Location: Connected classroom

Skills Focus: Reading/ Watching/ Speaking

Video: 8-Bit Twilight Eclipse Interactive

If you teach teen girls and you haven’t heard of Twilight, no scratch that, if you have been living on planet Earth and you haven’t heard of Twilight then get with it.  This teen phenomenon that has swept the world is due to release its third film installment ‘Eclipse’.  To mark this momentous occasion in many a fans diary Digital Blog brings you a couple of fun video activities with a fun ‘game’ look and feel.

Preparation

1. Write on the board “Are you team Edward or team Jacob?” on the board.
2. Elicit an answer and brainstorm the titles of the books/ characters/ any of the plot details/ relationship with Bella Jacob & Edward.
3. Decide which of the two videos you’ll watch below (or which order if you are going to do both.
4. Tell the class they are going to watch some videos of a new ‘Eclipse’ game and they have to predict what the characters say.
5. Connect to this page and use the videos and letterscript below (double clicking on the videos will take you directly to the youtube site).

Play

1. Play the video.
2. Learners copy and expand on the letterscript.
3. Repeat as necessary.

Team Edward video

After your learners have watched the video ask them to expand on the ‘letter script’ below.  Each letter represents the first letter of a word and the symbols and numbers also represent a word.  Punctuation is punctuation.

e.g.  IW♥2BAV  = I would love to be a vampire.

Letterscript

Team Jacob video

After your learners have watched the video ask them to expand on the ‘letter script’ below.  Each letter represents the first letter of a word and the symbols and numbers also represent a word. Punctuation is punctuation.

e.g.  IW♥2BAW  = I would love to be a werewolf.

Letterscript

During both of the videos above there are moments when you are asked to make a choice between two decisions.  It’s a nice activity to pause the video at these points and ask the class which option they would choose and why.  You can then continue playing the video.

NOTE

You could always judge what your learners choose to expand their letters to on individual merit.  There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be allowed to stray from the script if what they produce contains interesting language.

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Level: Pre-intermediate

Location: Connected classroom

Skills focus: Speaking & pronunciation

Language Focus: Countries and nationalities

Game:  Geography game

Preparation

1. Hangman for ‘countries/ and/ states’.
2. Brainstorm a few and elicit the name of a person who comes from there.  Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know”, if you don’t know the answer yourself.

Play

1. Divide the class into teams of 3 or 4.
2. Tell them they have to identify a country (the game asks them to find the country) and say what you call a person who comes from there.
3. Play the game.  A learner from each team comes up and points to the country on the map.  If you know the answer (whether learners get it right or not) click on the country.  If you are not 100% sure but there is a general consensus then click on that country.  Otherwise choose the country the winning team chooses.
4. Learners get a point for getting the right country and minus a point if they get it wrong.  They then get the chance to earn a bonus point for identifying the person who comes from there.  If the team gets the bonus question wrong it is open to the class and the team that gets it right first (hands up no shouting it out)  gets the bonus.  There are no minus marks for this.
5. Play the game until all the countries have been eliminated (guessed right).  Teams add up their points and a winner is declared.

Post Play

Learners draw two columns.  First column is country and the second is person.  Give them a chance to try and remember the country and person from the game and fill in the columns before playing the game again.  This time play the game open class (no teams) and the class completes the columns.

Alternatively focus on pronunciation.  Learners may need a little practice on vowel sounds or word stress.  If you play the game twice then you may want to do some pronunciation work between the two.  In this way you can note down mistakes the first game and focus on them in the second game.

Note

Sometimes its a little difficult to be able to say who comes from that place (especially if the game is on the states of a country).  In these cases you can accept a common answer each time (African, American, Australian, European etc) or ask a general knowledge question about the country.  You will need to do a bit of extra research and preparation for this though.  Some suggested general questions may include:

What colour is their flag?

What is the currency of this country?

What’s the name of a football team from here?

What language do they speak?

What’s the national animal?

What is the life expectancy for this country?

