Game Plan

The Power of Research

By kylemawer  |  2011/09/09 13:41 Posted in All Posts, Game Plan  |  Comments (1)

Level:  Upper Intermediate

Location:  Computer Room

Langauge: Giving advice – 2nd conditional/ should

Skills focus:  Reading/ Speaking

Game:  The Power of Research

Welcome to a game where your learners will get the chance to live a little of the hectic life of a hospital doctor.  Most of the language in this game is quite low level but the vocabulary tends to be quite specialised.  I’d recommend that your learners have a good online dictionary to hand when they play this.

The tool bars shown in the screen shot above: patients status (top), possible doctor actions (left), hospital & doctor status (bottom).  This may all look a little complicated but the part of the fun of playing the game is learning to play the game.

Preparation

Write some illnesses onto post-it notes.  I used some illnesses that came up in the game and they included heart attack, flu, influenza, medium fracture, complicated fracture and then a mix of basic illnesses (which aren’t in the game) such as a cold, tooth ache, back ache, a cut etc.  This is a good opportunity to pre-teach some of the illness vocabulary that comes up in the game.

Preplay

Tell learners you are going to put an illness (post it) on each of their heads.  They have to go round and look at their colleagues illnesses and offer advice.  By listening to the advice they can guess their illness.  When they guess their illness they can take their post-it notes off and go and give advice to others.  When everyone has guessed each others illnesses they can sit down.

Tell learners that they are going to play a computer game together.  In the game they are a doctor in a hospital and they will have to deal with patients.  As they play they should discuss their actions and give advice to each other on what they should do.

Play

Learners play the game in pairs and may use an online dictionary if they want.

Monitor and help with any language problems that arise and encourage learners to discuss their game progress while giving advice on what to do next.

Ask learners questions such as:

“What patients have you dealt with today?”

“What did you advise?”

“Where have you been in the hospital?”

“Has the game advised you to do anything?”

“What’s the best/ worst advice you’ve heard so far?”

Post Play

Reflect with a new partner on how they ‘should’ have played the game. i.e. could they have done it better (the answer is usually ‘yes’).

Discuss in open class what illnesses they dealt with and how.  If anyone else in the class can interrupt with advice then ask them to raise their hand and wait for you to call on them.

 

 

Dot To Dot

By kylemawer  |  2011/09/02 03:24 Posted in All Posts, Game Plan  |  Comments (1)

Level: Lower Level Primary

Location: Connected classroom

Skills focus: Speaking.

Game: Dot-to-dot

This is a nice little warmer that practices numbers and vocabulary.

Preparation

Choose one of the dot to dots pictures and have it up on the board before your learners come into the class.  It’s a good idea to remember what the picture title is but keep it secret from the class so if you make a note of it remember to keep it out of sight.

I usually play this after the register and at times after I’d checked the homework.  I then chose a student from the class and explained why I’d chosen them e.g.

They have done the homework very well.

They were paying attention when I took the register.

They were very quiet.

They got a difficult question right.

They are being very helpful.

It’s great if you can catch some of the less likely candidates being good and give them a chance to play first too.

Play

  1. The play rules get more complicated each time we play dot to dot.  In fact a new rule gets introduced each class.  So, the first time we play rule 1 is in effect.  The next time rule 1 and 2 is in effect and the next day 1, 2 and 3 etc.
  2. The volunteer calls out the numbers and you connect them up.
  3. The first person to put their hand up and correctly identifies the dot to dot object calls out the number next time (make a note in your register).
  4. The first person to put their hand up and say a word / item of vocabulary that is in the picture, takes over saying the numbers. e.g. in the ‘Jerry’ dot to dot someone might say ‘eye’ and then ‘nose’ and ‘animal’.
  5. The person who guesses the name of the dot to dot picture can choose the next dot to dot picture (make a note in your register). e.g. ‘jerry’

 

Post Play

There are a few options here:

  • Copy the picture and colour it in.
  • Hand out a screen shot of the uncoloured dot to dot picture (take a screenshot after you’ve clicked on all the numbers except the last number).  Learners colour it in.
  • Hand out a copy of the finished dot to dot picture and learners write down words associated with the picture.
  • If learners can bring in their own dot to dot pictures they can play the dot to dot game (using the rules above) in groups of 4.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My American Farm

By kylemawer  |  2011/07/29 03:08 Posted in All Posts, Game Plan  |  Comments (0)

Level: Intermediate+

Location: Computer room

Skills focus: Reading.

