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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Location: Computer room

Language focus: Gaming dictation

Skills Focus: Speaking/ listening

Game: World Cup Rescue

The World Cup has been stolen and you (Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo) have been chosen to go and get it back.

Preparation

Depending on how your computer room is set up you need to get at least two learners out of the class and to play the game using the written walkthrough (at the bottom of the page).  I have access to a computer room where there’s a row of computers against one wall and another row against the opposite wall.  I got two learners (The commentators) to go and play the game so they could dictate the game to the two rows.  They play the game and make notes of any language they may need to explain how to play the game to the rest of the class. Tell them that they will be the walkthrough.  They will also be able to use the video below to help them.

Preplay

At the beginning of the game there is a comic book introduction which introduces the storyline and the characters.  You could show this to the class (in a connected classroom) as a preliminary to playing the game.  The game characters take it in turns to speak (speech bubbles) with each turn being taken as you click on the screen.  This means you can look at any language with the class and discuss anything that crops up.

Play

Learners sit at a computer.  If you have the luxury of being able to have one learner to a computer then this is best.  Pairs at a computer is also ok.  Tell them they are going to play a game.  They will have to describe where they are in the game to the two commentators.  The commentators listen, may ask any questions to clarify any aspects of the learners’ game progress and then tell them what to do.  The Commentators may watch the video walkthrough (on two seperate computers) and use any notes to help them, though no-one else should be able to see their screens.

Video walkthrough.

NOTE

The activity has been known to start with the gamers listening to one of the commentators only.  However, as the game progresses different pairs progress at different speeds.  At points it can be quite hectic for the commentator for they may be answering questions on one game while having to ask questions themselves on another.  At these points your role is to ensure that there is a little order.  Prioritise games where progress is slower for the commentators to deal with and encourage faster players to explore a bit.  You can also slow a team down by asking one of them to swap with the commentator (to use their notes and the video).  Also think about letting gamers read the written walkthrough (NOT the video) the link is the author’s name (Edgar) at the bottom of this post.

Post Activity

• Write the game story in the style of a tv news report.
• Write the news story for a newspaper.
• Interview the characters (Messi & Ronaldo).
• Write press statements (one reporting the theft another reporting the return of the cup).

The Walkthrough

Medusa’s Hideout
First a warning: before going inside, take the stone from behind the pillar on the right and (important!) wear the tinted lenses to avoid Medusa turning you into a stone statue.
Inside, Medusa asks you what brings you there – tell her you are a Personal Items Salesman).

She will ask you now what items you have for her to buy; answer Mirrors (3rd option).

Medusa will  look at herself in the mirror and will  turn herself into a stone statue and all of the other stone statues around will go back to life.

Take Medusa’s collar (necklace).
Talk to the Centaur to find out he has been practicing archery since he can no longer participate in running competitions because he lost one of his horseshoes.  Coincidentally you have one in your inventory so give the horseshoe to the Centaur and he will give you the magic bow in exchange.
In your inventory, combine the arrow with the bow.
Oh, and take off the tinted lenses.
─────────────────────────────────────────────
Troy
Outside the city’s walls, you won’t be able to open the Horse door without the key, so use it and get inside.
Before closing the door, take the stone and throw it to the city gates.  Then close the horse’s door now (do this quickly!!).
A Trojan soldier will come out to take the horse (and you) inside the city; open the horse’s door to come out.
Pick up the spear and move to the right.
Now you’re facing a palm tree with a golden leaf which is what you came here for. Use the bow and arrow on the The golden palm of Troy to get it.
─────────────────────────────────────────────
Underworld
Talk to Charon to learn how  bad the job conditions down there are.  Give him the two gold coins to get to the other side of the river and keep going to the right. 
Cerberus is stopping you from getting into Hades so use the magic lyre to put him to sleep. Go right.
Hades is looking after Poseidon’s trident while he goes to sleep.  If you take it from him, he’ll wake up so replace the spear with Poseidon’s trident.
─────────────────────────────────────────────
Colchis Island
Now, you need to be pretty fast here… or the dragon will kill you!!
As soon as you get in here, use Poseidon’s trident on the well to get a huge amount of water into the dragon’s mouth.  When he’s down, climb on top of him (click on the highest part of his stomach) and take the Golden Fleece.
Don’t leave the island without taking the red cape from behind the well.
─────────────────────────────────────────────
Crete Island
You’re in the minotaur’s labyrinth again.   Go into the central chamber (Through the door to the East )
Take the anvil and put it in front of you (still behind the red line).
Take the red cape, click on the Minotaur and do a little bullfighting with him to make him run into the anvil.
You can cross the red line now and collect the Minotaur’s horn from behind his foot.
─────────────────────────────────────────────
Mount Olympus
When you have completed Zeus’s 5 tasks, he gives the World Cup back to us mortals

Original Walkthrough: Edgar

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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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Location: Computer room

Topic: Food shortage, flood and earthquake disasters

Language focus: Writing

Game: Disaster watch

An Educational game commissioned by Christian Aid to raise awareness of the threat of Food shortages, flood and earthquakes in a Central American country.

