Skills Focus: Reading

Location: Computer room (multiple computers)

Game: Rizzoli and Isles

If I ever ask teachers if there’s a game that they would want to use in class that’s based on a specific theme the most common answer is crime or a detective based game – so here’s one right here.  There’s even a nice little tutorial at the beginning which your learners can read.  It tells you how to play the game.  Here’s the first one:

 It’s basically a point and click game – you point your mouse on various parts of the screen and click to see if you get some information in your role as a detective.

Note it is a homicide you are investigating so be aware there are some scenes that are inappropriate for a younger audience.  For instance, you have to view the scene of the crime and so you not only get to see the murder victim but you have to collect evidence from the body.  However, if you’d like to judge this game for yourself and see the content of the game you can always take a look at the video walkthrough that is at the bottom of this post.

The screen shots here are all taken from the tutorial at the beginning of the game.  This will not only give you an idea of the level of language in the game but will also give you an idea of what to expect in the game.  Of course, these will all be read by your learners too.

To orientate learners towards the game I took some of the language items from the tutorial and got them to do a little bit of dictionary detective work and find out their meanings.  Basically, it was way to preteaching some of the game’s vocabulary, orientate learners towards the language task (we switched to an online dictionary) and introduce the game itself via the tutorial.

Here’s the vocabulary we did before the game:

There’s a bit of jumping about in this game.  As you solve clues and progress, different locations become available to you.  You start at the crime scene where you collect evidence and talk to the police officers on the crime scene and the building supervisor who’s office is next door.  I say talk but what you in fact do is read what they say, choose from a short list what you say and see where that takes you in the conversation.  A little simple but, hey!  It is reading practice.

While you do move around a few different locations you do have to keep going back to your office.  Your office is not only the place where you collect all your evidence, arrange it and make connections but there’s also the forensic department which you have to go and talk to.

Your notice board (pictured above) is a click away from your desk and you drag and drop the evidence you collect onto it and, as the game progresses, continue to move them around so that they begin to join up.  This in turn gives you more ideas on where to look and impresses your boss so that they can direct you to more locations and more clues.

I have to admit having played the game myself with a class this moving clues around the notice board can prove a little tiresome and it’s a good idea to have the video walkthrough on hand to give learners a little bit of extra help.  Either go and have a look yourself and call out what they need to do next and invite them to go up and have a look at it.  I generally don’t let them have too easy an access to the walkthrough (like on their computer in a different window) as they tend to overuse it.

I think I’ve already mentioned the desk, haven’t I? I also mentioned the bulletin board but reading back on this blog post I’ve called it a notice board.  I made this mistake in class and it did create a little bit of confusion but strangely enough generated some quite spontaneous and natural English.  Basically I got told off by my students, got involved in a semantical arguement which even if I didn’t really win I felt that by getting so much language out of them was a victory in itself.

Notice how ‘bulletin board’ is on my preteach vocabulary list (above).  Yep!  I learnt my lesson and by the time I got round to using the game with another class I was calling it ‘the bulletin board’.  However, I did feel that by skipping over calling it a ‘notice board’ we were missing out so subsequently I threw it back in and, you’ll be glad to hear, feel much better.  I have, rather unfortunately, never had that same level of “discussion” as I had the first time.  I feel rather nostalgic about it now.

Anyway, I’m waffling.  Either play the game yourself or watch the video walkthrough.  Here’s the link to watch it:

Rizzoli and Isles

Location: Connected Classroom

Language Focus: 3rd Conditional

Skills Focus: Reading, Speaking

Game: An Interactive Story

Can you help the girl get home through the woods before it gets dark?