Game: My American Farm

 

 

The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture has commissioned a set of games aimed at teaching agricultural literacy.  The selection of games test players on topics as diverse as geography, maths, ingredients to recipes and even the best type of machinery to mow the grass at St. Andrew’s golf course in Scotland.

 

What I like about the games here is that there is extensive use of language.  Like many online quizzes you get asked a question and you are tested on whether you know a select item of vocabulary.  This goes one step further and provides additional clues.  Take for example the Equipment Engineer.  I chose this one because I was doubtfulwhether my learners would benefit from expanding their knowledge of farm engineering equipment.  However, the language clues contained useful language and valid reading skills practice and avoided technical and specialised vocabulary.  You read the clue, look through the equipment and click on one to read a description of it, then drag it onto the golf green if you think you have found the right piece of machinery. You get feedback on your progress on the left hand side with each ‘cog’ turning gold each time you complete a quest.  Complete three of the quests and you earn a stamp in your passport.

 

The passport is the the thing I liked the most, though admittably it is the element that is the least digital of all.  You download and print off the passport.  Then with a pair of scissors and some glue you put it together and then when you play any of the games and complete one of the challenges you earn a stamp in your passport (stamp, unfortunately, not included).  This is great as it provided an extra incentive for learners to play the games and even conduct a little (cheating) practice at home.  Luckily, I have a stamp with a rather comical sheep on it (looks a lot like the sheep in Wallace and Gromitt the wrong trousers) and along with my signature over the top (plus the name of the game) means that I can control the game play.  I even offer my hand at doodles around the sheep if a player completes a game a number of times.

 

But what about the games?  Are they all good?  Well, not all of them but judge the ones below for yourself:

 

AG Across America Asks questions about aspects of geography and you have to click on a US state the question infers.  Get the question right and you also get given a fact and you learn about agriculture in the states

 

Amazing Grains Read the question and make a choice on your answer from the two options.  You have a 50/ 50 chance of getting the maths focussed quiz right.

 

Equipment Engineer we’ve explained already above.

 

Farmers Market Challenge Choose a market topic (flowers, protein, eggs, fruits, nuts, veggies or cheese) and answer solve maths based puzzles.

 

Finders Keepers Choose a food group (grains, protein, dairy, vegetables, fruits or physical activity) then read the challenge to find, say healthy physical activities and then drag the right floating images into the boxes.

 

Let’s make Something Tasty Read the recipe clues and then find the missing ingredients in the word search to complete the recipe instructions.

 

Little Ag Me Choose a job from the agricultural industry (food chemist, large animal vet, logger, plant scientist, diesel mechanic, produce buyer or environmental engineer) and answer questions about it.  The questions are supported by images so it’s possible to deduce meaning from even some of the more difficult language.

 

Spin ‘n Solve Spin a wheel to decide your prize and then read a clue to a word before guessing which letters may be part of that word.  If you’ve ever seen the Tv game show ‘spin the wheel’ then you have a good idea how to play this game.

 

That’s Life Learn about the life cycle of various things (soy, cotton, pumpkin, horse or paper).  There’s actually not a lot of language in this game but I was using a course book that had exercises around this topic.  Learners played this game and then used the language in the book to write about the life cycle in the game.

 

What’s in The World a nice geography test where you read clues and look at pictures in order to identify a country.  Get the answer right and you get a ‘fun fact’.

 

Wild Water Adventures Choose an adventure (alpine skiing, ride the rapids, crazy canoe course or olympic swim trials) and practice your reading comprehension skills.  Each adventure has a different story.  Read the story and answer comprehension questions.

