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Quandary – Playing A Comic

By kylemawer  |  2013/01/25 03:07 Posted in All Posts, Game Plan  |  Comments (0)

Level: Intermediate+

Location: Connected Classroom

Skills Focus: Reading

Language focus:  should, giving opinions

Game: Quandary

You are pioneers on a new world and as Captain you need to listen to the people in your group in order to make the best decisions.  Have your learners got what it takes to survive and protect the community?

Occasionally there are a few games out there that don’t need an activity sheet but rather should be played for pleasure and Quandary is such a game.  The background story is delivered in the form of a cartoon with speech bubbles for each of the speaking characters.  If the player wants they can listen to each of the speech bubbles and hear how the sentences are pronounced (see above).

Other elements of the game involve cards that show colonists who have something to say about different situations that the pioneers have to face.  You need to read the cards to decide if they are fact, solution or an opinion (see below)

You accumulate points at the end of the round depending on how successfully you’ve done the task.  Then, you decide upon two of the possible solutions and see what a section of pioneers think about each one.

I liked this game as it proves quite engaging, has a few episodes you can play without having to register and there is plenty of reading practice.  I allowed learners to use an online dictionary if they really wanted but encouraged them to guess as much as possible on some of the vocabulary.  For instance, in the cartoon as shown at the top of this post the noun ‘turnip’ appears.  Learners asked what this meant and I simply asked them what they thought it meant.  In this way you can negotiate meaning and there is much more learner generated language.  If in this case the learner asked “What’s a turnip?” and I said “What do you think it is?” the answer they gave was generally “A plant you grow/ food/ a type of vegetable”.  Enough context and visual cues with the written text for learners to confidently guess meaning.

Here are some other questions that I would ask the class when not playing the game:

  1. Do you like the game?
  2. What characters are in it?  Are they nice people?
  3. What has happened?
  4. What will happen?
  5. What decisions did you make in the game that were good/ bad?
Be warned though – some learners played the game at home so it wasn’t really possible to return to the computer room, where I was asking learners to play the game, and continue in another class.  Still, it’s a good way to encourage a little bit of learner autonomy.

 

 

 

 

Dictionary with Deponia

By kylemawer  |  2013/01/09 03:17 Posted in All Posts, Game Plan  |  Comments (0)

Level: Intermediate

Location: Connected Classroom

Skills Focus: Reading/ Dictionary work

Language focus:  Nouns and their definitions

This game is set in the future fictional world of Deponia.  Visually it’s a joy to look at and because of the in-game audio (the characters talk) and subtitles as well as an extensive written walkthrough it lends itself very well for some extensive skills practice and dictionary work.  I encourage learners to use an online dictionary to look up any of the in-game vocabulary.  There’s a list of online dictionaries you might want to check out at the end of this blog post.

Preparation

It’s good practice to ask your learners to have a note book and pen or pencil whenever you do a digital play connected classroom activity.  You never know when they may need it to record language, make notes or complete a pre-play activity etc.  For this game I ask them to draw four columns and label them like this:

I call it their Gaming Grid.  While they play they can record any new language they come across in the first category.  A good learner strategy is to guess the meaning of a word in this case from the context it appears in the game or walkthrough.  They can then look the word up.  generally for lower level learners I allow them to simply translate it (but preferably after they have read a dictionary definition in English) while higher level learners can write a definition using their own words.  The final category is best done after the ‘play the game’ activity has been completed and you want to focus more on the language.

Pre-Play

  1. Hand out the beginning of the walkthrough ( a dozen lines or so after PART 1 – KUVAQ).
  2. Ask learners to read it and underline any language they don’t understand.
  3. Look up any of the language on an online dictionary if available or a printed dictionary if not.
  4. If any language they identify isn’t in a dictionary then try your hand at giving your own definition.
  5. Learners record the language in the Gaming Grid they have in their note books.

 

Play

  1. Direct learners towards the walkthrough.
  2. Ask them to find the words they found in the pre-play activity and then write down three more words in the four columns they have in their notebooks.
  3. Direct learners towards the game.
  4. Tell them to play the game and complete the Gaming Grid using the game or an online dictionary.
  5. Continue playing until you sense enthusiasm is waning and stop the activity.