This is a nice little game presented as a moving story book.  That is, it looks like a book upon which the drawings of the characters move.  ok, they move in a limited way but it’s got text for reading practice and it looks kind of cute.  At the beginning of the game you get a bit of the background story and some information on what you have to do.  A few pages into the story the game starts in earnest as the girl meets a strange creature and has to decide how to react.  This is where you the reader get to choose what the character does and in effect dictate the course of the story.  I did this on an interactive whiteboard allowing time on each page for my learners to read the story, discuss any difficult language elements, answer some questions (sort of spontaneous comprehension questions) and finally talk about and reach a consensus on what course of action to take in the story.

Preparation

I played the game first and prepared a set of questions to ask my learners.  Having played the game I realised that by asking certain questions I could ‘guide’ my class to make the choices that would bring out the more interesting elements of the story (it was also the longest version).  Here are those questions:

• What time of year does the story take place?
• Where was she going?
• What was the matter with the strange creature?
• What do you think would have happened if you hadn’t stopped to help?
• Why do you think it’s a bad idea to stop and play in the park?
• What would have happened if you had stopped?
• What does the old man drop?
• What reward does he give her for returning his wallet?
• What would have happened if she’s kept it?
• What does the girl get if she arrives late?
• What does the girl get when she arrives just in time?
• What does the girl do after dinner?

Pre-play

Play

Post Play

Location: Computer room

Skills Focus: Speaking

Language focus: Prepositions of place, vocabulary in a house, imperatives (look, go, pick up etc)

Game: Escape Pear Room

The premise is that you get a little bit too drunk each Christmas and the family have decided they’ve had enough and locked you in the house.  It’s up to you to figure out how to escape.

Preparation

You can watch the Escape Pear Room video walkthroughs to familiarise yourself with the game.  This will help you while you are monitoring the activity to predict ahead, input language and guide learners if they get stuck.

Preplay

1. Tell learners they are going to see 4rooms and they will have 25 seconds each to write down any words associated with Christmas that they can see.
2. Open the game and move through the four rooms allowing 25 seconds on each for learners to write down the words.
3. Feedback in open class making sure all learners know the meaning of the words they have written down.
4. Go through the 4 rooms again and ask learners to describe where any of the difficult words are or any objects that they don’t know the name of in English.
5. Explain a little about the game and say here’s the start and show some of the video walkthrough.  Show enough so that learners see a few of the puzzles being solved.
6. Elicit how you play the game and what you do at the start.

Play

1. In a computer room gather learners round a single central computer and open the video walkthrough.  It may be a good idea to open one of the videos on one internet explorer and the other video walkthrough on another.
2. Tell learners that they can play the game in pairs and if they get stuck they can come to the video, watch a little bit and go back to their partner and tell them how to play a bit of it.
3. Put learners in pairs and get them on the game. Tell one of the pair that for 5 minutes they are the gamer.  The other is the watcher and they go back and forth to the video walkthrough.
4. Start the activity.  Monitor to ensure learners are using English and encourage them to use the words from the preplay activity.
5. Swap gamer and watcher roles after 5 minutes.

Post Play

1.  Learners write directions to  the end of the video.
2. Learners record vocabulary items from the game and make a Escape Pear Room dictionary.
3. Learners write a Dear santa note explaining the story and wishing to escape.

1 Christmas facts

Test your learners knowledge of Christmas with these ten questions.  You can either get them to write down their answer and pass it to the next person to mark (before returning it) and then take a class poll on what they think the right answer is.  I always throw out a few bonus points as they come to me.  After the question on the left I asked them to write down the names of the other reindeers, then looked them up online and gave out bonus points for each – it kept the game a little more exciting.

2 Around the World

If you liked the last Christmas Quiz then give this one a go too.  I think the questions are a little harder but if you think your learners are up for it then why not give it a go.  You can always play this quiz straight on the end of the last one if you are looking for a quiz with more than just 10 questions.  Play these two and you’ve doubled the amount of questions to 20.