 

There were a few other games on the site but the level of language content was low.  Having said that they are educational so they could be offered as ‘fun’ breaks from English.  I just wouldn’t encourage too much play on them other than to get the stamp in their passport.  Speaking of passports I need to check mine – it’s my summer holiday soon!

 

And on that note folks Digital Play will be on holiday for the summer.

 

We’ll be back in September.

 

Wishing you all a relaxing summer!

 

 


A Choose Your Own Adventure

By kylemawer  |  2011/07/22 03:11 Posted in All Posts, Game Plan  |  Comments (1)

Level: Upper intermediate

Location: Computer room

Skills focus: reading and writing.

Language Focus: 3rd Conditional

Game: A Zombie Story

 

If you ever played any of the fighting fantasy choose your own adventure books (a single-player adventure game book) then you might like to introduce learners to the concept too.  If you are unfamiliar with them then playing the game above gives you a rudimentary idea of their form.  You read a story, at some point made a decision and then turned to a page that the particular decision you made was linked to and then continued the story.  Incidentally, this activity is graded upper-intermediate because of the high level of language in the game.  There’s no reason why the later activities could not be adapted to lower levels.

 

Preplay

 

  1. Tell the class they are going to play a game called ‘A Zombie Story’ that has 8 possible endings.
  2. Ask them to draw 8 columns and two rows and dictate the name of each ending so learners have this in their note books:

 

 

 

Horrible ending Bad ending Moderate ending Almost good ending Good ending Decent ending Wonderful ending Amazing ending

 

4.  Below that get them to reproduce this:

 

What do you do? What happens? Useful language
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Play the game on a computer in the classroom and as you play get learners to fill in the ‘What do you do?’, ‘What happens?’ and ‘Useful Language’ categories until you reach an ending.  Learners can then tick the box below the name of the ending.

 

Play

 

If you’ve followed the steps above your learners are now orientated towards the language task and you can take them to the computer room.

 

  1. Get learners to play the game and find the 8 possible endings.  They should tick the boxes as they finish them.
  2. They then choose the best ending and play again but take notes on the actions (what they do) and their consequences (what happens) as well as useful language
  3. Monitor and help with difficult language and ensure they are making notes on ‘useful language’.
  4. Fast finishers should sit behind a player and give oral instructions on how to find the missing endings for the player.

 

 

 

Post Play

 

Choose your own post activity:

 

  • Now that learners have a familiarity with the various story lines and they have chosen one as ‘their story’ you can guide them to writing third conditional sentences.  For example:

 

If I hadn’t / had got out bed, I would/ wouldn’t have . . . .

 

If I had slept more, I would/ wouldn’t have . . . .

 

  • Learners create your own story like the one you have played. They should remember to give options in your story with different choices.  The best way to do this is to write each part of the story on a separate piece of paper with the title of the decision made last at the top.  Next class they can read their story to another who decides on a course of action until they reach the end of the story.
  • Learners imagine they find another survivor. They think about would you say to them and then and then find someone with a different story and tell them their stories.

 

 

 

 


MP for a Week

By kylemawer  |  2011/07/15 03:11 Posted in All Posts, Game Plan  |  Comments (1)

Level: Advanced

Location: Computerroom

Language skills: Reading

Topic: The British electoral process

Game: MP for a Week

 

This is a great activity for an advanced group of English language learners with not only lots of reading practice but also the opportunity to learn a little about the political process that a British MP has to face each day of the week.  The first step is to choose your name, whether you are male or female and, of course, you take a side choosing either to be part of the governing party or the opposition party.  You then start your week on monday at 9:00 a.m and immediately the minutes start ticking by as if they were seconds.

 

The game is essentially a whole series of tasks of which there are simply too many to keep up with.  This is all part of the game.  The idea that MPs have too much to do and too little time to do it is implicit within the game.  From the offset you have to prioritize what you have to deal with, how you deal with them and what to let slip by.  Of course, throughout the game each decision you take is reflected in the polls.  Is this stressful?  Most probably but in a game context pressure and stress seems all part of the fun and as long as tasks you are on are doable it’s the kind of game play that is just what an advanced language learning class is looking for.