Post Play

  1. Learners compare their Gaming Grids adding by dictating three more rows to their Gaming grid.
  2. If you like you can even play a define the word game with learners.  For instance a learner defines a word to a partner and their partner identifies the word.  Alternatively learners can say a word and their partner has to give a definition.

. . . and there’s more.

Because this game is quite long you can ask learners to play the game for homework.  I generally find that asking them to continue with the gaming grid is not always listened to but the game itself and then the walkthrough provides quite a lot of reading practice.

Online Dictionaries

 

Cambridge Dictionary

Dictionary Dice

Oxford Dictionary

Your Dictionary

Christmas Scene Gaming Dictation

By kylemawer  |  2012/12/17 10:11 Posted in All Posts, Game Plan  |  Comments (0)

Level: Beginner

Location: Connected classroom

Skills Focus: Reading

Language focus:  There is/ are, present continuous, prepositions of place

Vocabulary: Objects in a Christmas decorated room (see below)

Game: Christmas Scene

Preparation

Download and print out a copy of the Christmas Scene Worksheet (see below) for each learner in your class.  Use this to pre-teach the vocabulary for the picture dictation of the game.

Pre-game activity

  1. Hand out a copy of the Christmas Scene Worksheet to each learner.
  2. In open class ask what each item is and focus on pronunciation.
  3. Write the words on the board as each learner writes the vocabulary next to the pictures.
  4. Show the game on a computer screen/ IWB in the classroom.
  5. Play a game of ‘I-spy’ with what you can see of the game.  You start with one of the vocabulary items from the worksheet.
  6. When a learner guesses the word encourage them to come up to the board and touch the object.
  7. Learners take it in turn to play I-spy in small groups.
  8. Give out the walkthrough and learners circle the words from the vocabulary worksheet*.

*From memory or using the Christmas Scene Worksheet for help.

Play Activity

  1. Ask learners to take the walkthrough to the computer room.
  2. In the class room learners find the game either through google or the website link (you can save a hyperlink on a document on the computer system and ask learners to access the site by opening the document and clicking on the link).
  3. Learners then read the Christmas Scene Walkthrough and complete the game.

Post game activity

Back in the classroom use an image of the game to play I-spy with the vocabulary.

Downloads

Make A Scene – Christmas Room

 

 

 

Top 10 Christmas Themed Games

By kylemawer  |  2012/12/06 03:14 Posted in All Posts, Game Plan  |  Comments (0)

It’s the run up to Christmas and one way to have fun, get your learners orientated towards the theme and get some language practice in is to do some Digital Play activities with a festive factor.  Here is a selection of 10 Christmas lead in activities to try out with your learners.  All the links lead to lesson plans posted previously on Digital Play.

1 December Escape Game

Nada Purtic was a Digital Play Competition winner last year and had this great beginner’s lesson plan aimed at asking questions with the verb ‘to be’.  The language covered in this activity included body parts, furniture and prepositions of place.

 

2 Escape From Christmas

Another speaking activity but this time for a Pre-intermediate language level class in a computer room or with access to multiple computers. 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. The language focus includes prepositions of place, vocabulary in a house, imperatives (look, go, pick up etc).

 

3  Merry Quizmas

Here’s a selection of Christmas Quizzes and ideas on how to use them with a range of language levels.  Find out what your learners know about facts surrounding the Christmas festival while having fun and covering a range of Christmas themed vocabulary.

 

4 Happy Christmas Escape

Another lesson plan for Beginner’s practicing listening and speaking skills and focusing specifically on prepositions of place.  In this game Father Christmas wants to deliver his presents but he is locked in a house and can’t get out.  Help him to find the keys that will help him escape.

 

5 I’m Dreaming of a Conditional Christmas

A fun Intermediate level game and language focus.  Explore the house and find the fourteen hidden presents to get a key which will let you escape through the front door.  The object for your language learners is to use 1st conditional sentences to walk you through the game and finish it.

 

6 Christmas Picture Card Dictation

This is a great computer room picture dictation activity for primary level learners.  Using an online Christmas card creator you dictate a description of a scene for your class to reproduce.  This is a 30 minute activity and you need a copy of  the Ecard Wordsearch for each learner as well as a single copy of the Ecard Picture Dictation or a screenshot of a finished ecard.