What are the names of three animals from there?

What are the names of three food products grown there?

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Level: Intermediate.

Location: Connected classroom

Skills Focus: Reading

Game: Mcdonald’s video game

Calling itself a digital parody of Mcdonald’s, this game takes a very critical look at the process behind the fast food company.  If you’ve read or seen ’supersize me’ or ‘fast food nation’ then you should play this.

Preparation

Download a copy of the Mcdonald’s video game worksheet and make a copy of the first page for each pair of learners in your class.  The second page contains teachers’ notes.

Pre-task

1. Connect to the game in the class and set English as the language you want to play the game in (British flag).
2. Choose a volunteer to read ‘The Game’ introduction out.
3. Brainstorm vocabulary items from the 4 pictures to the left of the intro.
4. Click play and allow enough time for your learners to read the disclaimer and then ask them why they think that is included there and what does it say about the game.
5. Click continue and then hand out the worksheets.

Reading task

1. Explain the game is quite complicated and to play it well you need to read the tutorial.
2. Click on the tutorial.
3. Learners do the worksheet activities while you follow the instructions on the teachers’ notes page.

Post reading task

Learners play the game either in a computer room or for homework and then complete the last activity on the worksheet either back in the classroom or for homework.

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Level: Advanced

Location: Computer room

Topic: Global Warming

Language Focus: Modals of obligation

Game: Global Warming Interactive

“CO2FX is a web based multi-user educational game which explores the relationship of global warming to economic, political and science policy decisions. The game is driven by a systems dynamics model and is presented in a user friendly interface intended for the high school user.”

Preparation

Download and print off enough copies of the CO2FX Global Warming Simulation role cards and print a copy for each 3 learners in your class and cut each card out.

Pre Play

1. If you are in a connected classroom its a nice idea to have the game on the board to help you illustrate the situation.  If you don’t, don’t worry.
2. Explain to your class that Brazil has decided to deal with the global warming issue and brainstorm in open class a few ideas how they might do this.
3. Divide your class into 3 groups or 3 tables (blue, orange and green) of advisors together (see right).  Give out the science advisor (blue) cards to one table, the Policy advisor (orange) cards to the other and the Economic advisor (green) cards to the last table.  Ask them to read the cards then turn them over and summarize the card to the person next to them.
4. Now they make notes on what arguements they might use to achieve the challenge they have been set.

Play #1

1. Ask your learners to stand up and form a group of 3 consisting of one person from each table (see left) and then go to the computer room.
2. Learners sit in their groups of three at a computer.  Because the game itself is not very intuitive it’s a very good idea to get your learners to read the gameguide. It may be a good idea to explain before hand that because of the serious nature of this game that they may not get a chance to play it until next time.  This time is dedicated to understanding how the game works.
3. Learners take notes from the game guide on parts of the game that are relevant to their role.

Play #2

1. Learners sit in the groups they were in when they read the game guide in the computer room (see advisors gaming diagram above) and compare their ideas on how the game is played.  They may use any notes they took from last class.
2. In their groups you return to the computer room and play the game.

Post Play

1. The advisors all sit together on three separate tables (see Advisors Together diagram above).
2. They compare their success at the game and try and establish the best way to play the game.  This will involve feedback on not only their role in the game but those of the other advisors.
3. Each table makes a ’strategy guide’ consisting of a list of tips on how best to play the game.
4. Learners return to their computer game teams (see advisors gaming diagram above) and compare their ’strategy guides’.
5. In open class decide on the best tips and write them on the board and learners copy it down. (You could do this as a relay dictation).

Extra Activity

Return to the classroom and play the game using the ’strategy guide’ from step 5 in Post Play.

OR

Learners use the ’strategy guide’ from step 5 in Post Play to play the game at home.  They could then report to the class and find out who did the best.  That person then tells the class what it was that they that made them do so well.

Useful Language

We should . . .

It has to be . . .             lowered                    raised                      kept the same

We must . . .