3 Q’wick Q’westion Q’west

I don’t know how your multiple computer access situation is but when my learners are on a computer in pairs I’m lucky enough to have a large screen connected to a computer at the front of the class.  Learners told me where to click (moving from the reindeer towards the candy cane) and when they saw the question I gave them until the first pair said “next” to find the answer on the internet.  I then took the direction the pair that said next told me to take in the game.  This continued until we had finished.  If you want to be extra sneaky (and give slower ones a little more of a chance) then get learners to write the answer down.  You can then (sneakily) get them to write out questions to the answers they have written down at the end of the game.

4 CBBC Christmas Quizzes

The CBBC website has a few fun christmas quizzes up.  The nice thing about this page is that there are a few quizzes there for learners to work through autonomously on computers.  You can monitor and help with language (or even set an online dictionary for them to use) while learners take each quiz in turn.  Encourage them to make a note of how many points they score in each so that you can declare a winner at the end of the activity.

5 IWB Christmas Quiz

A downloadable interactive PowerPoint Quiz for Christmas from the people at tes. No searching questions here – just 15 multiple choice questions based around Santa, The Nativity and Traditions. Click on the correct answer and you’ll get a ‘Well Done’, but click on the incorrect answer and you’ll get a ‘Try Again’ for the opportunity to go back and have another go.

6 DIY Quizzes

Well sometimes it’s best just to do your own quiz so you can grade the language, add your own images and effects or simply so that it can be saved on a network computer for other teachers to use.  If this is the case then check out this website for a large list of Christmas questions and answers.  The site invites you to cut and paste but I find it’s a good idea to check their spelling and grade some of the language there for your own purposes.

7 More Merry Christmas Resources

This site has a mix of all the above.  There are interactive quizzes, ideas for questions with answers and explanations as well as video quizzes with audio.  It’s a bit like going to Santa’s grotto and having a lucky dip grab – you might be lucky and find something you really like here.

 8  Christmas Carols

If you are feeling extra adventurous then one idea might be to have a Christmas quiz that goes with Christmas Carols.  This quiz focusses on just that.  What would be great now is if you can find all these carols online on a video sharing site and play them while the question is up there.  Hey Presto!  You have a listening and reading activity.  Would be a great one to do but sadly I have two more ideas to come up with for this post so I’ll leave this one for you.

9 Triviapark Christmas Quiz

If you are not feeling so inspired to make your own Christmas Quizzes and you are simply looking for more to use in the connected classroom then here’s a nice little website.  There’s a novice level quiz as well as a regular level quiz, which is a little trickier, and also a more challenging expert level.  It’s worth making a note of the website too as there are a load of quizzes on all sorts of topics here.

10 PowerPoint Quizzes

There is some demand for downloadable PowerPoint quizzes that have already been made for you.  Here are some more.  A word of warning though – these have not been made with English language learners in mind so a little tweeking here and there may be needed.  Good luck!

Digital Play

This book was written by both Graham and myself and we are particularly proud of it.  This teacher development book starts with a look at the state of play in gaming with an eye cast specifically on education and language learning.  It’s also packed full of ready to use digital play activities covering a range of classroom scenarios from no available technology, through one computer and a projector to multiple computers.  If you are a fan of this site then this book is (in our biased opinion) a must.

Closing date for the competition is the 8th of December.

Good Luck!

Send your competition entry to: kylemawer@yahoo.com

Location: Computer room

Skills Focus: Reading

Game: Tanooky Tracks

A Tanooky is a playful but mischievous spirit that likes to possess objects that most resemble its unique personality the most.  In this game you have to find and collect the objects associated with each of the 12 Tanookies in order to find them.  Why?  Because they are getting up to too much mischief.  If you can find them you are helping the occupants of the house, who are being terrorised by the Tanooky presence in their home, get rid of them (see left).

Luckily in the game there is a nice little hint book (see below) that tells you about each Tanooky and points you in the right direction as well as clues as to what objects to look for.   You can see where to click to read the hint book at the bottom of the house on the left.  You can click on this at any point while you are playing the game.  The clues and hints on each Tanooky consists of a riddle and some visual puzzles to mix it up a little.  If you look at the back of this book there are even more hints in case you are really stuck.