 

7 Junior’s Christmas

And now for some pre-intermediate Christmas vocabulary practice if you have 30 – 45 minutes to spare.  In this game the game character called ‘Junior’ wants to get a present from Father Christmas but unfortunately there are a few things getting in his way.  This 2 page worksheet includes a jigsaw reading to be completed while learners play the game.

 

8 Christmas Stocking Gaming

You’ll need to source the current top 10 selling video games’ chart either at your local gaming shop or online.  You can then use this lesson plan as a guide.  In this ranking activity learners guess the correct order of the best-selling games and then write a review of one of them as a follow up activity.

 

9 Santa Dress up

No lesson plan here – just a great and simple idea for practicing colour and clothes.  Get your learners to dress up a digital Santa and then write out a description of him.  You can then collect the descriptions and hand them out randomly.  Learners then read the descriptions and find the computer that displays the santa for their description.

 

10 Over to you

Now you’ve seen a few ideas on how to use online games, why not have a go at finding a game to adapt for your learners?  Here’s a webpage with lots of Christmas games for you to look at.  If you are uninspired then simply try the Christmas word search for some yuletide vocab or Santa’s quiz for reading practice.  Find enough activities and you could organise your own Christmas gaming circuit where learners play a series of games.

 

 

Present Perfect Play

By kylemawer  |  2012/11/23 03:43 Posted in All Posts, Game Plan  |  Comments (1)

Level: Intermediate

Location: Non-connected classroom

Skills Focus: Writing

Language focus:  Present Perfect

This activity uses two screenshots as flashcards, which are taken from a game called ‘Hoppin at the Avocado Combos‘.  Students look at a screenshot taken at the beginning of the game and compare it to a screenshot taken at the end of the game and describe what has changed.

Preparation

Decide if you are going to:

1) Show the two screenshots to the class and elicit sentences in open class for learners to write down sentences (download and print a single copy).

2) Hand out the two screenshots to each pair of learners for them to work in pairs writing down sentences (download and print a copy for each pair of  learners).

What I like to do is do is:

step 1) to elicit a few example sentences with the target language as an open class activity

step 2) for learners to write down the examples and either continue working in pairs or on their own.   Monitor and help as necessary.

Play

  1. Show learners the first screenshot and tell them this is the beginning of an online game.  Elicit what they can see.
  2. Show learners the second screenshot (next to the first or, if you want to introduce a memory challenge element, covering the first screenshot).
  3. Ask learners to identify ‘What has changed?’ using the present perfect.
  4. Award a point for each correct sentence.
  5. Continue verbally for a few sentences.
  6. Then ask learners to write down ten sentences about the two screenshots saying what has changed.
  7. Feedback in open class.

Post Play

For homework learners learners can either:

a) Write more sentences on the screenshots.  Offer an incentive to learners by saying the one who writes the most correct sentences gets less homework next time.

b) Write explanations to the sentences they have written down.

Here are some examples produced by a class:

The man playing the saxophone has stopped because he has gone to the doctor’s.

The door to room 174 has *been left opened because the man has gone on holiday.

* a need for the present perfect passive form emerged so after a quick presentation learners began to produce this too.

NOTE Why not find other games where noticeable changes take place during play and take a ‘before’ and ‘after’ screenshot to use in class.   Games where game play spans a single screen tend to work the best.

Downloads

Hoppin’ At The Avocado Combos Screenshots

Hoppin’ At The Avocado Combos

 

 

A Collaborative Written Walkthrough

By kylemawer  |  2012/11/09 06:30 Posted in All Posts, Game Plan  |  Comments (1)

Level: Upper Intermediate

Location: Connected Classroom

Skills Focus: Peer Dictation

Language focus:  Separable Phrasal Verbs

Game: Droppy

 

This is a guided peer dictation using the game shown above.  There are actually 10 stages of this game (stage 1 is shown above) although I only generally go through the first four in class which takes about half an hour.

