aller en ville." Alors j'ai décidé d'aller en ville avec ma soeur.

The words in bold can be the cues for each pupil to write their segment. It will probably be more random than the example above! It involves each pupil remembering the typical sequence of structures used to move from opinions and reasons to an example narrated in the past. After they have written their chunk and folded it over, they should tell the next pupil what sort of chunk comes next. Slowly they can move away from following the sequence to deciding what needs to come next: I need you to put a verb in the imperfect... You need to say where they went...

This is a quick low prep activity which fits in well with other activities you might be doing in the lesson. And helps move pupils' writing along in an enjoyable way in the process of moving away from scaffolding and towards controlled self-expression. And at the end you get a selection of short pieces of Reading that they will want to translate!