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Skills focus: Listening & Reading

Location: Connected classroom/ computer room

Language Focus: Modals of Obligation

Game: State of Debate

“It’s the year 2020 and Just-Co have banned hoodies, and you’ve just been spotted wearing one. Can you talk your way out of trouble using your English Language skills?”

In this game you are spotted by a regulator (police) who approaches you and tells you about your crime in a video sequence.  You then have to read and choose from three options (written text) on how you deal with the situation and see how they react.  Other situations appear in the game like giving advice to a friend and trying to get into a disco past a bouncer.

Preparation.

• If you are doing this in the computer room treat it as an autonomous listening & reading activity.  As you monitor help learners understand the game’s language content.  The colleague who showed me this game had his learners play the game as a reader/ listener.
• Presentation on modal verbs of permission and obligation if you are doing this in a connected classroom as an open class activity.

Play

NOTE There is a button on the bottom left hand side that provides you with subtitles for the video sequences in the game.

1. Play the video intro and ask a few concept questions such as “When is it set?”, “What crimes are there?”, “What sort of government is it?”
2. Divide the class into pairs.  They watch the video sequence and should ask their partner 3 wh- questions.
3. They then read and discuss what option they should choose before taking a class vote.
4. They watch the video sequence that shows a reaction to their choice and learners repeat from step 2.
5. Play the game for as long as you think is necessary.

Post activity

• Discuss in class which were the best ways to deal with each situation.
• The situations in the game may be extreme but what are the unwritten rules and regulations affecting young people today.  Discuss.
• Write their own rules and regulations for adults.
• Write a role play between a ‘regulator’ and an adult breaking the law.

Homework activity

• Learners write a composition about advice they give to friends, dress codes or laws and regulations that effect them as young people but not the adults.
• If learners didn’t finish the game in class they could continue at home.  You could ask them to take notes using a simple table:

There is also a ’save’ button which I’ve never used so in theory you could save a game and come back to it in later classes.  Whatever you choose to do I hope you enjoy playing the game.

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This is just a quick one – good for a filler or for telling students to do on their own at home.

It’s an entertaining version of the popular TV show – the questions are, on the whole, relevant to English teaching, although some are US-culture specific

Play Win A Million at Online Games HQ

Or download a powerpoint template of the game from here ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’ download

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Location: Computer room

Skills Focus: Live listening

Language Focus: It’s something you use to + verb / for + gerund

Game: Mystery of Time and Space (MOTAS)

This game was probably one of the first point-and-click games I used with a class and many consider it a classic ‘escape the room game’.  It has got over a hundred rooms in which you have to find objects, work out puzzles and escape from the room.  What’s nice about this game is that if you hover your mouse over the objects in a room it is annotated (see below).  This is worth pointing out to your learners at a very early stage.

The pre-gaming activity below orientates learners to the annotation function within MOTAS.   You need to do this in a connected classroom before moving to a computer room.

Preparation

Print off a copy of the MOTAS walkthrough (rooms 1-8) or use an electronic copy of the MOTAS walkthrough (rooms 1-21) or the MOTAS video walkthrough (rooms 1- 5) to ‘dictate’ the game play to your learners.

Pre-Play

1. Present the game to the class and show them the first room.
2. Tell them they have 2 minutes to write down the name of as many objects as possible that they can see on the screen (whether they may use dictionaries is up to you).
3. When they have finished ask them to swap lists with another group.
4. Tell them that they get 2 points if the name of the object appears on the screen and 1 point if you accept it.
5. Move your cursor over each object on the screen.  Learners give 2 points if the object name appears.
6. Add up the marks and hand the list back to the original group.
7. Groups can now argue over the 1 point score words on their list e.g. ‘Locker’ is annotated but you can give 1 point if they say ‘cupboard’

Play

1. In a computer room tell learners they have to listen to you tell them how to escape.  The first one out the room and says stop gets 1 point.
2. They have to either find the annotation to find an object or ask you to describe the object to them e.g. Learner: “What’s a pillow?” Teacher: “You use it to put your head on when you go to sleep.”
3. Use a copy of the walkthrough or the video walkthrough to dictate to your learners how they should complete the game.