 

From the start there are a number of issues that you need to consider tackling on a range of topics.  Choose to deal with what you consider the most important issues and let what you choose to tackle and how you tackle it be the order of the day.  Be careful though as your decisions will affect your running in the opinion polls.  You get to see your progress here

regularly.  In regular progress updates you see how your party’s reputation is faring, what your voter support base is like and how your media profile is bearing up.

 

The number of tasks in this game just keep on piling up but in a way that justkeeps the game play engaging and challenging.  For instance, you may have to set up committees and select various members from your constituency to sit on a panel to ask your party’s MPs questions. Read your constituents profiles, select who you want and then generate a report on the event.  Your success at this will in turn be reflected in the polls.

There are also various debates that you can attend that call for speeches.  Speeches here consist of five short sound bites.  You get to review a selection of short extracts that could all be chosen to form part of a possible speech you are going to make. You edit them by placing a limited number in a specific order ranging from the opening of your speech on through the various points you want to make to finally  your closing comments. You then get to listen to the finished speech that you have cut and pasted together.

 

The things you need to do seem to go on and on.  There are seemingly endless meetings to attend.  Of course, it is up to you whether you attend or decline.  What is unavoidable is your mobile phone.  Besides the occasional call there always seems to be a huge backlog of messages waiting for you to answer.  As mentioned earlier there are too many for you to deal with.  As I mentioned earlier, rather than frustrate this just leads more to the feeling that you need to play harder.  That is, there is a lot of work to do but it’s kind of fun to be under this amount of pressure.  Never has reading and answering your text messages seemed so busily enjoyable.

 

Phew!  A lot to do.  Did I also mention that?  Besides the invaluable reading skills practice here there is also the opportunity to learn about various aspects of the British electoral and political system.  They even make this task quite overt by posing questions in a hints optionand then directing you to look for the answers.  They in turn can be found within concise easy to understand video interviews with take place with real world politicians.

 

With all that’s been mentioned so far you would have thought there was little or no time time to attend a parliamentary Question time.  Attend question time you should though, and decide on where you stand and who you support on a number of issues.

 

It’s not all about just reading or listening to text either.  There are a few moments where more ‘game’ like moments drop in.  There is one moment where you have to catch the eye of the speaker by ‘waggling’ your mouse around the screen.  Move the mouse fast enough and in the right place and you might just get noticed.  Too slow and you will be left to last.

 


There are of course game instructions but I found that getting learners to jump straight in meant they learnt how to play as they played.  They also took about 25 minutes to progress from between a day to a few days (one pair were on Tuesday and another reached Thursday).  That’s out of a whole week that it they are MP for.  For this reason look at this activity taking anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour.  Just because your learners are engaged don’t presume to sit back and take it easy either.  While my learners were kept busy being MPs I was kept busy too.  My time was taken up going round asking questions about what they thought of the game, how they thought they were doing, what they were doing at that moment, whether there were any questions about the language and whether the game was changing their perceptions of what it was to be an MP for a week.  Was it fun being an ‘MP for a week’?  Not as fun in real life as the game we were all sure.


 

The Magician

By kylemawer  |  2011/07/08 03:10 Posted in All Posts, Game Plan, Uncategorized  |  Comments (1)

Level: Upper intermediate

Location: Connected Classroom

Language Focus: going to, modals of deduction (present & past).

Game: The Magician


A nice little game with plenty of language opportunities.  First you see the magician’s stage with the trick ready to go.  You can then watch the trick performed.  You then get the chance to see how the trick is really done as you point and click the screen in the order each part of the trick is done.  Here’s the beginning and end of the first trick:

Play

  1. Open the game and show learners the first screen.
  2. Get learners to predict what the magician’s trick is (left above).
  3. Then ‘show the trick’ (short video sequence to image above right).
  4. Learner’s then guess how the trick was done (speaking or writing).
  5. They then direct someone at the keyboard to repeat it.  This is done by pointing the mouse cursor and clicking parts of the magician in the correct order.

