Level: Intermediate

Location: Connected classroom

Skills focus: Speaking

Game: The impossible quiz book

This game is a little quirky in its thought process but learners seem to adapt to its train of thought quite quickly.  Don’t try to explain it but let your learners learn how it works/ thinks.

Preparation

Ddownload a copy of The Impossible Quiz Book Hints and either make one copy for you to use in a connected classroom.  Alternatively allow learners to access the online version of the Impossible Quiz Book.

Play

Connected classroom

1. Put learners into groups of two or three.
2. Tell learners you will show them a question for a minute.  In pairs they tell their partner/ group which they think is the right answer and why.
3. Class votes on the correct answer, you click on it.  If learners vote the wrong answer then read them the clue for them to discuss.
4. If they don’t get the clue then tell them the answer and ask for someone to volunteer to explain why it’s the right answer.

Computer room

Learners work in pairs to do the quiz.  They can use the online hints to help them.  When you stop the activity find out which pair got the furthest through the quiz.  Remember that they may have got far through it but had to start again so don’t trust your eyes at the end of the activity but do trust your learners to tell you.

Post Play Activity

Get your learners to write their own quirky quiz.  Encourage learners to be as humorous and inventive with the language as they like.

Here’s a video of the game being completed (I found it a bit helpful sometimes to show some learners the correct answer – you can pause it and rewind it to explain it).

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Language: Have got . . . / is wearing . . .     Clothes and colours

Skills Focus: Writing

Location: Computer room

Summer is coming and Digital play is taking a break for the summer.  We’ll be back in September with a lot of new activities, articles and lessons.  Our last bog post here today is a dressing up game.  One for the girls.

Girls: Summer holiday

Preparation

• Preteach vocabulary for parts of the body, clothes and colours.  Prepare a basic worksheet for learners to complete. e.g.

• Take your learners to the computer room and get them to play the game and write the description.
• Learners can print off their character.

Post Play

1. Put the characters spread out over the four walls.
2. Read out the learner’s descriptions to their character.
3. The class listens, identifies which picture is being described and go and stand next to it.
4. Put the description by the picture.
5. When all the descriptions are next to a picture get your learners to sit down.  Take down the pictures and ask whose it is.  Hand it back and check if the description by it is also theirs.

HAVE A GOOD SUMMER HOLIDAY!

See you in September

While you’re waiting for us to return, why not post some of your ideas, games played and classroom anecdotes here.

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Topic:  Murder Mystery

Language skill: Reading & listening

Game: Bow Street Runner

“This game is set in London’s Covent Gardens in the 1750s, and depicts a time when crime and vice in the city had hit such levels that the local magistrates began to introduce the first instances of physical policing of law and order.  BOW STREET RUNNER is designed to be historically accurate, and therefore the game’s content and its settings may not be suitable for younger players.”

This games video scene clips recorded using actors makes this series of interactive murder mystery adventures incredibly engaging, authentic and life like.  You actually feel you are seeing what London was like at the time.  The sound effects can be a little disturbing but add to the dark and sinister atmosphere of the gaming experience.  To pique your interest here’s a little trailer for the game:

While you explore the game looking for clues much in the way you play a standard point and click game there are plenty of opportunities for your learners to get some reading practice in as each clue is annotated with information on how the clue may be relevant to both the case and to how London was in the 1750s.  As you journey through the games playscape you come across various characters from the time who each have something to say regarding the case you are following.  You choose the direction of your enquiries and hear and read (there are subtitles) what each character has to say.  Finally you have to present your evidence to the magistrate by listening to his questions and putting forward the evidence you have built up over the course of your investigation.

How to use it with learners

I think this is very much an autonomous standalone game.  Either treat it as a reading activity in the computer room, where learners may use an online dictionary or you the teacher for language support, or seek to expose your learners to more English outside the classroom by suggesting it for homework.  If you choose the later then it may be a good  idea to introduce them to the game in the computer room.  Whichever option you choose you may also like to think about encouraging your learners to make a note of some of the more interesting / useful language that they come across.

Extra game support

There are 5 episodes in total and you may like to have access to the Bow Street Runners walkthrough for use with your learners in contact time or even give your learners the opportunity to have access to it from outside class time.

