About this activity
Sixteen multiple-choice items on current teen idioms: he threw me under the bus; she's on thin ice with the coach; I'm swamped this week; let's play it by ear; he dropped the ball on his part of the project; that's a stretch. Each offers a literal option — he gave me a ride, she is ice skating, I'm flooded out of my house — which is what makes the item a real test rather than a prompt.
How to use it in a session
Do not remove the literal options. They are the point: a student who consistently chooses them is telling you something specific about how they process figurative language. When one is chosen, ask what in the sentence makes the literal reading unlikely — with the coach is what rules out ice skating — since that reasoning transfers to idioms not on this board. Twelve minutes covers the sixteen.
What to listen for
Watch for near-miss answers. Threw me under the bus offered as he warned me is a plausible social reading that misses the betrayal, and it is more informative than a literal answer because it shows the student is reasoning socially and getting it slightly wrong. Notice whether errors cluster on the workload idioms or the blame ones.
Carrying it home
When a student misreads a situation socially, an idiom is sometimes the cause. Asking what they heard, rather than explaining what happened, occasionally turns up a misunderstanding nobody suspected.
Questions
- How does this differ from the teen idiom flashcards?
- That set supplies the expressions for discussion. This one asks the student to choose the meaning against literal distractors, which tests comprehension rather than teaching it.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all sixteen items play free in the browser.
- What grades is it for?
- Sixth through twelfth.