Preparation

There’s a walkthrough here if you want to know how to play the game and get an idea of the range and complexity of the language.  Use it to play the game before hand to get familiar with the game or print a copy off to take it into the class to help you play the game.

Pre-Play

There is also an advert that plays before the game.  Usually I present separable phrasal verbs on an IWB and then get learners to copy an explanation, examples I’ve given and some I’ve elicited from them.  Meanwhile I use the freeze function on the projectors remote control to keep the text learners are copying on the board, open an internet browser, turn the volume down and navigate to the game.  The advert plays silently out of sight while learners are finishing their copying.

When learners have finished I ask them to draw a line at the top of a new page and then to write 1 to 5 down the page.

Play

1.  I show learners the game.  Tell them we are going to play four stages of the game and that I want them to tell me the name of each stage of the game.I click on stage 1 and ask for the name of this stage of the game (usually ‘The Desert” (or possibly dessert)).

2.  I then elicit vocabulary items that they can see on the screen by asking “What’s this?” several times, “Who is this?”, “How does he feel?” and “Why?”

3.  I then either pick the stone up or cut the top of the cactus off.  You can do either in this stage of the game although at other points in play you have to follow a set order.  I then ask learners what I did.

4. I guide learners towards a grammatically correct sentence using the target language using a degree of meta language such as:

“Who did the action?”
“What is the name of the object?”
“Which part of the object?” (in the case of the cactus)
“What’s the verb?”     “What’s the preposition?”
Usually the last two questions are or can be accompanied by some mime to guide learners towards the answer.  I try to recognise learners who give an answer by moving my open hand towards them, frowning or shaking my head if it’s wrong and giving some positive words if they get it right.  This keeps what essentially can become a verb and preposition brainstorming session quite quick paced.

5.  When I can elicit a complete sentence from a learner (a sentence that is grammatically correct using a separated phrasal verb and encapsulates the full game play that’s taken place) I ask them to dictate it to the class for everyone to write down.

6.  I continue in this way for the first four stages of the game.

Post Play

I then ask learners to play the game at home.  They should use the sentences they’ve written down to get through the four stages we played in class as quickly as possible and then write down the sentences for the next two stages.  I collected the homework in the next class and used code correction to indicate the mistakes for learners to self/peer correct.

The Factory of Fear

By kylemawer  |  2012/10/26 03:05 Posted in All Posts, Game Plan  |  Comments (0)

Level: Upper Intermediate (mature)

Location: Connected Classroom/ computer room

Skills Focus: Speaking – describing the inside of an abandoned house.

Language focus:  Rooms, objects in a house, directions, there is/are

Game:  The Fear Factory

This is quite a scary game because of the dark and moody atmosphere.  Using a video walkthrough, which learners can watch and relay information from,  the game is played to the end.

The sound on the game is of the storm outside of the house which you can choose to leave on.  The video walkthrough has the player talking over the top and I recommend that you turn the volume off on this.

Preparation

Watch the video walkthrough and make a note of any language you predict that learners may need help with in order to describe how to play the game.  The way I do these is describe aloud what you need to do every time you click e.g. “go through the door at the end of the hallway”, and work from that.

Pre-play

Really this is a class collaborative play activity (in a connected classroom) that leads to a more intensive pair play activity (in a computer room).

In class present the opening of the game where the background to the game is explained (see above) Let your learners read this, ask questions about the language and make predictions about what to expect in the game and the story.  This is a good opportunity to elicit and pre-teach some vocabulary (watch the Video walkthrough to see all the game).

One way to use the vocabulary you identify in the game is to list it on the board and tell learners that this is language from the game.  They use dictionaries to look the language up and then predict the story/ game using all the words on the board.

I then made learners sit back to back with one learner facing the game and the other looking away.  The learner facing the game had to describe the scenes to their ‘blind’ partner who told them what they thought they should do.  Learners were encourage to discuss decisions, what they thought would happen and predict other elements in the game.  The aim of this task was both to practice speaking about the game and to orientate learners towards how to use the video walkthrough to describe how to play the game.

I stood at the back of the class facing the ‘blind’ learners and after they’d discussed the game a little I asked them what they thought they should do in the game.  When they had decided collaboratively on a course to take in a game I asked the learner nearest to the keyboard to do it.

