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: Primary

Location: Computer room

Language focus:  Has got/ is wearing/ colours/ clothes vocabulary/ physical descriptions/ parts of the body

Game: Hero machine

Preparation

1. Either play with heromachine  yourself and both write a physical description of the hero you produce and take a screenshot and print the hero OR download and print a copy of the Superhero Relay Play material (relay dictation text and superhero picture).
2. Read the set up at the bottom of this post.

Preplay

1. Play hangman with ’s u p e r h e r o’
2. Brainstorm some superheroes
3. Elicit some physical descriptions of some of the superheroes on the board (focus on some of the language focus items for this game)
4. Write the name of the superhero you have a picture of up on the board and elicit possible physical descriptions.
5. Learners do a relay dictation of the written description.

Play

1. In the computer room learners use the written description fro the relay dictation to reproduce the superhero.
2. When they have finished learners stand up and compare each superhero on each screen with the printed picture of the superhero.
3. Learners make their own superhero and write a description using the relay dictation text as a model.

Post play

1. Learners print their superheroes out (screen capture at school or at home) and put them on the classroom wall.
2. Taking it in turns they read out the description and others identify the picture.
3. Alternatively learners look at the pictures and predict the description.

How to play with Heromachine

You need to familiarise your learners with hero machine a little so you may either want to present the game in a connected classroom or direct learners through it in the computer room.

1 Choose a body template.  You could do this in the connected classroom by asking the class what you should choose.  e.g. a man or a woman?  Short or tall?

2 As soon as you choose one of the four templates you are given a few loading options.  For the full range of clothes, objects, weapons, companions and body parts etc choose the complete option (the one I usually choose).

3 When your option has loaded click on the little arrow to the right of the lower small window (the one on the bottom) on the right just below where it says ‘component and genre’.  This allows you to open up the different body parts, clothing etc.  Just click on one to add it to your superhero.  Use the slide bar underneath to see more.

4 Use the palette below to add details to the physical appearance of your superhero, access more details by using the slidebar and colour your superhero.  Usually each single detail you have has two aspects to it so you can have two or one colour for each detail you add to your superhero.  For example, you could have green trousers with red stripes.

5 Finally if you learners make any mistakes they just have to click on the item they want to change and then make the change.  This could be changing a hairstyle, clothing or the colour.  Have fun!

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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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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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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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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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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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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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