Pre-Play

I started this activity in a connected classroom by dictating these four questions:

1. What’s his name?
2. Where does he live?
3. What disasters /do they watch for?
4. How many disaster clues /do you have to /watch for?

Then I played the video intro to the game until learners had all the answers to the questions.  In feedback I elicited the three disasters (earthquake, flood and food shortages) on to the board and put learners into groups and gave them the task of predicting what possible ‘warning signs’ there might be before each disaster. Learners brainstorm them into three categories which they draw in their note books.

Play

Learners take their notebooks to the computer room.  Sit learners in pairs at a computer.  Direct them to the game and let them play the game Disaster watch.  Stress that they have to complete their tables in their notebooks.  There is enough text in the game for learners to get some good reading practice.  As an alternative/ extra activity you may like to get them to record any difficult language items.

Post Play

Back in the classroom feedback on the answers.  Ask learners if there were any warning signs that they predicted at the beginning that i) appeared in the game ii) didn’t appear in the game.

Extra Activity

Learners write a short composition entitled “The warning signs for __________” and write about one of the three disasters.  They can structure their composition in 4 parts:

1 About the Country – Learners write a little background information about the country.  They can use information from, the intro, research, what they know.

2 A disaster – a little bit about the disaster they have chosen to write about (what it is, what it does, who it effects etc).

3 The Warning signs – Use their notes from the game to complete this paragraph.

4 What can be done – What possible solutions there are and how best to combat the disaster (later parts of the game will give learners some ideas).

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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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Level: Intermediate & above

Location: Computer room

Topic: Reading and dictionary work

Language Focus: Non defining relative clauses

Game: Anika’s Odyssey

This is a fun walkthrough reading activity for the computer room followed by a writing activity using non defining relative clauses.  You may also choose to do some recording vocabulary work during the game so that they have some language to work on when they return to the classroom.

Pre Play

Once you have done a presentation on non defining relative clauses (yawn!) tell your learners they have worked very well and that they are now going to go to the computer room to play a game (hooray!).  Good news is they will enjoy it a lot and there is a walkthrough to help them.  Bad news is that they have to make a note of any words in blue that they don’t know.  For this reason they need a pen/ pencil and notebook.

Play

1 Tell learners to open up two internet explorer pages.

2 In one internet explorer page direct learners to this site.

3 Learners copy and paste the address into the other internet explorer page.

4 Learners play the game on one page and read the walkthrough in the other.

5 Monitor to make sure they are playing taking notes of difficult language.

6 Stop the game when one team finishes playing and has got ten words noted down (slow them down by getting them to write down more and with a translation).

Post Play

Learners write ten non-defining relative clause sentences using words from the game.

Learners take it in turns to read out their non-defining relative clause sentences but NOT the word from the game.

The first learner to put their hand up and say the correct word from the game gets a point.

When you feel the activity has gone on long enough declare a winner.

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Level: Intermediate & above

Location: Computer room

Topic: Writing direct speech in a cartoon

Language Focus: Direct speech, present tenses etc

Time: 30 minutes

Game: Zimmer Twins

Screenshot of Zimmer Twins game

Preparation

1 Play the game yourself and make a note of any language to preteach that appear in the four file categories:

Screenshot of the four types of clips

2 In class ask your learners to make a table in their books with four columns and to label them ‘talking’, ‘doing’, ‘feeling’ and ‘writing’ (based on categories in clip screenshot above).

3 Call out vocabulary (that appears in the game and learners have to write the words in the correct category.

4 Encourage learners to ask for the meaning of any unfamiliar words.

5 Go to the computer room and direct learners to the site.  Click on ‘Make a movie’ and then ‘Make from scratch’.

Play

You should tell tell your learners that they are going to make a cartoon by listening to your instructions.  Tell them you are going to tell them the order which they have to use the ‘clip icons’.  This is to make sure that they concentrate on the speech bubble and star icon which involves learners having to write something.  Other than that they can write the story that they want.  Allow them to discuss the storyline as well as what to write between each ‘dictation’.

Also tell them that they can change the person, place and other things by clicking on the green writing in the middle.