Once they’d done this a few times I stopped the activity and told them they were going to continue in the computer room but the ‘blind’ would become ‘players’ and the ‘watchers’ would become ‘reporters’.  The ‘reporters’ would be able to go and watch a little bit of the video and go back to their partner and tell them what to do.  There was to be no language spoken other than English.  Anyone who spoke anything other than English then I would click on the we address in the top window and press return.  This would effectively mean the game started from the beginning.

Play

In the computer room access the video walkthrough and pause the video. *this allows time for the video to load.  Then help learners to find the game.

Explain to the ‘players’ that if they play any of the game while the ‘reporter’ is away then they have to be able to tell the ‘reporter’ what they have done.  They may have to make a note of this.  If they don’t it becomes a little confusing and frustrating but point out that is what the rules of the activity are there for – to help them work together.

‘Reporters’ queue up / watch the video and return to the ‘player’ and relay information from the video to the ‘player’.

After 5 minutes or so learners swap ‘reporter’ and ‘player’ roles.

Post Play

In the classroom ask learners:

  1. What problems they had playing the game.
  2. What they found out about the mystery.
  3. What they thought would happen at the end of the story.
  4. What they liked/ disliked about the game.

 

 

Top Ten For Halloween

By kylemawer  |  2012/10/05 03:24 Posted in All Posts, Game Plan, Top Tens  |  Comments (1)

It’s the run up to Halloween and one way to have fun, get your learners orientated towards the theme and get some reading practice in is to do some Digital Play activities with a scare factor.  Here is a selection of 10 Halloween lead in activities to try out with your learners.  All the links lead to lesson plans posted previously on Digital Play.

1 Dark Visions A Gothic Horror Story

 

This atmospheric and written text heavy thriller is great reading practice for a mature higher level language learner.  You arrive at a strange house with a mysterious doctor who introduces himself as James Thaxton Smith, an assistant to your uncle who is the doctor at this psychiatric hospital.  He sees you to the guest room where you are to stay but time passes and you soon get bored waiting.  Explore the house and discover dark secrets and strange goings on.  Can you solve the mystery before it’s too late?

 

2 An Interactive Story

Can you help a young girl travel through the woods before it gets too dark?  A walk through the trees, a chance encounter with a strange creature and an opportunity to practice the third conditional or maybe set up a writing activity using the game events to scaffold the storytelling.  Ideal for an upper intermediate class but has also worked successfully with a strong intermediate group.  I like this game as it is simple, easy to play and the story book feel to it adds a different dimension to the game – as you flip through the pages you can ask learners about the language or predict the story.

 

3 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.  Use the walkthrough for extra gaming support and additional reading practice.

 

4 Halloween Dress Up Games

You can find ten different online games here to practice clothes, colours, parts of the body and lots more language.  All these games were chosen to tie in with the Halloween theme of trick or treat and dressing up in costumes.  Great for younger learners and activities include writing descriptions, telling a partner about a halloween picture and relay dictations.  If you have a printer you can even get your learners to print off some of their creations to decorate the classroom.

 

5 A Zombie Story

 

This hand drawn online choose your own adventure game has 8 different endings depending on what actions you decide to take in the game.  Getting learners to discover these different endings encourages them to engage on a deeper level with the text and storylines to such a degree that they really get into the different plot twists and the decisions they need to take in order to reach they ending they want.  Maybe your learners will be inspired enough to draw and write their own similar stories.

 

6 Nearly Departed

Sometimes an internet connection or connectivity is a problem while a class full of students on multiple computers are all trying to access the same game.  For this reason we’ve included this game which you can download and save on a computer.  An added bonus is that you can save your progress and return to the same computer at a later date.  This means this visually attractive and engaging game can be played over a few classes.  Using a walkthrough can be a help but be warned there are incidences of cartoon blood and gore i this so use appropriately.

 

7  Spookymatch

 

This online game of pelmanism is great for drilling beginner levels on halloween vocabulary.  It’s also great for introducing your learners to and drilling on a few ordinal numbers.  Play this game in a connected classroom as a warmer for a bit of halloween fun.  Vocabulary includes spider (as pictured on the left), green eye(ball), blue eye(ball), green worm, spider’s web/ cobweb, skull/ skeleton and (scary) ghost.