The nice thing about this game is that not only is it a visually attractive game with written text to support it but you can also choose to start with which ever Tanooky you like (of course, your learners don’t get to choose the order – you do!). That is, you can deal with them in any particular order.  I like this because sometimes when you have lots of learners playing the same game they can cheat by asking for / giving help using their own native language.  Because this game allows the teacher to dictate the order in which they take down each Tanooky.  Groups of learners will generally be playing the game at a different point.

The teacher can use a walkthrough as they monitor to ask learners guiding questions and help them solve the trickier riddles in the hint book.  Digital Play provides you here with links to the game, the walkthrough and a worksheet.  The latter is for the  learners which gives both extra help (if they need it) on solving the riddles and sets the order for each group to play the game.

Here’s the lesson plan:

Preparation

Print off a copy of the walkthrough and worksheet.  Cut the worksheet cards out (there’s a double copy in case groups overlap and need to look for the same Tanooky).

Pre-Play

1. Hangman ‘Tanooky’.  Ask them what this means.  They won’t know so read them the explanation from the first line of this blog.  Tell them a bit about the game too if you like.
2. Divide the class into 3, 4, 6 0r 12 groups depending on how you will organise them on the computers.  Deal the cut up worksheet equally amongst the groups.  Tell the groups to read the pieces of paper and make notes in their notebooks.  Their notes should include the name of the the spirit and any answers they might like to guess at.
3. Collect back all the cut up worksheet cards.
4. Go to the computer room.  Learners take their notes with them.

Play

1. Learners find the game online and play the tutorial.
2. They then take one of the worksheet cards and find that Tanooky spirit in the game.
3. When they have solved that worksheet card they can get a different worksheet card.
4. When one group has found all the tanooky spirits stop the game.

Post Play

1. If learners didn’t finish the game they can complete it at home.  The game, walkthrough and worksheet can all be found here.
2. They can look at the house in the game and invent their own tanooky spirit.  They describe it and explain what objects it’s connected to, how to find it and write a riddle.

If you can think of any other spin off activities you could do with this game then please feel free to tell us all about it in comments.

Location: Computer room

Skills Focus: Listening

Game: Pirates of the undead sea

This game is not as gory and bloody as it gets by a long stretch but it is just about as far as we go here at Digital Play.  The story is of a zombie pirate who is trying to solve the mystery of how he ended up being a zombie and how he can get back to being a pirate.  Nice thing about this game is that there is lots of in-game text that builds the characters and moves the plot/ game forward.

It’s worth telling the class that it is important to read what the characters in the game say because they provide clues that will help them to not only solve the mystery but also play the game.

Preparation.

Download a copy of the Pirates of The Undead Sea walkthrough. Or alternatively use the Video Walkthrough to be a bit more spontaneous with your dictation.  You’ll need one of these in the computer room to run your dictation off.

Pre-play

1. Explain that they are going to play a fun online game but that it is very important to pay attention to all the details.
2. “It’s very important to pay attention in this game.  What the characters say in the game will help you solve the mystery.  In fact, it is so important that they pay attention to everything that even the title of the game is important.  Now watch and listen carefully.”
3. In a connected classroom get learners attention and open the game for the whole class to see. The sequence it the title page of the game shows a pirate’s ship going backwards making the reverse ‘peep’, ‘peep’ sound that lorries can make when reversing.
4. Ask learners about what they saw and heard and what conclusions they can make from this.

Play

1  Make Your Monster

In a computer room get young learners (7 – 9 yrs) to make their own monsters and write the description for their monster. e.g.

My monster has got green ears and green hands.  He’s got a square blue body.  He’s got red eyes, a big grey nose and sharp yellow teeth.

