¡Caramba!

As a great review game, and a way to get in more reps as well as work on comprehensible input and writing, we play the game ¡Caramba! Inspired by srjordan's blog post, this can be a fast-paced, intense game of strategy.

Students are in groups of 3-5 with one student at the front with an individual marker board and marker. The teacher give a structure, sentence, or comprehension question from a reading. The students rapidly write down the translation or the answer. When finished, they hold up their board for evaluation from the teacher. The student who is correct first, without lowering or editing the answer, wins for their team. This means that the next slide in the ¡Caramba! slideshow is advanced. It could be a point value, which will be added to the team total, or a ¡Caramba!, which erases all points earned. Students never know how many points will be earned or if they will lose all their points. Some groups will strategically answer or not answer a question based on how long ago a caramba has shown up. They also try to guess the order so I mix up the order of the points and carambas each time.