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Topic:  Jungle adventure

Language skill: Reading and online dictionary work

Game: Hetherdale the game Hetherdale the walkthrough

There is a mystery to solve and its your job as intrepid explorer Dr. Montrose to solve it.  Play the game as you read the story and find out the mystery surrounding the secret jungle city of Hetherdale.

Preparation

1. If you can show the video introduction in class and brainstorm a few ideas on what they think the story is about and what they think they will need to do in the game.
2. Tell them they are going to go online and use three internet explorer windows to 1) play a game using 2) a walkthrough and 3) an online dictionary when necessary.
3. What English words do they predict will be in the walkthrough.  What words do they predict that they don’t know the word in English for.  Get them to explain them to you to translate and write up on a board.

Preplay

In the computer room get them to open three internet explorer windows and direct them to this site.

They can use the links above the picture here to 1) play the game 2) find a walkthrough and for 3) they should find an online dictionary to use.  Ask them if they know any good ones.

Play

They can then play the game using the three internet explorer windows.  Your role is to monitor, help with language and make sure that each learner gets a turn to use the mouse to play the game.

Post Play

If they don’t complete the game in class then set it for homework.  It’s a bit risky to hope to continue the game next class.  Some learners may well go home and complete the game without you telling them to or not.  Next class you can ask learners to explain the story to you.  You can ask about:

Who was in it?

What part did they play in the game?

What locations were there?

What happened at each location?

What were the most difficult parts?

Was it a good story?  etc

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1 Computer games make maths fun in school.

An article from the online UK Guardian newsgroup about how a school in nottinghamshire is developing lesson plans and activities for the wii sport.  The console game is being used as a platform to enrichstudents learning experience in a maths class and seems to be proving very popular with students.

2. Using ICT to inspire a creative approach to writing

Homepage for the MYST writing project which sees a visually stimulating adventure video game called MYST to stimulate writing.  It is being used in over 200 schools in Kent, England.

3 .Video games valid learning tools

BBC article that talks about a study stating that video games may be more effective than reading written text.  Looks at a video game set in Victorian England and how pupils retain facts from the game.

4. Research shows video games lead to fewer mistakes on the operating table

Article by the American newsgroup USATODAY on how viddeo games are being used to improve hand eye coordination skills in surgeons.  Playing video games before going into surgery increases a surgeon’s success rate.

5 Consolarium on BBC News – Gaming in Education

Scotland’s Derek Robertson explains how gaming education projects with the Nintendo DS are motivating and improving attainment in Scottish Students.

6 Unlocking learning through video games with Clasemovil

Online technology article by Techcrunch about a South American fun learning community project that seeks to target a wide range of the curriculum using educational games.

7 Free online games develop ESL students’ language skills

Tech and learning article by Larry Ferlazzo, an teacher, blogger and materials developer.  He talks on how he has successfully incorporated gaming into the English language learning classroom with young learners..

8 How Video games changed a generation of athletes

Wired article on how an American football game win owed its winning strategy to a video game inspired move.

9. Using World of Warcraft to Teach English?

Gaming website Gamasutra interviews Edd Schneider and Kai Zeng who presented their idea for ‘ English Speaking Players as In-Game Content: New Ideas for Marketing to Youth in Asia at a Game Developer’s Conference.

10 Fast ForWord program designed to improve literacy skills

This is a reading intervention program based in the United States that claims to not only improve literacy skills but also leads to stronger memory and greater self esteem.  Have a look at some of the sample games they have.

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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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1 Against all odds

A game that aims to educate gamers about the problems that face immigrants and political assylum seekers. The games are divided into three stages (each stage has 4 games) that cover war and conflict in an immigrants native country,  escaping across to a border country and finally starting a new life in a new country.   Links here will take you to previous blog posts with ideas on how to use the game in a connected classroom.

2 3rd World Farmer

A strategy simulation game based on a 3rd world farm that’s great for a connected classroom note taking activity.  Use the game notes to stimulate discussion and drive a writing task for homework.  The interesting thing about this game is that it reflects the ‘real’ situation 3rd world farmers are in – you can’t win in this game!

3 Ayiti The Cost of Life

This game simulates a a farmer and families life on the farm in Haiti.  If you’ve played 3rd world farmer then this is a very similar game.  Get your learners to write an instruction manual on how to play the game.  Great for eliciting 0 conditionals and contrasting what is ‘always true’ in some parts of the world ‘won’t necessarily be true’ in others.