Example language:

As learners guessed how each trick was done I monitored and input language as necessary.  It’s also quite fun – especially if you haven’t watched the trick before yourself – to join in with the guessing.  Great way to model the target language yourself and possibly inject a little humour into the process.  I thought my suggestion that ‘it might be a projected image of a bird – look at the circle of light around it’ was quite good.  After a or two minute I interrupted and in feedback I wrote any new language as well as the best suggestions on the board. For this I reduced the window the game was in so it wasn’t visible but was still ready to continue with.  New language was highlighted so as to draw learners’ attention to it and also make it easier for them to see and use later.

The Magic Tricks

There are about half a dozen tricks in total but I’ve never really got past the first few.  The first three are enough to practice the language with and, to be honest, some of the later tricks get quite fantastical and could prove to be too challenging linguistically.  Take a look at the screenshot on the left here to see how complicated things can get.  Both red levers on the left and right, the two guys, the chains, the pendulum, hidden keys, a screen, the cage and the candle (a red herring by the way) all make this quite a difficult task.  The first few tricks involve:

  1. Disappearing bird
  2. Levitating woman
  3. Escape the water tank

 

These are quite well-known magic tricks and so learners should have a good idea about what happens in the trick, remember the trick once it has happened and have some good ideas over  how the trick was actually done.  The added bonus is that it’s quite fun discovering how they are actually done.  Hope none of you are too disillusioned by finding out it isn’t actually magic after all.

Post Play

  • At home learners play the game and choose one trick to describe to the class.  They make notes and in the next class they describe what the audience sees when the trick is performed and then how the trick is done.
  • Learners write up how a trick of their choosing is presented and done.
  • If you or your learners can research a card trick or a coin trick to perform for the next class then get learners to use the target language to guess how it might have been done.

 

Xtranormal Movie Maker

By kylemawer  |  2011/07/01 03:01 Posted in All Posts, Game Plan  |  Comments (1)

Level: All

Location: Computer room

Language Focus: Any

Game: Xtranormal

Xtranormal is a text to speech movie maker that’s free and easy to join.  It might be a bit heavy to run but it’s a definite hit with learners.

On the right here you can see a screen shot of the movie maker editor. The instructions are at the top followed by the set, actor, sound and story folders.  The story folder is where all language production begins.

The Story

Simply click on an actor and start writing what you want them to say in the text box.  Once you’ve finished switch to the next actor.

For fast finishers there are the effects running down the left hand side.  Why not customize your movie to:

  • Change the camera angle during shots.
  • Get the actors to perform actions.
  • Get the actors to point to objects.
  • Get the actors to make some facial expressions.

. . . and more.

At any time you can hear how Xtranormal converts the text that has been written to speech.  It may not be the most authentic sounding speech but it serves the purpose.

The free account is more limited than the options open to those that pay but the free account does offer a good range of sets, actors, sounds and stories. If you did decide to go pro and get the better upgraded options then its worth bearing in mind that learners on multiple computers can access, work and save on a single account  - at least they can on the free one.

Why not watch an example of two actors discussing how an Xtranormal movie can be used with a class.  That way you can judge for yourself if you think its worth turning your language learners into movie makers.

Level: I’ve used this site with language learners as young as 8 to adults.  You just have to make sure the activity task is appropriate and to their level.

Language focus: The first time I use this with learners I generally just let them get on with it.  As I monitor I’ll help on correction, input language and ask them about the direction they are moving in.  Then, in later classes I like to return and get learners to open their movie projects and expand on the text using recent language we’ve covered in class.  This generally means the final product contains a range and complexity of language that they can be proud of.

If learners feel inspired enough to start a new project this is also fine but I always encourage them to review some of the language we’ve done over the course and encourage them to recycle it.

Have fun and maybe see your language learners at the oscars one day.

