Another Version of "Who is This?"

Here is a fun, quick take on the "Who is This?" assessment, which can be used as a warmup, bellringer, ticket out the door, etc. It is a listening comprehension activity involving whiteboards and characters from a reading/novella. It only lasts 5-10 minutes.

Planning

1. Write 3 VERY short descriptions in target language of one character, where the 1st description is most general ,and the 3rd is most specific, i.e., by the third description, it should be obvious who the character is.
2.  Do this for three or more different characters.

Activity

1. Have students get a whiteboards and dry-erase markers. Students can also use pencil and paper for this, but it is not as fun.
2. Have students number 1-3 on their paper or whiteboard
3. Explain to students that you are going to read a series of descriptions and after each description, they should write the name of the character whom they think it is. All three descriptions are about the same character.
4. After reading the 3rd description, ask students in the target language “who is it?” and have them respond. If they are using whiteboards, ask them to hold up their whiteboards so that you can see their series of answers.
5. Continue with the next character.

Examples from the Aeneid

1. Troianus vir (Trojan man)
2. pater (father)
3. a serpentibus interfectus (killed by snakes)

Answer - Laocoon

1. deus (god)
2. rex (king)
3. mittit ventos (sends winds)

Answer - Aeolus

1. femina (woman)
2. in Italia (in Italy)
3. sacerdos Apollonis (priestess of Apollo)

Answer - the Sibyl

1. Troianus vir (Trojan man)
2. fidelis amicus (loyal friend)
3. rare loquitur (rarely speaks)

Answer - Achates

Observations

1. This is actually a very fun activity to do. Years ago, I demonstrated this in a presentation at an American Classical League Summer Institute with Latin teachers using characters from the Aeneid, and they did not want to stop playing this and wanted me to keep giving them character descriptions, even though I had run out of them.
2. The shorter the descriptions are, the better. Since it is a quick activity, to give students long descriptions makes the activity drag. Vocabulary words and short phrases work best.
3. The more characters from which to choose, the better. If your reading only has four characters, then it becomes obvious VERY quickly whom the description is describing.
4. I have found that students turn this into a competition to see if they can get the answer right based on the first, most general description.
5. I like the class to show me their whiteboards after they write down the character after the last description so that I can see their "train of thought" - it is fun for me as a teacher to see them be able to narrow down who they think that the character is based on the names which they wrote down.
6. If you are a Latin teacher who uses the Cambridge Latin Course, this is a great activity, since there are so many characters in the readings.