39 ESL Vocabulary Activities: For Teenagers and Adults - Jackie Bolen, Jennifer Booker Smith 2015

QR code hunt
Games and activities for all levels

Skills: Speaking/Listening

Time: 15-30 minutes

Materials: Internet access, printer, tape/Blu-tack, student phones with QR code reader apps installed, list of vocabulary words

This activity requires a bit more prep than others, but (as of writing) the novelty factor is high enough to draw some students in who might otherwise be too cool for school. Classtools.net makes it easy to put together a QR code hunt, so don’t worry if you haven’t used QR codes before—if you can type, you can do this activity.

Teaching Tips:

You can go in a few different directions with this activity, and a pub quiz is a light-hearted way to get students talking. Just make sure the questions aren’t so obscure that your students spend the class Googling the answers!

Procedure:

1. In advance, write a list of questions using the vocabulary list in a Word document. These can be discussion questions, trivia questions (pub quiz), or they can pre-test student levels, particularly if you are teaching a subject class.

2. Go to http://www.classtools.net/QR/ and copy and paste.

3. Create the QR codes and print.

4. Post the printouts in various places around the class, or better yet, a larger area.

5. Before dividing students into groups, make sure at least one member of each group has a QR reader on his/her phone. If not, give them a minute to download an app—there are plenty and most adult students will already have one.

6. Divide students into groups of 3-4 and give them a time limit to find and answer all of the questions.

7. Optionally, particularly if you plan to assess student levels, you can have students write the questions they find, and along with their answers.

8. Wrap up with a discussion of the answers.