4 Stop Disasters

A disaster simulation game in which you choose a disaster scenario (tsunami, hurricane, wildfire, earthquake and flood) and “try to build upon an established community; providing defences and upgraded housing to prepare for the inevitable disaster.”

5 McDonald’s Video Game

A subversive look at the business process behind the fast food company ‘McDonalds.  Game takes place over four scenarios (agricultural section, the feedlot, the fast food restaurant and headquarters).  If you or your learners have ever seen ’supersize me’ or read ‘fast food nation’ then you will like this.

6 Climate Challenge

BBC commissioned game that looks at the problem of climate from a presidents viewpoint.  This is quite a serious and mature game with complex rules.  There is a tutorial that helps familiarise a player with the game play but I would only recommend this game to a more mature higher level class.  Go through the tutorial on the board but explain you want to learn how to play it as much as they do so help each other out.  When the class is familiar with the rules they could then progress to the computer room to play in pairs and later compare how well they did.

7 Disaster Watch

A look at Nicaragua and the the warning signs and possible measures that can be taken in the event of an earthquake, flood or food shortage.  Three different levels offer reading practice, some fun timed activities and a great platform for discussions.  Ask Learners to make notes, write conditional sentences or discuss possible game strategy.

8 The Peace Doves

A quiz game aimed at testing knowledge and raising awareness of nuclear weapons and the importance of the peace process.  Read the clues to identify a country and select your answer by clicking on a country on the world map.  You then launch a peace dove to that country.  Treat it as a quiz to vote on the answers in open class or as a webquest for pairs in the computer room.

9 Ars Regendi

“Ars Regendi is a browser-based political game that lets you take the reigns of your own, realistically simulated state. You will be asked to weigh in on various matters of state and – faced with a number of choices – any decision you make will have ramifications for the well-being of your virtual populace! In addition, you will be able to form alliances with other countries, initiate reforms and adjust the budget. Ars Regendi is a highly realistic and complex economic simulation that squares you off against other state leaders and puts your political and financial abilities to the test.”  Great long term project for higher level language learners with lots of reading and writing practice.

10 Darfur is dying

Darfur is Dying is a browser game about the political and social crisis in the Sudan.  The game starts with a race to and from a pumping station in the desert.  Avoid roving militia patrols by hiding (space bar also pauses the game) where you can.  Get learners to finish a short exercise in their workbooks and let a winner run a section of the game.  The next stage of the game requires a little more discussion but great for group work and collaborative gaming.

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Level: Primary

Location: Computer room

Topic: Nightmares

Language focus: Directions, prepositions & game vocabulary

Game: Victor’s nightmare

Victor suffers from nightmares and in order to get some restful night’s sleep he needs to learn how to face his fears and vanquish them.

Preparation

Download and a copy of Victor’s nightmare walkthrough.  Either print a copy for each pair in your class (a reading) or a single copy (relay dictation).

Pre-play

1. In the classroom do hangman for ‘nightmares‘ and brainstorm vocabulary onto the board.
2. Set up a relay dictation in the classroom with the Victor’s nightmare walkthrough that you downloaded.  Learner’s should take turns to relay the sentences.
3. Allow enough time for your learners to relay dictate a few sentences the take the walkthrough down.
4. Ask learners to pick up their dictation and take it to the computer room.

Play

1. Before your learners sit down put victor’s nightmare walkthrough on the wall and show your learners.
2. Explain to your learners they are going to play a game and use the walkthrough they copied to start the game.  When they have finished what they copied they can take turns (like they did in the classroom) to use the walkthrough on the wall.  This time they don’t have to write it down – they just tell their partner who plays the game.
3. First pair to finish are the champions.

Post Play

Back in the classroom learners use the Victor’s nightmare walkthrough to make a game dictionary.  After having played the game they should be able to visualise parts of the game using the walkthrough and be able to translate sections.

Alternative reading activity

1. Do the pre-play activity above.
2. Take your learners to the computer room and handout a copy of victor’s nightmare walkthrough to each pair.
3. Learners work in pairs with one playing the game and the other reading the walkthrough to them.
4. After 5 minutes say “change!” and get pairs to swap roles.
5. When first pair finishes get them to look some of the walkthrough words up in a dictionary OR do the game again from memory.

