Sporcle.com is a page that provides a huge collection of quizzes of all kinds. For my classes I like using those where language has to be linked to imagery. There are some very creative ideas on this site waiting to be discovered. You can add them to a class at the end when some time left or at the beginning as an introduction or supplement to a topic.
Sometimes, when you start with a sporcle quiz it can also evolve into a full swing lesson. This happened in one of my classes when we played a geography quiz where you had to identify all 50 states of the USA. For one, it took much longer than expected, and then we ended up talking a lot about the single states, researching them on the internet. For something like this to happen, though, it is important to change the setting “timer” to “practice mode”.
And, as with all these kinds of pages, they are overwhelmingly rich in what they have to offer and what you can choose from, so you need to keep a close record of those items you found for yourself or your groups that were of special interest or most enjoyable. Besides being fun, sporcle quizzes are great for visual, topical vocabulary practice. Below is a selection of sporcles I have done and liked.
Note: I make it a point to buy subscriptions to all pages or resources I use on a regular basis. For one, to keep them ad free, but, more importantly, to keep them – period. Nobody can offer stuff for free long term, there has to be some source of income. And the internet makes it possible for all of us to contribute small amounts to keep things running. I never understand why it takes Wikipedia so long to reach its annual donation target. Wikipedia is an astounding phenomenon. The quality of most articles is high and regularly checked; you can get a whole education from Wikipedia, no matter what some teachers(?) might tell you.So I also have a subscription to Sporcle. (Sporcle with ads is pretty unbearable, to tell the truth).
In general my favorites are those with visuals. There is a little symbol behind each quiz that tells you roughly what kind of format it has.
Holidays: Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween
Christmas
Christmas Quiz, 15 quiz questions covering different fields
Find Five: Christmas Things Quiz
16 Little Christmas Pictograms, an emoji quiz
Can you name the Christmas movies? Christmas film scenes quiz
Can you name the 24 Things associated with an American Christmas
And some more Christmas food from different countries
Additional note:
In my last Christmas session, we supplemented a Christmas food quiz with How to Make Christmas Pudding and spent some time with listening to Jamie Oliver, with and without subtitles. From there I searched for more Christmas related cook shows. One I found and liked is related to the Christmas pudding topic – How to Make it the Victorian Way. Another is an episode of The Hairy Bikers, also one of my favorite British cook shows. (The topic calls for a post of its own).
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving trivia (some quiz questions relating to historical aspects connected to the holiday. A note of caution here: Many common American historical narratives are more mythical than factual, so for a more differentiated historical review of Thanksgiving you will have to go elsewhere ;-)).
Halloween
Halloween Sporcle costums pictograms (a little challenging)
Halloween related things (Halloween images)
Recently played
December 2024
Among other things, we got a hint to where the French way of saying 80 comes from (quatre-vingt)
Update August (2024)
Here is a very challenging country quiz: Country Trivia Logic Puzzle Quiz (We were talking about countries, or nations, in connection with the Olympic games and tried to find out why there are more olympic nations than members in the United Nations.)
Further country quizzes listed below were under the game heading of All about… where you have to identify pictures associated with different countries. In comparison to the first one, easy peasy 🙂 (if you know the country).
Update July (2024)
I started playing around with creating my own sporcles. After having done The Third Thing to know: 70ies and 80ies, I tried my hands on the 90ies and 2000s and involved classes in the process. This turned out to be a great class activity and I will try to find other quizzes we might be able to create together. (One of my participants is trying to create a treasure hunt using google maps of the kind you find at Durham Online Escape Rooms. Looking forward to trying that one out.)
In the mean time, I have found some pages that help in the creation of own quizzes. I am still in the process of exploring the following three:
Triviamaker, Interacty: Interactive Content and Gamification Platform for Educators and Business. | Interacty and Code Puzzle Maker – Puzzel.org
Update May (2024)
Roger Corman, master of low-budget horror, science fiction and crime movies, died aged 98 on May, 9. There are loads of Roger Corman related sporcles (just type in his name on sporcle page), but he might be worth a whole session. Roger Corman famously produced and directed Edgar Allan Poe adaptations. So a combination of the author’s work and Roger Corman movies might be an idea. I once read and listened to Edgar Alan Poe’s The Raven in one of my classes. That was hugely enjoyable. We read the poem, listened to Earl Jones (voice of ‘Darth Vaders’) rendition and Alan Parson Project’s musical interpretation. And to top it all, we looked at the Simpsons version 😉
Update September 2024
Earl Jones died on September 9 at the age of 93. James Earl Jones, Whose Powerful Acting Resonated Onstage and Onscreen, Dies at 93 – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Stereotypes
Match the profession by negative stereotype
European countries by stereotypes
Recently played and found good (August 2024)
Series: The third thing you need to know. These relate to wikipedia articles. From the third sentence of an article you have to guess the topic the article is about.
Third thing to know from wikipedia entry: The 1990s Quiz
3rd Thing to Know: The 2000s Quiz
Some of these are not so easy, but we always ‘cheat’ and use the internet to help find the answers. One I really liked was a little challenging and left lots of room for further research, but also for speculation and imagination:
The 3rd Thing You Need To Know: Unusual Articles Quiz
Those referring to years or decades test our historical knowledge.