Collect their descriptions in and correct them.  If you can save their monsters (screen capture) too that’s great.  Then next class you can hand out the descriptions randomly to other students (making sure no-one gets the one they wrote) and students reproduce the monster from the description.  Compare with the original monster picture if possible.

2  Goose Bumps

Again in a computer room with young learners (7 – 9 yrs), another way to use the language from the previous activity is to make a monster yourself, write out the description for it and dictate it to your learners.  They have to listen and reproduce the monster you are describing. e.g.

He’s got an orange head. He’s wearing a grey suit with a red bow tie.  He’s got big strong green arms.  He’s got very short legs and they are yellow.  He’s very ugly.

Check to see if any of the student’s monsters are different and ask students if they can say what is wrong using the target language.  Praise them if they get it right.

3 Make a Monster

Drag the body parts on the left onto the create area and manipulate each part with the controls below.  The controls here are a little more complicated and the game a little more complex so I use this game with older learners (9 – 11 yrs).  You can use the game to stimulate a writing a description activity.  Language can be a little more complicated and have a greater range. e.g.

My monster likes eating small children.  He doesn’t like tidying his room and on Saturdays he likes to watch horror films.  He sleeps in the day and goes out at night to scare people.

If you can’t save the monster using screen capture then get your learners to copy the monster into their notebooks.  Give them 5-10 minutes to do this copying from the computer screen.  they can colour it in or add other details at home.

4 Halloween Monster

Play the game yourself and write/ type it out and print a single copy of the description out.  Then go to the computer room and ask students to sit in pairs.  direct them to the website and tell them they have to make this picture and show them the printed description.  Put the description on a wall (blu-tac) and tell one student in the pair they have to come up, read and go and tell their partner the description.  When they can’t remember any more they have to come back and read the next part and go back to their partner and repeat.  After 5 minutes the pair change roles.  Here’s an example of a description:

There is a brown path leading to a very tall scary house.  There are five lights on in the house.  The monster is on the right of the house. He’s standing to the right of the path in the middle.  He’s got a pumpkin’s head.  He’s got two grey arms that are reaching out towards the path.  He’s wearing some very old brown trousers and old brown shoes.

When they’ve finished they can look at other pairs’ monsters and spot any differences.

5 Zombie Creator

This is good for a bit of collaborative gaming and speaking in a connected classroom.  Display the game on a central screen and choose the create-a-scene option.  Then encourage learners to dictate to you what to put in the scene.  You input language as it’s needed and encourage learners to repeat the language.  There is some quite select language that comes up so it may help to make a note of the language you expect to elicit and for learners to use. e.g. (see image on the left)

The skulls are flashing.           There is a ghost on the left.          They are in a wood with a moon.           There is a birthday cake.

The zombie on the left is coming out of the ground

As a follow up put learners in teams and they have to write down the scene remembering as much of the language as possible.  Encourage them to ask you how to spell words.

6 Halloween Fright Site

If you want a template for a halloween card then use this site.  There are a few designs using various costumes associated with halloween (skeleton, ghost, and a witch) along with a selection of different backgrounds.  You can choose to have the design coloured in by default or left in black or white.  Once learners have a finished design they can print it off.

• If it’s in black and white do a collaborative open class colouring in dictation.

• If you print off coloured in designs then get your learners to write a halloween recipe, story or poem.

7 Trick or Treat Dress Up

8 Ghost Dress Up

9 Halloween Dress Up

This computer room relay dictation activity has a lesson plan for it posted on this blog already.  Just click on the link or picture to read all about it.  The language covered includes:

has got / is wearing

colour / clothes/ parts of the body

10 Funny Halloween

 Learners open up two internet explorer pages.  On the first one they have 5 minutes to create their character.  When the time limit is up pair two computers together.  Computer A goes to their second internet explorer page which is set to the beginning of the game. Computer B describes their character for Computer A to listen to and reproduce.  When they have finished they should compare and discuss the differences and count them up.  They then repeat but swap roles.  At the end decide which of the pair had the least differences.  Then decide which team in the whole class had the least differences.  Ask them if this is the result of them being good listeners or the others being the best describers.