NOTE The house on the right of the path is actually up the path on the left and the house on the left of the path is actually up the path on the left.  You may want to change this as it sometimes causes confusion.  REMEMBER a little bit of confusion can produce some interesting language but be careful to avoid frustration.

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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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1 Soccer manager

“SoccerManager.com is free of charge. You manage your team using your web browser. Matches are played at least twice a week.

You can log on at any time to check the status of your squad, check results and fixtures, make player transfers or just have a chat with the rapidly expanding SoccerManager.com community.”  Learners learn new vocabulary as they play, can discuss matches, strategies and their team in class.

2  Footie Manager

“You take control of a football club and compete against other managers from all over the world in your bid for the domestic championship and international cup glory.

As a football manager, you have full control over your club including managing the club finances, wheeling and dealing in the transfer markets, managing club staff and a myriad of other options that will challenge even the best budding football managers.”

Learners learn new vocabulary as they play, can discuss matches, strategies and their team in class.

3 All football games

A games site dedicated to football.  In class I showed this game page (right) in class and went through each one asking learners what they thought they would have to do.  As they predicted some very useful football vocabulary was fed onto the board and copied with some enthusiasm by the boys in the class.  Topics and vocabulary covered included the role of different players/ positions in a game, football violence on and off the pitch, the pros and cons of penalty playoffs etc  Class ended with students writing down and perfecting the best definition of “The off-side trap” in exactly 50 words.

4 Planetarium Manager

“The objective of the game is different from manager to manager. It can be to have one or more players in a national team, to aim for league or cup glory, or simply to achieve stability by raising and training your players properly. You define your own objectives. However, we can say Planetarium Manager is all about starting from the very bottom and achieving planetarium success.”  Learners choose their in game objectives and present their progress to the class in the form of a powerpoint pecha kucha presentation.  Can they justify their decisions to the class afterwards?

5 FIFA 11

This is a video of a console game that was released by the EA Sports trademark.  Turn the watching into a game.  Divide the class into teams.  Tell the teams that they take turns to say ’stop’ anytime, you’ll stop the video and they can ask the other team a question about what they can see on the video.  Award points on the nature of their questions in the following way 1 = general knowledge 2 = language 3 = Connected question (related to picture on screen).

6 Time Lines

Why not get learners to make their own timelines based on the history of football video games?  This site has a lot of information but only three pages which learners can scan read for dates and short event descriptions. e.g.

1980s Atari rules the gaming market

1981 Pele’s soccer is released (passive)

1987 Nintendo release ’soccer’ (active)

Use timelines to focus on tenses as well as vocabulary items.

7 Premier Skills

A site run by the British Council aimed at football fans of all ages with a definite emphasis on language, fun and football.  Either play games in a computer room and test your learners reading skills and football knowledge with a football rules quiz or play a game in open class and vote on the right answers while testing their football vocabulary.  There are plenty of games to play here as well as a ‘Behind the scenes‘ section providing listening practice as real footballers talk of their footballing experiences.  Definitely worth a look.

8 Freekick Fusion

Use the single player option in this game as a reward for work done well in class or as an incentive to learners to do some more boring work.  My class were doing an end of unit assessment in their coursebook which was split into a dozen sections over two pages.  The first person to finish a section,  bring me their book for me to check, got all the answers right then got to take the freekick.  Young learners loved it.

9 Dress a footballer

A great game for low levels to practice colours and clothes vocabulary (top/ t-shirt, long-sleeved top, shorts, trainers, and sunglasses).  It was also useful to use ordinals (first, second, third etc).  I played this in a connected classroom and had learners sitting at the front of the class in front of the IWB where they dictated their player to me.  Because they all had an opinion on what they wanted the player to wear this acted as a drilling activity (even if a little chaotic).  I chose learners randomly at first then if I heard any mispronunciations, I focused on that.  The activity lasts longer if you ask learners to make the worst football strip, one for their school, one for an enemy to wear, one they would wear etc

10 Football quizzes

A selection of quizzes that cover a wide range of national and international teams as well as football personalities.  You can set challenges to your learners and see who gets the best score in one particular quiz, use them for reading practice for fast task finishing football fans.  If you find a ‘quiz generator‘ or ‘make your own quiz‘ online you can use the quizzes as models to get learners to make their own.

With the FIFA World Cup starting it seems a wasted opportunity not to use football in the classroom.

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