Post Play

As learners to write down some of the objects they remember from the game and to write a definition for the objects using the grammar:

It’s an object you use to + bare infinitive

It’s an object you use for + gerund

Alternative activity

Instead of doing a live listening activity or gaming dictation you could give learners a reading in which they have to sequence jumbled walkthrough sentences by playing the game in the computer room.

If you would like to try this why not download a copy of the MOTAS Sequencing Activity and make enough copies for each group in your computer room.

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Location: Connected classroom

Skills focus: Note Taking

Game: 3rd World Farmer

SCREENSHOT

Preparation

Download a copy of the 3rd World Farmer Worksheet (which contains learner worksheet and teachers’ notes).

Play

Hand out a copy of the student worksheetUse the teacher’s notes to play the game.  The interesting thing about this game is that is purposely designed to be difficult to win and progress.  The reason for this is that the game is intended to raise awareness and mirror the plight of third world farmers who themselves may live in no win situations.  In effect the game simulates the impossible to win situation that third world farmers can face.

Post Play

Learners use their notes to complete a writing for homework.  Possible writing activities:

Write a letter to a newspaper from the view point of the farmer to ask for help.

Write a letter to a bank for the farmer asking for a bank loan.

Write an information pamphlet entitled ‘The Plight of 3rd World Farmers’.

Write a composition entitled ‘3rd World Farming is a ‘no win’ situation’.

If you have any suggestions on other writing activities or ways to scaffold the then please feel free to share them in the comments section.

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1  Spot The Difference

Use downloadable flashcards for a spot the difference activity with low levels.  Alternatively, higher levels can use the same flashcards to practice the present perfect and identify ‘What has happened‘ between the 1st and second picture.   If that’s not enough, give out the first flashcard to intermediate learners and get them to predict what ‘will‘ happen and then give out the second picture – now then can see what is ‘going to‘ happen.

2 Who wants to play Samorost 2

If your learners have completed Samorost 2 why not do a reading activity with this fun PowerPoint quiz ‘Who knows all about Samorost 2‘ based on the popular Tv show ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’.  For the ‘phone a friend’ option I usually allow them to text someone outside the classroom (in English) and allow two minutes for a reply.  ’Studio audience’ you can take a class vote (some interesting results with that – join in yourself  if you like).  If your learners like the game so much why not ask them ‘who wants to do a quiz about Samorost 2?‘ and get them to practice question forms and download the PowerPoint template and write their own questions and answers.

3 Poetry with Samorost 2

An acrostic poem is where you write the name of your subject vertically down a page. Ask your learners to do this with the word ‘Samorost’, and to start a line to their poem starting with a letter from the word ‘Samorost’.  Alternatively, try a more traditional poem with an advanced class using a more structured approach.

4 Vocabulary Crossword

You may want to do a pre gaming or language activity (e.g. a walkthrough) with your class and a good way to pre- teach some of the vocabulary is to do a Samorost 2 crossword.  Learners can get good dictionary work in while they have fun doing a crossword that targets vocabulary from Samorost 2.  To change this activity from a primarily reading activity to a writing activity, learners can write down a list of vocabulary from Samorost 2 and write their own Samorost 2 student crossword.

5  Live Listening

If you have downloaded and printed off a copy of the walkthrough you can do a live listening.  While your learners play the game in a computer room you use the walkthrough to guide them through the game.  If some learners get further ahead than others then ask them to switch their screens off and describe to others how they have got to where they are in the game or direct the slower gamers to an online copy of the walkthrough to help them.

6 Picture dictation

Picture dictations are great for lower levels and offers a great opportunity to focus on prepositions of place.  The first screen shot of Samorost 2 lends itself well to a description that makes a great picture dictation to learners who are unfamiliar with the game Samorost 2.  Either use a Samorost 2 picture dictation text or make your own up.  When learners have finished they can compare their pictures with the original either as a downloaded flashcard or on a screen at the front of the class if you have a computer, internet connection and the means to display the game.