 

8 I Remain

As is often the case, there is a zombie outbreak and you have managed to survive and find yourself inside an abandoned house with the undead horde pressing in from all sides.  Can you read the story and figure out how to reenact it in the game?  This online game can be played while reading a story which is a great way to get your upper-intermediate learners reading.  Playing the game becomes a comprehension check to the story.

 

9 Spot The Difference

 

This is a speaking activity where your class is either in teams or just one big chaotic crowd.  Learners look at the two pictures and have to describe to you the teacher what they are and where they are.  You may find that pre-teaching some of the vocabulary may make for a better activity but that’s up to you.  I find it’s surprising how much learners learn in a game just from dealing with new language as it comes up.  If you do want to pre-teach then play the game or or take a look at the picture on the left here – you can spot the vocabulary for yourself.

 

10 Ten Halloween Treats

Finally here is a selection of ten different halloween themed games covering a range of ages, language levels and scare factors.  Some of the activities can be used in a connected classroom with a single computer and others can be used with learners on multiple computers in either the classroom or a computer room.

 

 

English – Down on the farm

By kylemawer  |  2012/09/21 03:27 Posted in All Posts, Game Plan  |  Comments (2)

Level: Primary (7-10 year olds) beginners

Location: Connected Classroom

Skills Focus: Building a farm

Language focus:  Animals, crops, colours, numbers, prepositions of place etc

Farmville may be old news and the 80 million player mark long surpassed in 2010 (posted in Joystiq Feb 20th 2010) but this didn’t stop my two classes of 7-8 year olds and another class of 9-10 year olds playing, learning and using English and moving on from ‘Old McDonald had a farm’ to ‘Mum, Dad – I’ve got a farm in my English class’.

What is Farmville?

For those of you not familiar with Farmville, it’s a farming simulation social network game which has proved to be one of Facebook’s most popular games. You start off with an empty farm which you can expand on as you earn in-game money and experience points (XP). With the farmville money you can buy things and with XP you level up as well as earn money the better you do. How do you earn farmville money and gain XP? Basically, you grow and harvest crops, animals and trees and earn money. As you plant and harvest and complete tasks (e.g. Harvest something 100 times) you gain XP. Gain enough XP you level up and get a farmville dollar. Farmville coins are the basic most common easiest to obtain tender while farmville dollars difficult to come by. A lot of your in-class discussions will revolve around how to get them and how and when to spend them.

How do you use this with a class of language learners?

Well, working with a class we co-operatively agreed on which crops to plant, animals to buy and then negotiated various other farm management issues. This included when I needed to go online to harvest crops and animals (especially if such actions took place between classes) and how to organise the layout of the farm. Young learners aged between 7 – 9 years responded very well to bringing Farmville in to the syllabus and from that age on interest begins to wane.

What makes Farmville appeal to Young Learners?

Many course books aimed at Young Learners tend to feature similar language areas. Animals, food, colours, numbers and transport are a staple. For me Farmville contained all of these and also allowed learners to be both creative and empowered inthat they could take control of the farm management system be it with me at the helm. That is, I asked and elicited what they wanted to do and I did it for them. In this way, communication became paramount and a conduit by which learners built their farm world.

Where’s the Language?

Let’s now look at how various elements of farmville harvested langauge within the classroom.

Crops

(*seeds & Trees)

Planting, harvesting, ploughing (*plowing) and harvesting crops are essential to the game. You can buy crops at the market and then plant them on your farm. There are several distinct categories of things you can buy at the market and then each of these categories are subdivided into several specific categories. For instance, by going to the market and clicking on seeds and trees you can buy seeds, trees, fruit *(fruits), vegetables, grains, flowers (*blooms). Each of the individual crops can be seen pictured, named and with important in-game information. Here’s a screen shot (left) of six items in the fruit category.

As you can see a Bell Pepper is yellow, takes 2 days (in real time) to harvest, you earn 198 farmville coins when harvested, you gain 2 XP and it costs 75 farmville coins to buy for each plot of land you plant the crop on. The stars underneath are earnt by harvesting an increasing number of crops over three levels.

