The ASL hot seat is exactly like it sounds. Students are called up front and put in the “hot seat.” However, this is not as scary as it sounds. If you are turning this activity into a competitive game, it will be a fun way to review content and check to see what students understand.
What to do
Divide your class into at least 2 teams but you can use more. I’m not too fond of large groups because I feel like it allows students to hide in the group and not participate. I like to make teams with no more than 6 students in each. Do what works for you and your students.
After you have lectures and gone through a story, sign a chunk of the information again. Give students time to discuss the information and its meaning in the target language. NO ENGLISH. After the allotted amount of time, call one student up to the front from each team. These are the students in the “hot seat.”
The teacher will pose a question to the students in the hot seat. The question can be true/false or open-ended. Alternatively, you can ask the students to give a translation. The first student to provide you with the correct answer wins their team a point.
Tips
It is important for you to see different students in the hot seat. Make sure a different team representative comes up each round. Everyone should be participating.
You can have students in the hot seat answer on a whiteboard. This avoids the use of English in the classroom. You can still use the first team to get the answer accurate wins the point or have all teams reveal the answer at one time and award a point to all of the teams that answered the question correctly.
Bonus points
If you want to get vocabulary practice in, you can award bonus points to teams for giving you the accurate sign to a vocabulary word. If you are working on a clothing unit, you may ask for the word “ZIG-ZAG” after a question has been answered. The first person in the hot seat to give you the sign wins a bonus point for the team.
I hope you and your students enjoy this competitive, but fun activity.
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