SECRET CODE

SECRET CODE WHEEL DECIFER

The idea and the template of the secret code belongs to Lindsey, a teacher in Utah, who writes the blog THE TEACHER WIFE. Her ideas are really great! Today I'd like to share her idea with a Secret Code Decifer, which could be useful for us teacher of English as a second language.

There are two versions, with signs for younger children and letters, which can be more challenging. It's easy to make it. You have to print out the template on colour paper and join the wheels with a pin and a rubber from the back side.

You can change the code by rotating the wheels. There is also a worksheet of a letter to write your message on.

How can we use it at the lesson of English?

The first thing that comes to mind is decoding and reading a secret message that you compose for your pupils. But that isn't the only thing you can make. Let's try to use it to develop your studets' speech skills.

1. Gossiping.
For this activity you need a short text divided into 3-4 parts. Each team (according to the number of parts of the text) has to decode their part of the text with the help of a decifer and write it on a piece of paper. The teacher checks it. Then each member of each team has to sit with a member of another team and listen to their part of the text and tell them his/her part. Pupils swap the pairs until each pupil hears the 4 parts of the text. In the end they return back to their 1st group and write a short summery of all they remember. Then they read it for the whole class. The teacher reads the original. The team whose story is more precise wins.

2.Treasure hunt.
It could be good for learning prepositions. For this task you have to prepare small coded messages that you will hide in the class before the lesson. The messages will contain the information where the team has to look for the treasure. The messages could be of this kind:
*Look under the teacher's desk.
*It's behind Ann's desk.
*It's next to the class door.
*The message is on the board.
Each team should have different messages and different places to look for the treasure. The treasures are also different. They can be a ball, a toy, whatever.
Your pupils will remember it!

3. Train your memory.
This activity could be good for training memory.
Your students will need to have the wheel at least one for a desk. You show them the codes, coded words.They have to remember the symbols and use the decifer wheel to decode it. The one who guessed the word comes to the board and writes it down.

Here you can download a secret code wheel decifer, pdf.

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