Gaming Soundtracks

By kylemawer  |  2011/06/24 03:03 Posted in All Posts, Game Plan  |  Comments (2)

Level: Intermediate/ upper intermediate

Location: Connected classroom

Skills focus: Writing

Language Focus: Relative clauses

This is a nice little activity to stimulate a little writing in class.  I have used it to practice relative clauses but there’s no reason that you can’t just forget a language focus and just get learners to write.  I’ve done this activity a few times and I either :

  1. Let them see the titles of the game and ask them if they know the game.  If they do if they know the music.  If they don’t know the game I ask them to predict what the music might sound like.
  2. Don’t let them see the titles and simply play the music following the instructions below.

Pre-play

Brainstorm the titles to a few video games on to the board.

Ask the following questions about each game and elicit some sentences using relative clauses.

When is it?          Where is it?          Who is it about?

e.g. Mario brother olympics

I elicited the following:

“In a time when Mario and his friends went to the olympics”

“In a land where Mario and his friends live”

“About people who compete to win the olympics”

Play

  • Put learners in pairs and tell them they are going to listen to some music from a video game.
  • After they hear each piece of music they should write three sentences about what they think the video game is about.
  • You can get them either to number the sentences in order or ask them to write them out of sequence on a piece of paper.  Tell them not to worry if they don’t know which video game it is.  This is not important.  What is important is that they listen to the music and imagine what they think the game is about and write the sentences.
  1. Age of empires intro
  2. Call of duty 4 intro
  3. Farmville
  4. Full metal gear intro
  5. Grow cube intro
  6. Half life intro
  7. Spore intro
  8. Sims 3 intro
  9. Pacman intro
  10. Mario intro

Post Play

  • If learners have numbered their sentences in order then they can compare their sentences and decide which are the best for each piece of music.
  • Play the music again if necessary to help learners decide.

OR

  • If learners have written their sentences out of sequence on a piece of paper you can collect them in and hand them out randomly.
  • Learners then read them, listen to the music again and match each three sentences to each piece of music.

Homework

  • Dictate the names of the games and ask learners to find out online about the game.  They can then rewrite their sentences to compare the following class.

OR

  • Learners go home and choose three games (one’s they’ve got if possible) and write three sentences about them.  They then read the sentences out next class to see if their classmates can guess the name of the game.

Playing At Pirates With ‘The Ballad of Kinetto’

By kylemawer  |  2011/06/17 03:09 Posted in All Posts, Game Plan  |  Comments (1)

The ‘Pirates of the Caribbean‘ has proved such a successful movie franchise that we’ve decided to get in on the act at Digital Play.  The Ballad of Kinetto is a series of online pirate adventure games involving strong narrative features, some great puzzles and its own pirate heroes – Kinetto and Amber.  ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean‘ is on its 4th installment and Kinetto has doubled that and is now on its 8th.  Here are some screen shots from each chapter (Chapter 1-8 clockwise from top left):

*Oops! 1 and 2 are the wrong way round!*

As the movie franchise is on its 4th release we’ve decided to give you some ideas on how to use the game with the 4 skills of writing, reading, listening and speaking.

Writing

Use a walkthrough to play the game yourself on a screen in a connected classroom.  Ask learners to predict what you have to do or identify language elements (such as vocabulary) as you play but use the walkthrough to move the activity forward.  At intervals pause the game and ask learners to write the storyline as it unfolds.  To encourage some range and complexity of language you could either brainstorm narrative language elements onto the board or list them yourself.  Here’s one I prepared earlier:

  1. Tenses (past simple, past continuous and past perfect)
  2. Sequencers (First of all, after that, then, etc)
  3. Direct & reported speech
  4. Grammar (adverbs, adjectives, phrasal verbs etc)
  5. Typical pirate vocabulary (galleon, skull & crossbones, cutlass, deck, mast, flag, desert island etc)

Encourage learners to use the list regularly tin their writing.

Reading

Learners open three internet explorer windows.

  1. They play the game
  2. They read the walkthrough
  3. They use an online dictionary.

Of course, if you have copies of learner produced stories from the game from say a different class then there is no reason why you can’t use these with another class playing the game.  If they are reading the story they can get a good idea of how to play the game.  This in fact generates a lot of discussion as they translate the story into actions within the game so encourage speaking in English as much as possible.