 Language

What shall we buy? I think we should buy . . . + noun

How much/ How many? Numbers

How long does a/an . . . . take to grow? Hours/ days

When can I harvest it/them? Telling the time/ days of the week

What colour is a/an . . . ? Colours

Where shall I put it on the farm? Put it . . . + prepositions of place

Language to express opinions, disagree & disagreeing

Verbs – plant, harvest, plough, put, get/ buy, etc

Animals

Animals are also bought at the market in the same way as crops. The market also has a picture of each animal, it’s name, harvest time information, earnings and XP.  Here’s a screen shot(right) of six farm yard animals in the fruit animal.

Language

See language section in ‘crops’ above. Also:

What sound does a . . . make? It goes . . .

What does a/ an . . . eat? It eats . . .

What do you call a baby . . . ?

Where does a/ an . . . live? Nationalities (see screenshot above), places & locations.

There are other things you can buy at the market such as decorations, farm aides and clothes for your avatar but to start with it’s best to stick to crops and animals and introduce other aspects of the game as you discover them either on your own or with the class.

How did we play and learn in Farmville?

I found that with me as the farm hand and my learners as the farm management I simply had to ask where I put things, why I should put them (if I thought learners should be capable of answering) and when I should collect them. If collecting or harvesting took place outside of classroom time i.e. In my time then I made learners calculate when I would have to do work on the farm (time and day) and if there was anything I should then do (plant more crops). I kept a record of this in a little note book which either I wrote down (dictated by my learners) or got them to write down (because I was busy dealing with other learner/ farm related issues). If learner’s forgot to tell me to harvest something I left it because a star appears above crops/ animals that are ready to be harvested. This is very visual so next class we could discuss why the work hadn’t been done. My answers would be “You didn’t tell me to”, or “Oh, sorry! I forgot”. Language my learners acquired and would throw back in my face at opportune moments:

Me: “Why aren’t you sitting down, Pedro?”

Pedro: “You didn’t tell me to.”

Me: Well I’m telling you now. Sit down!”

 

                    Me: “Marta, why didn’t you bring your work book today?”

                    Marta: “Oh, sorry! I forgot”.

                    Me: “Well don’t forget next time. Write it down so you remember.”

 

Usually the context, peer translation or sufficient use of tone, mime or gesture got the meaning across.

Trouble at Mill?

Once you begin to get the hang of farmville and have expanded beyond your humble beginnings you can begin to add buildings and decorations.  Placing buildings on your farm can be particularly useful.  Not only do they allow you to ‘tidy up’ and place animals inside them or store decorations but they also provide landmarks by which learners can describe where to place new items.  Some of these buildings produce items you may need more of.  For instance, there is a mill complete with water wheel which when built can be harvested for water buckets which in turn you need to grow the freebie tree saplings you get.  Which in turn brings us to a point – buy a building and you need to collect the materials to build it.  This can be a long and lengthy process so be prepared to take a long time over them.  Learners may experience a little frustration over the time it takes to build them.  You can of course pay real world money to upgrade your account, get farmville dollars and buy your building materials in bulk but that’s up to you.  I don’t.

What were the highlights?

I liked using Farmville because I felt that learners use and understanding of English had begun to evolve and develop away from the purely functional and in-game, but this is all for the good, isn’t it? There were moments we even pushed on and into the realms of the conditionals:

Me: “If we (just) finish this page and that page in the book we can visit the farm”.

With a little presentation and practice learners (L) were replying with the 0 conditional:

L: “If we (just) do this page can we visit the farm?”

Moving on to the first conditional:

L: “If we visit the farm, we’ll do this page after.”

Me: “No! We do the book first and then we’ll visit the farm.”

I have to point out that course books do not attempt to teach learners this young or of this level any of the conditionals but in this environment and context they took to it like ducks to water.  Also, I found that my learners range of language didn’t just extend to conditionals.  Modals of obligation covered some of the girls belief that ‘We have to put a pond for the ducks’ and for a small contingent of the boys that ‘we should put a crocodile with the sheep’.

