http://www.digitalplay.info/blog/2009/10/11/narrative-tenses-with-grow-cube/
Level: Intermediate
Topic: Writing stories
Writing Focus: Narrative tenses
Time: 30 – 40 minutes
Game: Grow Cube
Key Language: canal pool pot pipe waterfall dish steps cave tower skull springs dug planted flowed built grew cut down lit added threw
Preparation: Connected classroom with data projector. One printed copy of the language sheet for each learner. One photocopy of the walkthrough for the teacher.
Walkthrough: Man Water Fruit Pot Blue pipe Fire Dish Bone Spring Red ball
Grow Cube is an online point and click puzzle game. The objective of the game is to find the right order in which to place the ten icons onto the cube. It is a very visual game and the short video sequences in between each click lend itself brilliantly to writing a narrative story. Though you can have the music of the game playing during this activity I find it tends to become quite repetitive and so I usually click on the ‘sound off’ button on the bottom right just next to the reset button. Prior to this game you should have presented the narrative tenses, mainly the past simple and past continuous though you can include the past perfect if you think your learners are up to it.
Pregaming activity
Tell your learners they are going to watch a game and tell their partner the story as they watch. You can then play the game using the walkthrough. Click on the game’s icons and let the learners watch the short video sequence. Prompt them if necessary to tell their partner what they saw. If the story they are telling involves any difficult language they should write it down in their native language. When the game has finished and the learners have finished their story telling ask them to compare any language they noted down with another group. This is to allow a little peer teaching time with the vocabulary. Hand out the grammar sheet and ask them if they understand the useful language at the bottom. Learners then think of a title for the story and write it in the ‘title’ gap.
Gaming activity
Reset the game and elicit the order you click on the icons from your learners. Using the grammar sheet your learners then write down the game story. Remember to allow time between each click for your learners to briefly discuss the story and then write it down. Monitor as they write.
Material: Language worksheet
3 Comments
Kyle,
I used Grow Cube in a slightly different way a couple of weeks ago and it worked wonderfully!
I used the computer lab where we can sit 2 or 3 students per computer.
First, I let students play around to familiarize with the game idea.
Then, I asked them to reset it and to listen to me carefully as I gave them the right order one by one.
After each one, they had to observe what happened and narrate it in written form.(At the beginning they thought it was really easy, but then realized it got more complicated each time!)
As they watched, they started thinking and asking about the right words to describe what they saw.
The result was really fascinating as each student produced a text according to their own linguistic ability.
And they loved using a game!
Great to hear that, Vicky – it’s such a great game for generating language from students
Hi,
Thank you for the great quality of your blog, every time i come here, i’m amazed.
[url=http://blackhattitude.blackhattitude.org]black hattitude[/url].
2 Trackbacks
[...] Conditional, 2nd Conditional, Future Clauses with ‘IF’, Live Listening, Narrative Tenses, Prepositions of place, Present Perfect, Reading, [...]
[...] language is going to scaffold the writing activity. Think about using a conditional, sequencers, narrative tenses or how you can adapt the game to a grammar point you have recently covered in [...]