Listening

There are a number of ways to do this:

Pairs or group dictation – Print off a copy of a walkthrough for each computer in the computer room.  In the computer room put learners in pairs.  One sits at the computer and plays the game while the other sits behind them with the walkthrough.  The learner with the walkthrough dictates to the gamer (in their own words if possible) how to progress in the game.  The gamer listens and plays the game.  If computer room dynamics means that there are more than two to a computer set up a ‘chinese whisper’ activity with one learner at the computer and learners sitting directly behind in a line.  The last learner in the line has the walkthrough and whispers it to the learner in front.  The instructions then get relayed down the line to the gamer.  Whichever one you choose to do make sure to get learners to change positions regularly so they all have a chance to play the game.

Relay dictation - Place a copy of the walkthrough on thw wall and get learners to take it in turns to read the walkthrough and then return to their partner/ group and dictate how to play the game.  Get learners to swap roles (gamer and dictator) every 5 minutes or so).

Teacher dictation – With a walkthrough in your hand dictate to your learners how to progress in the game.  Encourage them to describe what they can see on their screens as you monitor to encourage peer help.  Also some of the language may be new to your learners so encourage them to ask you for definitions.

Speaking

Play the game in a connected classroom using a walkthrough.  Learners work in groups to discuss what happens next in the game and a spokesperson reports their conclusions to the class.  The class then votes on the best idea and you tell them how close their ideas are to the game storyline.  Give clues so they can guess what happens next if they are off the mark by referring to the walkthrough and then move the game on further and repeat.  For lower levels they can direct you to vocabulary items on the screen to click on. Higher levels can describe what to do on the screen while the highest levels can predict what events in the story happens next.

You can find links to each game and their walkthroughs on a single page by clicking on the link below:

The Ballad of Kinetto

Let us know how you get on by posting a comment.

Free Online Game Creator

By kylemawer  |  2011/06/10 07:16 Posted in All Posts, Game Buzz, Game Plan  |  Comments (1)

This free downloadable game creator let’s you make your very own flash games.

If you’ve ever fancied turning your hand to making a simple flash game or perhaps you’re looking for a summer course project to run with learners then Stencyl could be just the program for you.  It’s free, online, simple to download and use and it’s available for either a PC or a Mac.  The program comes with a few examples to try out and customize.  They are pictured here on the left.

After a quick look I settled on the RPG (role playing game) option.  Why?  Well . . .

  1. the vocabulary looked a bit richer and there’s potential to exploit a narrative within the game.
  2. It also looked quite easy to understand and explain just by looking at the opening shot (see below)
  3. Learners could be away from computers and draw, design and discuss the game.

The game itself consists of a male or female game character (avatar) who can explore the game world (outdoors, which is pictured above, and indoors) collecting treasure, avoiding obstacles and fighting foes.

Your question may be ‘how do I take this and use it on a summer course?’  Well there are schools out there who are already doing it that may provide you with some ideas:

Summer camp at Cal State Dominguez Hill sets out a three week programme and lists what you will learn and the topics covered.

Emagination runs video game design workshops as well as others with a strong technology slant.

ID Gaming Academy has a more ambitious three week programme that you can watch here:

Video Game Design and Creation Summer Camp

Different ways to get language production from this could be:

  1. A learner game design journal where they reflect on things they have learnt and directions they wish to move in.
  2. Discussing game maps and content with partner or team.
  3. Writing the game instructions.
  4. Recording audio descriptions for their game.
  5. Producing a gaming dictionary for game content.
  6. Any story lines and narrative giving background to the story.
  7. Giving a presentation of the game using a presentation tool.
  8. Writing a walkthrough for other learners to use.
  9. Writing a review of a learner created game or the creator platform itself.
  10. Opening a wiki on which to save game images.

I’ve yet to try this as a syllabus elective course for language learners but I can see some great potential here.  Any pioneers out there who can give it a go then get in touch with us because we’ll offer you a guest blog post here.