Interestingly learners would usually get quite involved in negotiating and trying to ‘bend’ the rules a little.  This I thought was great and produced the moments of fun for all.  For me, as long as English is being produced they could argue until the cows came home – or at least until they needed harvesting (harvesting cows does sound a little ominous – Zynga take note).  You have to remember though that at the end of the day the class needs to do CLASS work.  No work means no play. But then the play was actually work as well – they just didn’t realise it.

*In-game names. Farmville labels some noun groups with names you may wish to change to what you feel is a more appropriate word.

Top Ten Tips For Setting Up a Digital Play Activity

By kylemawer  |  2012/09/16 03:10 Posted in All Posts, Top Tens  |  Comments (0)

Here’s a brief description of ten things to watch out for when you are using an online game with a class.  No doubt there are more things to watch out for that are concerned directly with the game but these are for when you present the game to the class.  We’ll be doing more things to watch out for at a later date.

1 You may be able to access the game at home or in the staffroom but can you access it multiple times in the connected classroom/ computer room as well?  You may find that you need to upload the latest version of flash or shockwave or even try using a different browser before you can access the game.

 

2 Be careful of the images and language content bordering the game.  Sometimes, when you are focused on the game itself it’s difficult to remember that you need to look at the webpage it’s on as well.  If there are inappropriate images or possibly live chat that contains inappropriate language then you may find yourself reconsidering using that game.  Remember though that the same game may be present on a different website that is more appropriate.

 

3. Check out links that are on the same page as the game.  This can include links bordering the game or even in the space where the game will appear.  Be sure you know where learners need to click to “Play Game” and at what moment. You don’t want learners to open new pages or follow a link that takes them away from the game.

 

4. Online games are very popular these days and more and more game sites have advertising before a game starts.  Be careful as you may have played the game once and there was what you judged to be an innocent advert but you need to check before you play with a class as these adverts change regularly and you don’t want to be caught unawares.  The other option is to set up a game before hand and run through the advert and get to the start of the game on each computer so it’s ready for learners to start playing.

 

5. Games take a moment to load and the space where you are due to play a game might contain a frozen advert for other games.  This advert may include words similar or the same as ‘Play game’.  You need to know what not to click on, if you need to wait for a certain amount of time before the right button to click appears and where that will be and what it looks like.

 

6. Some games take a certain amount of time to load and you have to take this into account.  In a connected classroom it may just mean making sure your learners are engaged in an activity while you get a game ready.  It may mean you setting up the game yourself before class on multiple computers. For this reason it’s a good idea to have played the game before and to remember the process involved in setting it up.

 

7. Some games or digital play sites require some time before actually playing in order to register with a name and an email.  It’s good practice if this is so to have learners ready and trained to write in a name that is not their own and reveals as little personal information about them as possible.  With very young learners you also have to be aware that they may not have an email of their own, remember how to access it or have to have their parent’s permission to use it.  If this is the case then be aware that in order to play a game you may have to follow a lengthy process (possibly spanning a few classes) before you can actually play it.

 

8. A game needs to be easy to find both for you and your learners. How are you going to guide a class to the game?  You could give them the site address, talk them through finding it on a search engine (say google) or have a document saved and accessible which has a direct hyperlink.  Another way is to save it as a favourite on the computer, have your own class wiki or blog set up with it on or, easiest of all, get it all ready and set up for them.

 

9.  If you need passwords and user names to access a site then make sure of two things. 1 – that you have this information written down and accessible both for you and by your learners and 2 – that the account can be accessed multiple times.  Some sites its just a matter of having a unique password and user name for each learner (say a virtual world) but others may mean multiple people are accessing a single account.  If the latter is the case then you have to be sure that a single account with a single password and username can be accessed on several computers at the same time and that different work can then be accessed and saved at the same time.

 

10. Have it clear in your mind what you are asking your learners to do.  Finding your way to digital play may be easy but there is and always should be a language aim.  If you are asking them to do other things while they play the game (take notes, have an online dictionary, walkthrough or a word document open in another window) then make sure your learners are aware of this before you play the game and while they play the game.  Don’t let them simply be playing a fun activity without clear language aims.  I always say to myself if my boss and a learners parent were here would they be happy with what their child and their teacher was doing.  The answer should be ‘yes’.