The 3rd Thing You Need To Know: The 1970s Quiz
The 3rd Thing You Need to Know: The 1980s Quiz
The 3rd Thing to Know: The 1990s Quiz
The 3rd Thing to Know: The 2000s Quiz
Referring to years:
The 3rd thing you need to know: The Year 2019 Quiz
And there are three more: 2020, 2021, and 2022
Computers
Computer Pioneers and Scientists
Engineering
Engineering Projects by Decade
I Need an Engineer: match descriptions with types of engineering (links up to Guardian article on high ocean treaty)
Seven Wonders: Engineering Feats
Structural Engineering: Can you pick the static term…. this one is definitely our of my range of expertise, but could be interesting to try in conjunction with checking images of the examples mentioned.
Finance, trading and insurance sporcles
Insurance terms (short, for review)
Legal Language
Legal World or Wizarding World
Legal Terms Quiz (challenging, best done after a few ‘Legal Language Clicks’)
Flags
Flag emblems (very challenging)
Flag Border Maze Quiz (this one too, but interesting idea. If it turns out to be way too difficult, open a map…(you still need to know the flag))
Miscellaneous
Complete the 60ies song with a picture
Super Science Bunker (minefield)
Name 10 in 30 seconds – US presidents
Groups of Three – Odd one out
Language
Deceptionisms (Strange words, are they real?)
Eliminate the odd one out (challenging but fun)
I Have A Feeling – also great vocabulary practice
100 years of words – there are several of these, they go through the decades starting with the 20ies ( I did 20ies and 2000s)
100 years of words III Goes through 70 up to late 90ies
Sports
Olympic Games:
Summer Olympic Sports Debut Order Quiz – By hockeystix3 (sporcle.com)
2016 Olympic Games Pictograms Quiz – By Rackie (sporcle.com)
History
Who am I History Famous People (match images with people)
Historical figures featured in Indiana Jones (one of my favorites)
Smithsonian Timeline – Match the items from the Smithsonian collection with when they were produced or created (rather challenging I thought, but worth trying)
The TIME of the Americas – pick the correct TIME magazine cover
Sorting squares – 20th Century People
Emoji riddles
Album covers (challenging);
Film sporcles
Barbenheimer – Barbie or Oppenheimer
Two movies that couldn’t be more different from each other came into the movie theaters at the same time, which has been followed by quite some comments and some sporcles.
Barbie sporcle – Barbie by occupation
Barbenheimer, the ultimate quiz
The Shining, also worth re-watching around Halloween, is considered to be one of the best Stephen King adaptations. For those who know the movie, there are some fun Sporcle quizzes related to various aspects of the film.
Figure out the movie from the emojis
Plants and Flowers (in film titles)
Hitchcock movies match the year
American Werewolf in London (very difficult)
Star Wars pick the right movie scene
Movies that feature contagious diseases and outbreaks
For Dieticians class
Health and Diet (7) Technical terms
Body related quizzes Body parts in pictograms
Name parts of digestive system
Match the body parts to the right category
Body parts starting with L (advanced)
(5) 16 Little Body Part Pictograms Quiz (a challenge)
Food sporcles
16 Little X Pictograms – these are a collection of various topical quizzes where you have to find out what word or expression is depicted by the pictograms. For example: 16 Little Food Pictograms
Name the fruit by pictures of its inside
Foods that are White, Red, Green, Yellow, Orange, Brown, Pink, Blue/Purple
Harry Potter sporcles
Harry Potter Bunker Quiz (Bunker quizzes are generally fun and cover all kinds of topics – sporcle bunkers)
Harry Potter: Close-Up Quiz, places and things in close up
Match the screen shots There are so many screen shot quizzes or match the scene with the hint, I won’t list too many. This can be just explored on the spot with Harry Potter fans.
Geography sporcles
Speed Geography (fun)
World countries this one is quite challenging, but on the page are links to other, similar quizzes.
Guess the place from the clues given
Sporcles for learning or practicing German
(10) German: Numbers Quiz (sporcle.com)
(10) German: Colors Quiz (sporcle.com)
(10) German: To Be Quiz (sporcle.com)
(10) German: Time Quiz (sporcle.com)
Words borrowed from German
(10) The 3rd thing you need to know: German Loanwords Quiz – By MrWhiplash (sporcle.com)
Some general knowledge stuff
(10) The 3rd thing you need to know: Germany Quiz – By MrWhiplash (sporcle.com)
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An old mix (to be sorted)
Plants and Flowers (in film titles) I went to this category after watching the video of the opening concert of the Barcelona Opera House after months of being closed due to corona. This is the greatest most fascinating concert I have ever seen.
Plants and Flowers in Songtitles
Who am I (picture click) Another one of those And another one (the easiest)
General categories quiz
Images of words that end in -age
Around the house
Put words into right categories
Odd but useful kitchen gadgets
Identify pictured kitchen gadget
Household objects by their pictures
Household items by pictures
History Match the image with the event
US politics and history Senate or House