10 more days to Halloween!

Location:  Connected Classroom

Skills Focus:  Writing

Language Focus:  Narrative Tenses

Game:  The First Hero

A game set in the times of ancient greek with a nice shadow puppet look and feel to it.

Preparation

Either play the game using a walkthrough to familiarise yourself with the game or print a copy of the First Hero Walkthrough off.  Also have some dice ready, enough for each group or pair of students.

Pre-Play

1. Introduce the area of narrative tenses as it comes up in the course book.
2. Do some controlled writing activities from the course book or work book.
3. Write 1-6 on the board and write some of the grammar areas next to them.

e.g.

1  Past simple

2  Past continuous

3  Past perfect

4  You can choose

5 Choose two of the tenses.

6 Write three sentences.

Play

1. Explain the game and encourage students to suggest what you have to do.
2. Listen to the students and follow their instructions until the last instruction for that stage of the game.  Stop before you do it so that students can see the stage of the game just before it is finished.
3. Tell students to roll the dice and write the story.  They can write what they like but they have to use the tenses according to their dice role but they can write more if they want.  Each student needs to write so they each/ all have a copy of the story.
4. Monitor and help with language.
5. Repeat the above steps until the game has finished.

Post Play

Also when starting the game you have to click continue, watch a brief storm sequence and then an advert for the game site.  Be a little patient and wait until the game title screen appears again and you can click PLAY.

1 Gaming For Education

A presentation on the why, which and how games can be used in the language learning classroom.  Several games are looked at including materials adapted specifically for skills and language work to be used in conjunction with the game.  If a few of the slides look familiar it’s because Graham Stanley is one of the authors of this blog.

2 Digital Educational Game: pedagogical design and development

This slideshow looks at the educational design of games as well as their value as educational tools.  They also outline a seven stage rapid game development model for anyone out there interested in developing their own educational game.

3  Creating Contexts for Language Learning in Gavinburn Primary School  

A look at how this Primary Class is hoping to increase pupil interest in computing science through project work on video games.  This is an attempt to introduce cross curricular ICT projects that are more fun and engaging.

4 3D Virtual Worlds for Language Learning

Avatar Languages is a language academy based and teaching within the virtual world called Second Life, which has the look and feel of a video game but without the goals and rules governing a video game.  in fact, the rules, aims and objectives have been very much left to people who populate the world.

5 Epic Win – Why Gaming is the Future of Learning

Jane McGonigal presents her argument for how the phenomena and popularity of gaming is quite natural and should be seen as quite positive if we are to move forward and achieve life’s goals in the modern connected world.

6 Computer Game Based Learning in Secondary Schools

A look at a video game based learning project conducted in Scotland.  The presentation makes the message that the methods they use are more relevant to the pupil’s worlds than other strategies employed within the traditional state educational system.

7 Video Games, Virtual Environments & Higher Education

A presentation on the pros and cons of adapting video games and virtual environments into higher education.  As well as promoting the benefits the presentation seeks to provide a balance by also considering the negative aspects associated with video games before reaching a conclusion.

8 How Games Mesh with Formal Education.

This Danish perspective presents the argument that we should use video games in education purely because of their monumentous presence within modern culture and their influence on other mainstream media.

9 Gamify Learning: Learning & Teaching Through Having Fun 

An asian viewpoint this time from Hong Kong University.  This looks at how video games have such a great appeal to young learners, the challenges inherent within video games and a closer look at how specific games can be used within the school curriculum to enhance learning.

10 Games in School Teacher Survey

A presentation form the Games in Schools Conference held in 2009 for the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.  This slideshow looks at the results of a survey amongst 528 teachers who were either using video games already or had not used them at all.  Expectations, obstacles and educational impact were just some of the areas looked at.