I’ve previously published several posts about games that TV talk show host Jimmy Fallon has played and that are easily adaptable for English Language Learners.

Earlier this week, he did it again! Many of us are family with the game, CatchPhrase, and have probably either played it ourselves or tried a version with our students. It’s fairly simple — players are give a word,phrase, or name of a person/place; then they have to give clues to a partner who then tries to guess what it is within a time limit. I think it’s easily adaptable to an ELL classroom, and I don’t think you need the ticking clock that goes faster and faster as time moves along. Giving students a minute or so to do each word works fine, and having one person in front trying it with everyone (who has an individual whiteboard to write out their guesses) can also work out well. There can be a zillion variations.

If my explanation of the game isn’t very clear, check out how Fallon did it with his guests:

Do you do your own version? If so, how do you play it?