Dictate the icons in the following order:  STAR (clapperboard), SPEECH BUBBLE, SPEECH BUBBLE, SMILEY, RUNNER, YOU DECIDE, RUNNER, SMILEY, SPEECH BUBBLE, SPEECH BUBBLE, YOU DECIDE etc

Learners write their story.  When they have finished they can go and look at the cartoons their classmates have done.

Alternative

In the preparation stage instead of asking your learners to make a table, ask them to tear up a piece of scrap paper into four pieces.  Then ask them to draw a “speech bubble, a stick man running, a smiley face and a star”.  Learners place the four icons they’ve drawn in the middle of the table.  Learners play this game in groups of 2s, 3s or 4s.  Call out the vocabulary from the game and learners have to grab the correct icon from the middle of the table.  The fastest to get the right one is the winner.  Mix the vocabulary you call out with words they are familiar with and possibly unfamiliar with.

You could also control the activity a little more by asking your learners to include targetted language. e.g. if you’ve just done a specific tense, phrasal verbs or other language area, then tell them they have to include 5 examples of that in their story.

NOTE

The disadvantage of this game is that it doesn’t save your work unless you have registered as a member with the site.  It’s free and doesn’t require too much information so you should consider joining.

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Location: Computer room

Skills focus: Reading

Game: Treasure of Big Totem

PREPARATION

Two possibilities:

1 CLASSROOM - Print off a copy of the story and read the tale in class.  Learners predict the most important elements of the story needed to play the game and underline them.  They then use dictionaries to check up any difficult vocabulary.

2 COMPUTER ROOM – Learners open three explorer windows (the game, the Tale of the Treasure of Big Totem, and an online dictionary)

PLAY

Learners read “The tale of the Treasure of Big Totem” and play the game as a comprehension check.

POST PLAY

Focus on language elements in the Tale that are unfamiliar to your learners.  Having played the game they may now be able to make educated guesses at the meaning.  If you all have a copy of the Tale ask your learners questions about the language.  e.g.

What’s a spade?”

“What’s a pick axe?”

“The spade was leaning against the totem.  What does leaning against mean?”

“What did you do with the rope?”

HOMEWORK

Learners write out a walkthrough.

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Location: Computer room

Topic: Prepositions, describing things in a room

Skills Focus: Live Listening

Game: Obama Guantanamo Escape

THE GAME

Teenagers sometimes like to play games that have a slight rebellious nature and that pokes fun at authority figures.  The game referrences a few iconic film characters including (in order of appearance) Rambo, Jack Sparrow, Yoda, Spiderman and The Terminator.

PREPARATION

Play the game yourself once to familiarise yourself with the game play.  Use the walkthrough to help you.  When you play this with your class either have the walkthrough up on a teacher’s computer screen but so that no-one can see it OR print off a copy of the walkthrough.

PLAY

1 Get all learners to the start of the game.  Let them watch the short video sequence at the beginning to set the scene.

2 Ask learners “where is Obama?” and “What can you see?”.  If there is a board which everyone can see then brainstorm vocabulary onto it.

3 Ask learners “what do you think you need to do to escape?”  As learners answer this keep monitoring as someone is always a little restless to play.  If you see anyone progressing in the game ask them to stand up and tell the class what they did using any elicited vocabulary.

4 Using the walkthrough direct learners towards the answer.  A typical start to the game could be:

Teacher: “What can you see above him?”

Learner: “A Baseball.”

Teacher: “Well, you need that.  How are you going to get it when your hands are tied?”

You may see a learner figure it out and if so ask them to stand and tell the class how they did it.  If not continue asking questions towards the answer:

Teacher: “His hands are tied so what could he use to get the ball?”

The answer is he kicks the wooden frame a couple of times and knocks the baseball to his feet where he can pick it up using his feet.

5 Continue using the walkthrough to direct learners through the game and getting fast players to stop and explain how they are getting ahead.

NOTE A game can be quite distracting so switch of a learner’s screen and don’t turn it back on until they have described how they progressed in the game to the class.  You may find that you only use the walkthrough occasionally when everyone is stuck and your role becomes ’screen switcher offer’.  Remember this is fine as long as language is being produced.  Learner’s may get frustrated but remain calm as this is what should be happening.

POST ACTIVITY

Just before the end of the computer room time comes to a close (ten minutes or so) tell your learners to “stop playing for a moment”.  Get them to open a new internet explorer page and direct them to the walkthrough.  They can play the last 5 minutes of the class playing the game using the walkthrough.

HOMEWORK

Using the walkthrough they finish the game.  Ask them to think of another film character that they would like to have been in the game.  Ask them to write the walkthrough for their character clearly explaining where he/ she would appear in the game, why and how the game would involve the character. Next class ask them to explain their choices and walkthrough and ask the class to judge which was the best/ most original/ funniest/ stupidest etc.

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