Lecture Bingo

Situation You have prepared a lecture containing vital information about your topic and want to ensure participant interest. Although you have taken great pains to support your material with appropriate overhead graphics, you are concerned that the lecture, in itself, will not be as interactive as it should be. You need demonstrated feedback to occur during key points of the lecture.

Purpose Use this game to introduce the workshop topic, establish immediate work teams, and to motivate participants to interact with the lecture.

Time 15 to 50 minutes.

Number of participants 15 or more.

Supplies Needed:

□ One newsprint flipchart and felt-tipped markers.

□ One bingo card per team of players (see the next page for an example).

□ Paper and pencils for the participants.

□ Prizes (optional).

Preparing for the Activity:

□ Select 25 or more items from your lecture. Prepare these in “bite-size” statements or ideas.

□ Prepare one bingo game sheet per two participants.

Overview of Player Activity:

Variations:

• Replace key items with short-answer questions. Pause in your lecture and ask participants to see if they can answer a question on the bingo sheet. Give the correct response. Teams get to mark the box only if they give the correct response.

• Refrain from mentioning several key items to see if participants question you about those items in order to bring them into discussion.

• Require your participants to complete variations of items in a row, such as a total blackout card, an “X”, a line of items forming a “T”, or other configurations.

• Distribute bingo cards to groups, ranging from one to five, to demonstrate levels of effectiveness of different-size groups.

Source: Zingo-2. © 2000 Workshops by Thiagi, Bloomington, IN.