7 Comic Books

Comic books are visually engaging and can help to both stimulate the imagination and provide a fun way for learners to practice writing.  They can focus on direct speech elements (left) and reported speech or narrative tenses (right).   Download either of the templates pictured here as well as other comic pages from the Samorost 2 game by clicking on the links in brackets above in this text.

8 Wonderous walkthroughs

8 Walkthroughs

Samorost 2 (part 1) Video Walkthrough

A walkthrough in online gaming can be a written walkthrough text, which consists of step-by-step  instructions on how to complete a game, or a video walkthrough of the game being played and completed.hrough in online gaming can be a written walkthrough text, which consists of step-by-step  instructions on how to complete a game, or a video walkthrough of the game being played and completed.  Why not learn how to use the ‘search this site‘ and look for some ideas on how to use a video or written walkthrough with language learners.

9  Sequencing events

Download and print off a copy of the Samorost 2 action verb cards and there is plenty you can do.  Learners can watch a video walkthrough and sequence the verbs in the order they appear in the video walkthrough (lights! Camera! Action Verbs!).

Once the verbs have been ordered, learners can then tell the story of Samorost 2 (Action speaks louder than words) using the verbs to help them.

Finally learners can use the ordered verbs as scaffolding for a writing activity (The Pen is Mightier Than The Sword) where they write the story of Samorost 2.

10 Verbs + Prepositions

Lots of activities and worksheets to download focusing on verbs + prepositions that cover the whole of the free online part to Samorost 2.  Use password codes to skip levels to do specific worksheets or work your way through over the course of a few classes.  Worksheet activities include:

Mind the gap Place the verb and prepositions in the gapped walkthrough.

Grammar jigsaw Communication gap where learners match sentences ending with a verb with a partners sentence that starts with a preposition.

Scramble! Order the words to form walkthrough sentences.

Over & Out Gap fill preposition activity

Why not check out The 101 ways (and more) to use Samorost site for other ideas, material and lesson plans.

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The answer to that could be hundreds and to prove it the site below has come up with over a hundred and one TEFL activities with the game Samorost 2.  Is there a guinness book of records entry for this?  Maybe not but it’ll certainly keep language learners entertained, engaged and in English.  The name of the site?

101 Ways (and more) to use Samorost

Technically it should read Samorost 2 but with all the activities and download material up for grabs who’s quibbling?  Maybe it’s important to have the distinction because the first Samorost game (Aptly named just ‘Samorost’) does have a slightly inappropriate image of a man smoking (??) a pipe (??) that you may want to avoid with young learners.  A fact that’s definitely worth remembering if you are telling your learners to sit down in a computer room and log into the game.

Just to help you navigate round the site here’s a little help:

ACTIVITY TITLES -  Here’s a nice list of activities by name.

SEARCH WINDOW -  Search by level (beginners, preintermediate, intermediate, upper intermediate & advanced), Location (classroom has minimal technology; connected classroom involves a computer, internet connection and some form of electronic white board; and a computer room for multiple online access), Activity (reading, writing, speaking & listening) and Grammar/ Language (conditionals, tenses, prepositions, phrasal verbs, sequencers etc).

PLAY THE GAME -  Access Samorost 2 directly from the site by clicking here.

SCREENSHOTS -  Take a look at the visual content of the game with the screenshot slideshow.

POTLUCK -  101 (and more) ELT uses all numbered.  Fancy taking potluck at an activity?  Click on a number and see what you get.

Main problem with the site?  I think learners may get a bit fed up with just the one game but the point being stressed here is an online game can be used for so many different grammar areas, skills practice and language focus.

NEXT WEEK

Top ten Samorost 2 activities – Ten different levels, activities and grammar areas to give you a feel for the site.  Add a comment if you have a class in mind and I’ll see about including a relevant activity.

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